Going Down The Shore

Philadelphia's somewhat unique in that it has four distinct, three-month-long seasons. Winter, spring, summer, and fall are all very different and generally last (at least back when I was young) right around three months each. I never noticed it until I moved away to California, where we said that there are also four seasons, shorts-and-a-sweatshirt (winter), shorts-and-a-long-sleeved-shirt (fall and spring), and shorts-and-a-short-sleeved-shirt (summer).

My dad's been pushing Diana and I to come during the summer as she's only been there for Thanksgiving and Christmas and he really wanted us to spend some time at his place in nearby Wildwood, New Jersey. Well, not wanting to let my dad down, Diana and found ourselves visiting Philadelphia recently so she could enjoy the summertime splendor of the Delaware Valley.

The Philadelphia airport's international-arrivals hall (there's a Dunkin' Donuts there too, which also would have provided a nice backdrop):

Before I write more, I have to say that, once I got back home after the trip, I was sad to realize how few pictures I had taken. Thinking back about it, most of the time during this trip was with family doing family-type visiting that didn't lend itself to taking photos. I'm bummed that I didn't though and, next time, I will (that's a promise and a threat). So, to everyone who doesn't appear in this story, I'll try harder next time.

Anyway, most of our time was spent visiting with family, eating, shopping, eating again, going to the shore, eating, and maybe a couple of other non-eating things I can't remember right now.

Hanging out with a couple nieces and a nephew at a family pool party:

A big part of the reason we were there was so that Diana could experience a piece of my childhood summers by going to my dad's place down the shore. The shore is what Philadelphia folks call the southern New Jersey beaches where they spend summer months. I've written about Wildwood before so I'll skip lots of the details.

But, definitely the highlight of our time there was the chance meeting of a bunch of family and family friends. I'm especially bummed I don't have any photos from this fun couple of evenings catching up with folks I haven't seen for awhile, in some cases, for maybe ten years or more.

Of course, we did a couple of beach days and other classic summer activities like the afternoon we spent checking out the boardwalk and its amusement piers:

My dad, Ginny, and Diana riding the log flume ride:

...and Diana and I on one of the roller coasters (I took a photo a lot like this one with me and my dad, which is still one of my favorite photos of us):

Of course no visit to Wildwood would be complete without overeating boardwalk food, which we did, and riding the Tramcar (watch the Tramcar please):

And, further confirming Diana's belief that all people in the United States do is drive and eat, eating breakfast at a local breakfast hot spot, which we drove to:

I love going to the U.S. with Diana. There are so many things that people/I/we take for granted in that there are just soooo stereo typically American that we don't even know it. Stuff like our giant houses, giant cars, giant streets, giant coffees, giant meals, and so on are things that the rest of the world notices while watching our television shows and movies. I have to say that I've been away long enough where things like Super Big Gulps do look pretty ridiculous.

During a couple of summers while at university, I drove an ice cream truck. It was a tough job as I had to work seven days a week and it was verrry hot, but I was my own boss and I was out and about. Diana's always kinda' laughed at it because they didn't have ice cream trucks in Colombia (although they do have coffee carts!) and it's something she's only seen in movies or on TV. While going back to my dad's house one day I spied a truck making the rounds so we stopped.

Diana enjoying her first from-the-ice-cream-truck ice cream cone:

A random bit of Americana that jumps out at me now:

Finally, my sister's family was camping for part of the time we were in town so there was no way we could miss out on the scene and making S'mores over the evening fire.

Diana checking out a game of Washers at a combo RV-and-tent camping place in south-central New Jersey:

Thanks dad for the great trip home. Getting to see everyone was a bonus and makes me miss home more every day. Until next time, when I'll take more photos, we'll miss everyone!

Philadelphia Zoo For Christmas

Beginning last year, I decided, rather than give my nieces and nephews some random gifts for Christmas (that they probably wouldn't remember a month later) I would try to do something together with them that might be more memorable. Last year we went horseback riding and this year I thought we could go to the Philadelphia Zoo for a guided tour. I got the idea because a few years ago, when I was living in California, I had a couple of chances to do some up-close animal encounters and they were pretty amazing...

I called the zoo and talked with their tour coordinator but found out that the type of tour I did at the San Diego Zoo was only available for a group of up to six. Our group was going to be 13 people so they recommended one of their docent-guided tours, which she assured me would be great. So, my dad, Diana, me, my brother and sister, and their 850 kids headed to the zoo on the (very cold) Saturday after Thanksgiving:

We met our very nice guide at the front gate as planned. She was excellent with the kids...

