Art Galleries of Philadelphia

First Friday of every month is when the all the galleries in Philadelphia have openings for the Art loving public of the Philadelphia area. First Friday is concentrated in Northern Liberties, which is a section of Philadelphia located near Penns Landing and Society Hill. Were we will be staying at the Sheraton Society Hill this coming Friday evening. Lizzie has a friend, Elaine B Douds, who will be exhibiting her oil paintings at the Artist's House Gallery, with a reception from 5-830pm on Dec. 1st. An additional reception will be held on Sunday Dec. 3rd from 130-4pm. Elaine specializes in realistic still life paintings. We had last seen Elaine at the show she did with the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts at the Gregg Conference Center gallery. We hope to get to spend a little more time with Lizzie's old friend, while viewing art galleries full of works of some of the Philadelphia areas new budding artists.

Thanksgiving Holiday

Our Thanksgiving plans were changed the week before. Due to some family problems, we decided it was best to stay home and have a traditional Thanksgiving. This was probably a very smart thing indeed. Lizzie and I worked most of the day making the meal(well Lizzie did most of the work) I was responsible for prepping the Turkey and for carving. I looked on Yahoo and got directions from Epicurious on how to prepare and carve the Turkey. The twenty pound bird was stuffed with the famous White Castle stuffing recipe, which everyone loved.
We did make a few little trips to a local restaurant, Durangos for dinner several times over the long holiday weekend. We especially had a great time on Monday after Thanksgiving because it is pasta night along with being open mike night. Great toons and the best Italian food in Boyertown along with an amazing selection of deserts which always includes at least one heavinly chocolate desert. Lizzie's favorite is the Dark Side of The Moon. As much as I love their deserts, I think my favorite dish is their Sausage Marinara. Since it was Monday, my favorite dish was a special.

Preowned Honda Odyssey

Lizzie and I after traveling to the Carsense Uwchland, PA location numerous times for the better half of a week, finally made a purchase of a 2004 Honda Odyssey. We originally had picked out a 2005 Jeep Libery, but brought it back with the 5 day grace period that Carsense gives you. George, our outstanding represenative, was a tremendous help. We test drove just under a dozen different cars, to include a VW bug, a mini cooper, a fun boxy little Scion, a honda CRV, a Mazada wagon, several other minivans, the Jeep Liberty, a Ford Freestyle, and of course our final choice, the Honda Odyssey.
If you live in the Philly area, I would highly recommend traveling to either of the Carsense locations. If you make it to the Uwchland location, ask for George, and tell them Lizzie Bean sent you.

Thanksgiving Reservations

Thanksgiving reservations are being made by Lizzie even as I type.

We initially had planned on staying over one night with all the kids. But she now is considering staying two nights, and then going shopping on Black Friday in Philly. Well as this adventure unfolds, we will update the blog.

Thanks Giving Plan Update:

Thanksgiving reservations have been made by Lizzie using Hotels.com. We are dining at Maggianos, which has a special Thanksgiving menu, and we will be staying at the Omni Hotel at Philadelphia's Independence Park. We will be arriving in Philly early in the day Thursday to catch the parade(that is the goal), then the boys and I will be leaving Friday morning. Lizzie, her daughter and mom will be hanging out in Philledelphia for Black Friday shopping. She is far braver than I.

The Aladdin Sky like Ceiling

The Aladdin Sky like Ceiling
Originally uploaded by Emperor Anton.

The inside of the shopping area of the Aladdin Hotel Casino. At first I thought I was outside, but wait a minute is is 1pm in the afternoon, unless it is an eclipse. It looked so real, but if you scanned you could tell it was just the ceiling. A high ceiling nevertheless. The Truman Show was never so real.

Las Vegas Review

Lizzie and I got back about a week and half ago from Las Vegas, but my luggage did not get back until last Sunday. (see previous post) We stayed at the MGM grand, and would stay there again, except there are so many places to stay in Vegas, why stay in the same place twice.

We did a lot of exploring of the strip and the casinos near by. We also took the Tram back to Sahara to get in some Three Dollar Black Jack, but only broke even this time.

I have posted many fo the pictures of the trip on my Flickr account which can be reached by clicing on any of my photos, to include the above picture of the award winning MGM Grand pool.

My favorite meal was when Lizzie and I had breakfast beside the pool. Lizzie, me, a bunch of timid little birds eating my crumbs, and some landscape workers who were installing landscape lighting.

We also managed not to see a time share presentation. We had put a $20 deposit down, but went back and cancelled. We told them we had done some Internet research on the company, so we did not want to get involved with any high pressure sales presentation. They gave us our deposit back without a problem.

Other posts about our trip include:

• Various Las Vegas posts on the Pixelheadonline blog.


• Firstman2006 Blog posting


• Here on The Travel blog of Lizzie Bean

Snack Pack On Southwestern Airlines

Snack Pack On Southwestern Airlines
Originally uploaded by Emperor Anton.

What a delicious meal we had. It was the same snack on both flights, however, we did smartly pack left overs from lunch on the return trip. Overall the flights were fine. Except for Southwestern Loosing My bag, it was an okay flight back from Las Vegas...we did make it home in one piece, and that is the important thing.

Update:And with a bit of Internet research, and a two hour drive, I was able to retrieve my suitcase from the New Jersey home they delivered it to. The did give me a 100 dollar voucher good for Southwest flights for a year, but I was unable to use it before it expired.