A Trip 30-Plus Years in the Making

For as long as I can remember, my dad talked of taking his family to Philadelphia to see where he grew up. For lots of reasons far too numerous to detail here, that never happened. However, over the course of the years, my siblings have made it Philadelphia and have seen where Dad grew up. But not me - until this weekend. When this trip to Philadelphia presented itself, I thought of Dad and asked him if we wanted to join me here before my class started.

The weather tried to block both of us. Dad's first flight out of Phoenix was cancelled and then his second looked like it was going to be heinously delayed and I've already detailed the exodus from DC that I had, but we wound up arriving at the hotel on Friday night within 30 minutes of each other. It was good to see my dad! We were both pretty tired from a long day so called it quits pretty early Friday night.

We are both early risers and we were on our way by 8:30AM today. I drove as Dad navigated. As we drove towards the Penn Wynne area of Philadelphia, I sensed Dad's excitement. As we drove by an enormous Catholic diocese, he talked about getting in trouble as a youth for trying to play football on the grounds with a bunch of his friends. I immediately thought of Parker - I knew he'd want to know that about his grandfather.

As we turned down Manoa Road, Dad started pointing out houses and recalling the names of the friends and families that lived in those homes. Here's a picture of the home where Dad grew up:


I even recall seeing pictures of this house and it didn't look much different than I remembered. Dad asked me to drive around back and the brother of the house's current owner was there. He was very gracious towards Dad and it was something else to hear Dad talking to this man, pointing out the patio was something that he and my late grandfather built together. I felt incredibly honored to have this chance to get this insight into my Dad's life. We then drove around his old neighborhood. Here's his elementary school:

I can't get over how much this day meant to me. All of Dad's stories from his childhood had now come to life for me seeing his old neighborhood. Dad was raised by wonderful parents and had a really idyllic life and I'm really grateful for how that has impacted me.

We then went into downtown Philadelphia, checked into our hotel, and started exploring the city again. First stop was the Reading Terminal Market for lunch. It's kind of like a Disneyland of Food. In spite of losing 18 pounds since January, I was determined to enjoy this place. I did all right by eating at a Middle Eastern place for lunch. I got derailed by the Amish though! Curse the Pennsylvania Dutch and their hot Apple Dumplings! Check 'em out:

I spent about twenty minutes justifying this taste treat to my dad, like a drunk justifying one more drink. Well, Dad and I shared this and it was awesome! And so worth the afternoon of heavy walking that I put in in order to burn some it off!

After lunch, we toured Independence Hall and saw the Liberty Bell. It's an impressive thing to stand in the same place where our nation's founding fathers were, struggling to create the foundation our country. What it must have been like to be a part of that! Wow! Finally, here's the Liberty Bell:

It's been a good, good day. It's been so good to connect with this part of my Dad's life. It's been an opportunity to count my blessings and be reminded again how lucky I am to have been born of goodly parents.