Morning did not come early yesterday. Since the workshop I’d signed up for got cancelled, we had nothing to do but explore the neighborhood a bit and take in the Culinary Arts Festival happening literally out our front door. Four blocks of Pine Street was blocked off to car traffic and restaurants from around the area set up food stands. Carlyn had a Kobe beef burger and I had a crabcake sandwich from a little French place called La Boheme. (I took a picture of the sandwich, but it came out blurry. Sorry.) It was a great afternoon of blending in like one of the locals as we sat on the stoop and chatted with our next door neighbor (not a tourist) and a shop owner who is the neighbor on the other side of our B&B. And it didn’t hurt that Bassett’s, a Philadelphia ice cream landmark, had set up its stand right in front of our place. A local blues band, The Purple Generals, provided the entertainment from an intersection a block away.

Things weren’t quite all play and no work, however. I met up with some colleagues from the ISTE Institute who are running some sessions on Sunday and Monday. It was the first time I’d seen a couple of them since we met in Rochester in February. The whole group of us went out to the Victor Cafe for dinner. The Victor is one of those places where most of the waiters and waitresses are studying opera and periodically break out into song. The food was excellent. For the antipasto course I had some crabmeat wrapped in prosciuto on fresh spinach and drizzled with balsamic vinegar. The main course was a pork loin chop stuffed with red and green pepper, onion, and Fontina cheese. The garlic mashed potatoes were also great.

Things will get started for real on Monday when I attend my first workshop about Cyberbullying.

If I could offer one piece of advice today it would be this: don’t sit in row 20 on a Boeing DC-9. My wife’s head was literally three feet away from the jet engine just outside her window and the noise during the flight was nearly deafening. I guess that’s what I get when I don’t go online to check our seating arrangement in advance.

Other than the not so subtle roar in the cabin, the flight went fine and we arrived in Philadelphia with plenty of time to go out for a walkabout. Dinner was at a Cuban-Columbian-Central American place just down the street from our B&B called Mixto where we started with crabmeat empanadas (photo #1 below). Carlyn had Cuban-style Arroz con pollo & maduros (photo #2) and I had ropa vieja (photo #3).

I’m really glad we didn’t book a room in one of the large hotels near the convention center. We’re just six blocks away, but it seems a lot father than that when you look around and find yourself in a real neighborhood with narrow, tree-lined streets. I’m posting this from a bench on the sidewalk about two blocks from where we’re staying. Unfortunately, with all the thick brick buildings around here wi-fi leeching is hard to do. The only two access points I could find from our place were both password protected.

The session I had scheduled for tomorrow was cancelled at the last minute so Carlyn and I will have the whole day to do some more exploring. There’s some kind of culinary festival in the neighborhood tomorrow and I’m thinking about doing a soundseeing tour with my new mobile recording rig. Airplane ride notwithstanding, this year’s NECC trip has got a great start