My brother and his kids during our visit:

The guided tour lasted about an hour and, although our guide was very nice and good with the kids, there was no animal interactions, other than the in kids' area, to be had.

One of the zoo's lions (with my sister and niece in the reflection):

What the tour lacked in up-close-animal experiences, it was made up by the fact that we got to spend a bunch of time together, which, in retrospect, is what it's about anyway. Enjoying family-together time:

Even though we had a great time together, I do wish the zoo would have had a larger-group option. My minor disappointment with the zoo offerings didn't put a damper on the day...it'll just make me work harder to find a better option for next year! Our zoo-tour-taking, chicken-finger-filled, and slightly-cold family photo from our 2013 Philadelphia Zoo visit:

Thanks again for the great trip Philadelphia. See you all again soon (maybe in Barcelona???) and we miss you already!

Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving's one of my favorite holidays because, up until this year (and when I'm able to attend, which isn't always), I get to see my whole family in one place at the same time. So, what was different this year? Well, because the family's increasing size, it's gotten more difficult to find a place big enough and someone crazy enough to host the party! 2013 would be the first time in my entire life that our family's Thanksgiving would happen in different places.

Regardless, Diana and I boarded the (lovely and very convenient) direct 7 1/2 hour flight from Barcelona to Philadelphia to hang with the family for Thanksgiving Week 2013:

Most of the time, when I'm writing a new story, I start by going through all the photos that I took and decide which ten-or-so are the best. I then upload the photos and basically fill in the words around the photos. It was funny this time because I noticed that about half the photos show some food and that almost all of them show us with family like this one of us a breakfast one day with my dad and sister's family:

Diana's impression of the United States is that all we do is eat. It's not completely false but it's definitely more true during the holidays. She was telling some friends last night about the trip back to the U.S. and it was "we woke up, we ate, we got in the car, we went to someone else's house, we ate, we got back in the car, we went home, we ate, then we went to sleep". Yeah, it was, in reality, something along those lines...

The famed, bigger-than-your-head, Thanksgiving turkey purchased by dad and expertly-cooked by my sister:

We spent Thanksgiving at my sister's house this year along with dad, my brother's family, and my brother-in-law's family. I don't yet know if it was a one-off or the start of a new family tradition but, either way, it was a lot of fun and, of course we ate waaaaaay too much food:

Nom, nom, nom, nom...

No separate kids' table this year. Just one big happy family:

But, Thanksgiving week wasn't just about eating, trust me, we tried. Nope, there was also copious-amounts of shopping to be had including on Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year in the U.S. We definitely did some damage. Diana trying on some camo at the local sporting-goods store (yes, in the U.S. you can buy a gun at the same time as some new running shoes and snowboard):

Thanksgiving weekend officially kicks off the Christmas season in the U.S. Even though stores and public places generally decorate sooner, people tend to decorate their houses and put up their Christmas trees during the weekend immediately following Thanksgiving.

I've seen some crazy Griswold-style houses over the years. One of the winners in my dad's neighborhood is this guy down the street who fills up his whole front yard with giant, inflatable Christmas statues along with lights on the house. This photo of Diana was taken the first night he decorated so it doesn't show the final results but it gives you an idea:

And, of course, Thanksgiving would never be complete without a parade. The most famous one is probably Macy's Thanksgiving Parade that takes place in New York city every year. We didn't make the trip up to NYC this year but we were lucky enough to see a smaller local version. In the area around where my dad and sister live, what seems like every fire truck, rescue vehicle, and ambulance gets dressed up with lights and form one of the coolest parades I've ever seen. It's a little boy's dream parade for sure but it seemed like everyone enjoyed it.

On our last day in town, we were invited to my cousin Bobby's tailgate party that he holds for all the home Eagles games, some Phillies games, and many other sporting events. If you've never heard of a tailgate, it's a BBQ-style party that's held in parking lots before sporting events. In this case, my cousin's is called Cav's Eagles Tailgate and he's won awards and is well-known throughout the city for one of the best. Oh, and the name Tailgate comes from the fold-down rear "door" of a pick-up truck, which is called a tailgate and is often used like a table for food and drinks during the party.

