Fall in Philadelphia

 

We just returned from our fall trip to Philadelphia to spend some time with our daughter's family. We had a wonderful time with Katie and Todd and those two little kids. We stayed with them for ten days.

During our time there we basically stayed within the bubble of the immediate family. We walked around the neighborhood everyday but we did not venture beyond. Becky made a couple of trips to the store and the post office but I did not go anywhere. It is the time of the pandemic. 

This was our first trip to their home in a year. The last time we were in Philly was for Katie's surgery last year in October 2019 but of course we were there for a month that time. We had planned to fly down again last March and had our plane tickets but cancelled the trip because of the virus. We wanted to use the tickets to fly down for Thanksgiving this year but we have been scared of this second wave of the virus that is slamming the country as the weather gets colder. We also found out that our plane tickets were good until December 2021. So we decided to drive down in October instead.

The trip was uneventful and there was not a lot of traffic on the road. We really enjoyed our stay with the kids but we didn't see anyone else nor did we go out to any of the many restaurants, taverns and brew pubs nearby. Normally we would have gone out with family and friends but these aren't normal times.

This time last year there was a great street festival around the corner on Germantown Avenue. The picture here shows how it was then and it's hard to believe that we are not able to hangout and interact with people like that now. Neighbors getting together and having fun. It's sad to look at. That was this time last year. One wonders what this time next year will look like.

So we decided not to go down for Thanksgiving and the holiday here in Buffalo will be different this year too. Becky and I will probably just have a nice dinner and a bottle of wine by ourselves. Katie and Todd would like to come up to Buffalo with the kids for Christmas but no one is making plans yet. It will all depend on how the virus is spreading and how people react to it. I have a feeling we will be having another quiet dinner alone again but we'll see.

I'm already looking forward to the spring and it isn't even winter yet.