Tale of Two Big Cities

What a blast! A couple of friends and I took the train to NYC yesterday morning, and we had such fun on our little excursion to the Big Apple. A quick lunch of calamari warm salad before watching our musical show "Brooklyn" - what a pleasant, inspiring surprise! We didn't know anything about the play, only heard it received positive reviews, no expectations - maybe that's the way to go - the range of the melodic voices of the cast blew us all away, goosebumps and chills up our spines, tears unexpectedly, felt like they were looking right at me, connecting and uplifting my spirits with their energy and light.

Good Times Square, lights a-blazing, tourists navigating the streets and traffic, taxi horns blaring at pedestrians, other cars, anything that was in their way, walking for miles taking it all in, people-watching, unbelievable diversity on every corner, looking through shops for bargains, catching the subway, feeling like a New Yorker for a moment, grabbing towering pastrami sandwiches before hopping on the train back to downtown Philly.

I'm at the beautiful, luxurious Sofitel hotel in the heart of downtown Philly enjoying all the amenities of business travel. Susan, my good friend and co-worker across three jobs now is a Philly local and showed me all the around - Rittenhouse Square, best coffee shops, flower stands, bookstores, more tax-free shopping, funky discount stores, Chinatown dim sum, Vietnamese coffee, Italian market pasta, produce, meats and cheese, the competitive street corner of cheesesteaks between Pat and Geno's (I picked Pat's cheesesteak "wit" onions and cheez whiz), the Real World Philly house on Arch and 3rd and the area I saw captured on reality TV.

Good times, good times. Two wonderful, happening cities rolled into a single weekend, so much to see, so much to take in and love - life is good, life is good!