My cousin Bobby doesn't mess around. He's used to serving food in all kinds of weather to well over a few hundred people. He doesn't mess around as you can see in the photos above and below (yes, the bus above is his as is the pick-up truck and BBQ trailer below):

The reason we went wasn't for the food, though. Many of my relatives who we didn't see at Thanksgiving a couple of days before made the trip to the stadium so we could all catch up. The crowd below includes my mom's brother and sister, their spouses, and a bunch of my cousins and second cousins.

Yeah, it somewhat sucked that we couldn't all get together in one place this year but, I guess, very few of my Thanksgivings fortunately have been this way. It was still a great week and visit. We got to celebrate Thanksgiving with another part of the family for a change, and I have a feeling that the separate-settings thing isn't a permanent fixture. I predict, okay, maybe I hope that we'll all be together again next Thanksgiving. Stay tuned...

(Some past Thanksgiving stories, if you're interested: 2010, 2011, and 2012.)

Easter

There are certain holidays and holiday traditions that are down-right confusing. Take for example Caga Tio or Caganers in Spain during the Christmas season. How do these things get started? Yeah, I know, I could look on Wikipedia or something for the history but, on the surface, they're strange. Another one that gets me is the tradition surrounding Easter eggs in the United States. Actually, the whole Easter deal is a little strange but don't get me started.

Each year just before Easter, parents buy their kids some eggs, hard boil them, and then the kids color them using water-based dyes. Everyone does it and no one knows why, including me. Of course, egg imagery (fertility?), decorating them (celebrating death and rebirth?), and the whole spring-solstice timing (again, seasonal rebirth?) tells me that it's an old Pagan tradition of some kind but who knows...and who cares. It's fun.

My sister's kids doing their best to have permanently-green fingers:

So, from there, the tradition holds that the Easter Bunny, which is a huge, human-sized rabbit, comes while the kids are sleeping like a springtime Santa, and hides the eggs around the house for the kids to "hunt" on Easter morning. Funny aside, if you find a "missing" egg a few months later (yes, it happens), it's just an empty shell. Where does the inside part go???

My brother rockin' out dyeing eggs with his kids:

Sorry that I don't have any photos of the kids looking for their eggs on Easter morning because I like to sleep in and have some coffee before I get going.

I can't remember the last time I was in Philadelphia for Easter but it's probably been 20 years. For my entire life we've gone over to my Aunt Linda and Uncle Bob's house for a big, whole-family, dinner. Every year dinner's the same and is some combination of ham, hot macaroni salad, baked beans, corn, and some other stuff I can't remember right now. Outside of the ham, I'm not sure that any of those foods have any significance but Easter dinner's easily third after Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for deliciousness.

Aunt Linda prepping her family-famous macaroni salad:

What's left of our Easter dinner after the first wave of eaters came through:

I'm thinking of starting my own formerly-Pagan holiday tradition. Maybe something in fall as the weather's usually good and there's lots of yummy seasonal food. It'll definitely involve pumpkins or even egg nog and possibly burning witches or something. The kids will love it!

Five Guys Burgers

On our way home from horseback riding, we stopped off for a late lunch at a Five Guys.

If you're not familiar, Five Guys is basically the East Coast version of In-N-Out, which is sort of like a high-end McDonald's. The difference between Five Guys (as well as places like Nifty Fifty's and In-N-Out) versus McDonald's is that the food is actually good and the service is (usually) competent and friendly. Ask anyone who has ever lived in California what the best burgers are and 99% of the time they'll say In-N-Out. The problem with In-N-Out for most people is that they're located primarily on the West Coast. Five Guys solved that problem by copying In-N-Out (in my opinion) and spreading the idea beyond In-N-Out's original stomping grounds.

A flock of cuties munching on the free in-the-shell peanuts while waiting:

If you weren't paying too close of attention, you might not know whether you were at an In-N-Out or a Five Guys. They both have white-tile interiors with red highlights. The soda machine is all-you-can-drink (free refills). The staff is friendly and efficient. You can see the whole kitchen and all the prep. The fries are fresh-cut from whole potatoes. The biggest difference, if you can call it that, I can find is that instead of In-N-Out's food coming in a brown-cardboard box, Five Guy's food comes in a heavy brown paper bag.

My sister picking up our meal (in a paper bag):

The similarities continue with the food. Somehow, I ended up with a double-cheeseburger (I believe I ordered a regular cheeseburger), which was, at a minimum, equally good as what In-N-Out's got. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I think that the fries might be better at Five Guys. Oh, and the peanuts are a nice bonus. (Note the jalapeños on my burger!)

