Philadelphia

K's friend Jess recently moved from NYC to Philadelphia, so we (including the guinea pig) went for a visit.

The drive down was a bit rainy, and when traffic stopped on I-476 (i.e., the Northeast Extension) we took a trafficy detour. We made it though!

Jess's new place is in South Philadelphia. You can see I-95 off in the distance, and you also get to watch airplanes coming in for final approach at the airport:
View from Jess's

We went for a walk to FDR Park. Here we are walking along a pond; the buildings you see are leftover from the Sesquicentennial Exposition:
FDR Park

We were right near the sports stadiums, and you could see the main Philadelphia skyline too:
Philly Skyline

On the way back, we passed people harvesting ginkgo nuts from trees growing along the highway.

We had a lot of fun visiting, and all too soon it was time to leave.

Before leaving the area, I made a large number of phone calls and managed to arrange a meeting with my high school friends Steve and Annalise who live in the area. It turns out that by some weird coincidence both of them had been to Sweden independently in the past few months. I'm going myself in January!

We then got back on I-476 (the Blue Route) and continued on (as it became the Northeast Extension. K thinks it is funny people call the road these names to the exclusion of its number).

Coming down we had seen some really pretty red foliage through the Poconos, but unfortunately it wasn't as pretty viewed from the south. I tried to get some pictures anyway; here is some foliage with bonus windmills in the background:
Foliage Windmills

And happily we returned safely home.
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