Apparently kids like Five Guys' food too!

I'm kinda' mixed on the whole Five Guys' thing but I'm thinking that it's because, to me, In-N-Out is the original. On the other hand, the food is good and there's a lot more of them in a lot more places. I think In-N-Out missed their opportunity to spread across the United States since Five Guys beat them to the punch. Hmmmmm... I guess that the reality is that I'd go to whichever was closest if I were in the mood for a good burger.

Four satisfied Five Guys' customers:

Horseback Riding For Christmas

Growing up in the city there weren't really too many opportunities to be out in the countryside and even fewer opportunities to be around big animals like cows or horses. I can count on one hand (maybe two) the number of times that I've been in contact with something larger than a big dog (like when I milked the cows, for example).

Nature growing up in Philadelphia was "going down the park". The park in this case was the nearby Pennypack Park where we'd fish, build forts, break stuff, light fires(!!!), and even build BMX tracks (remember those days, Dave T.?) - you know - boy stuff. There was even a place where you could rent/ride horses by the hour, which my dad took me and my sister to at least once. I remember that day, which must have been like 30 years ago, very well.

Flash forward to this year when I was thinking about Christmas gifts for my six nieces and nephews. I really didn't want to just go out and buy "stuff" that they wouldn't remember eight minutes after opening. Nope, it had to be something different - something memorable. That's when I remembered going horseback riding with my dad and decided to try to take everyone this year. It took me two days to find a place, coordinate schedules, and make a reservation and off we went last Saturday.

My sister's three oldest (my brother-in-law should buy boyfriend-deterrent shotgun now!):

The closest stable I could find with availability is on the Pennsylvania/Delaware border just over an hour (via car) from my dad's place. The only issue was that the two youngest (a two and a three year old) couldn't ride with us. After talking it over with my sister and sister-in-law, we decided that it was okay and that we'd go only with the four oldest (ages four to nine).

My sister's second oldest on Freddy the horse:

Our reservation was for 2pm and we got there a bit early so that we could hang out and check out the horses before our ride. We ended up being four kids and two adults and we did a trail ride for about 45 minutes. The trail ran (literally) right along the Mason-Dixon Line, or also known as the border between North and South, and, now, just Pennsylvania and Delaware:

We weren't sure if the kids would be afraid or something. Each one had their own guide and they all ended up doing well. I was happy that we had no problems at all and the kids really seemed to enjoy it.

My sister's number three:

The biggest surprise of the day was my sister-in-law's riding ability. I had no idea that she had done quite a bit of it in the past (and even had the boots, jacket, and all!). Doesn't she look like a pro here?

I was a little concerned about the reservations as the stable I chose seemed a bit flaky. I originally called them and left a message with what I wanted. They called back and asked me to confirm the wrong time and wrong number of people. I corrected them and all was good. My sister-in-law then decided she wanted to ride as well so I called them back to request the change. They, once again, had the wrong time and wrong number of people (but different than the first time). The day before our ride, someone called and left a message confirming our ride for the next day and, again, had a new time and a new, seemingly random, number of people. I called back once more and gave them the "new" information. It all ended up going well though. The people at the stable were super nice and accommodating.

My sister-in-law and her oldest:

My sister walked with us (and took all these photos) while we rode just in case one of the kids got scared and didn't want to ride or something. During the ride, my sister kept saying to me that my horse was huge. I hadn't noticed when we were mounting up or riding. It wasn't until I got home and saw the group photo below that I realized what she was talking about.

One other semi-related story. After I graduated from grad school in Los Angeles, I went to work for a bicycle-helmet manufacturer. While I was there, we started developing and selling horse-riding helmets. They were basically bicycle helmets with horse-helmet styling, except with grossly inflated prices and super-high margins (got to love horse folks and their money)! At the time, we weren't sure if they'd ever sell because those same rich horse folks tended to be (very) conservative and the helmets' styling was different. It's been almost 20 years and those same exact helmets we developed are now the standard. It was cool to see my nieces and nephew wearing something that I helped develop. By the way, I didn't get to use one of the helmets I worked on as they didn't have one in jumbo-head size.

Ride 'em, cowboy:

I had an awesome time. Everyone really enjoyed it and I loved having the extended time with the kids. I hope that it's something that they'll (also) remember in 30 years. The only problem now is how I'll top it next year! Skydiving, anyone? Do they allow three-year-olds? We could do a formation!

Thanks to my sister for taking the photos!

Thanksgiving Weekend

I've been back in Philadelphia for just about two weeks now and I'm finally getting around to posting some stories from here. As I write this, it's like 65 degrees Fahrenheit (17C) outside, which is verrrry unusual but also verrrry nice after living in that frozen land called Germany!

Anyway, Thanksgiving (or a link to a less traditional one) was a week ago Thursday and it began like it does every year - with eggnog in my coffee (thanks dad!) and the MASSIVE Thanksgiving day newspaper. I had paper routes for about five or six years during grade school and high school and always dreaded Thanksgiving because of how big and heavy the papers were. Thanksgiving 2012's paper:

If you've ever wondered if Americans are truly consumer oriented, look no farther than the contents of the day's paper. The local newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer, had at least 58 (!!!) pull-out color advertisements in addition to the regular ads that appear throughout the paper. Most of them advertised Black Friday specials, which this year started at like 8pm on Thanksgiving night. They're not even waiting for midnight on Black Friday anymore. Yes, I think it's crazy and, yes, people in the United States love love love to shop. Baseball may used to have been the most popular pastime but today it's shopping.

As in prior years, dinner was at my cousin Mike's house. He's got the biggest house in the family and the party is able to spread over two floors. I love being in town for Thanksgiving as it's basically the only time during the year when my entire family gets together in one place. I think the thing that amazed me most this year is how crazy big all the "kids" in the family are. There are "kids" that will be in university in September! Damn, I'm getting O.L.D.!!!

The kitchen during the dinner rush:

I had promised Berat, my roommate from Stuttgart, that I'd take a photo of the turkey and send it to him so that he could see what a real cooked one looks like. Unfortunately, the turkey had already been cut before I ever had the chance to take a photo so I snapped one of my dinner plate instead. Just in case, clockwise from the top (12 o'clock), there's: stuffing, hot macaroni and cheese, (half of) a biscuit, ham (6 o'clock), sweet potatoes, and some turkey with the light meat to the left and dark meat towards the center, cranberry sauce (back up near the stuffing), and some mashed potatoes taking center stage:

Oh, and Thanksgiving dinner, and the similar Christmas dinner, is my favorite meal ever. Wawa has a sandwich that's called the Turkey Gobbler, which has turkey, stuffing, cranberry, and gravy, that I just can't get enough of. I've already eaten three and might go for another today!

Something that I've wanted to do for a few years is take an extended-family photo so I decided that this was the year. My dad's got my sister's, brother's, and my wedding photos hanging up in the living room of his house and the photo from my sister's wedding from like 13 years ago is really the last photo where everyone in the family is present. It was time for a new one. I warned people when I arrived that we'd be doing the photo and they seemed game. Believe it or not, it only took about five minutes of being "Mr. Pushy" to get everyone outside and smiling with the nice photo below being the result:

Just a quick note that missing were Diana (she's in Colombia) and my one cousin and his wife and two kids so I'll have to try again next time.

Oh, and I pretty much was immobilized by the quantity of food that I ate that night. I remember going to bed thinking that I just can't ever do that again. And, my diet should start the next day. You know the drill, right?

The next morning I was driving through my dad's neighborhood and came across a flock of wild turkeys walking down the street. Okay, a couple of things. First, I had no idea that my dad (and sister, who lives nearby) had wild turkeys for neighbors. There were at least six of them and they were giant - it was a f'n trippy sight to see. Next, I'm wondering if they were out celebrating that they made it through another Thanksgiving? Possibly. Of course, there's always Christmas!!! [cue: evil laughing] Hahahahahahahahaha!

Later that evening we went to meet up with a couple of relatives from my dad's side of the family who he hadn't seen in over FORTY years (and I didn't even know about)! My dad's an only child and, for the most part, our "family" is made up of folks from my mom's side. My brother, sister, and I were excited to finally meet some more peeps from the other side. From left, my brother, my dad's cousin's husband, my dad's cousin, their daughter, my dad (partially blocked), Ginny, the most beautiful guy in the world (cough, cough), and my sister:

Another note: I ate waaaaay too much that night too. The pumpkin-pie martinis and extensive bar-food menu were just too much to resist. It was another super uncomfortable night of sleeping! So much for never again...

Can I just say how nice it is to be back home? Family, fun, and FOOD! What could be better? Now to get outside to enjoy the amazing weather!