>>To catch some people up, I met JohnO while studying abroad in Ireland, then he lived with my roommate and I during the summer of '04 when Ryan and I met...thus making the three of us (well, really the four of us with Cameron) really good friends. JohnO returned to Boston in the summer of '05 for our wedding, where he was a reader, pronouncing every "you" with a good Irish "ye".<<
We thought Ryan was going to be recording for the week in LA, so we didn't buy him a plane ticket...However, it turned out he didn't have to go to LA, but it was too late to buy a ticket by the time we found that out. He had a great time hanging out with his guy friends at home though. :)
We took a bus tour around Philly and saw all the major sites.
Our first stop was the Betsy Ross, where I had done a service project for MLK weekend in college...
Chinatown...
LOVE...(look for the red letters behind the trees)
St. Peter and Paul...
The Franklin Institute...a great hands-on museum...JohnO seeing if he can lift his own body weight...he did it!
We also went to Lancaster County, Amish Country. I'm fascinated by the Amish, so I loved going and learning more about their culture. We did a tour of an Amish home, and also watched a movie on a boy of age (16) making his decision about whether or not he would choose to remain in the faith. The Amish are currently retaining about 90% of their youth a year! The Amish can use rollerblades and scooters to get around, in addition to horse and buggies, however they cannot use bikes because bikes would allow them to get too far from home. I was a bit disappointed to find that most Amish families now use Pampers instead of cloth diapers, and even wear manufactured sweaters, but I guess they needed to find some short-cuts when their lives are otherwise quite laborious.
We stopped in a little village that sold Amish goods. Here's Lisa sampling some jam...of course we had to sample everything in the store! :)
Lisa, Arnold, and Megan, friends of JohnO's from Ireland who are missionaries for CrossWorld in Philadelphia, and also who we stayed with...
Me and JohnO...
It was a great trip!
My journey home however was filled with adventures of another kind...both flights were delayed, which weren't too big of a deal because I was reading a good book, but then once I reached Tucson, our car died in the parking lot of the airport! :( We had to push the car through the gate so that we could pay without having to have the money add up while we waited. Hopefully gray beauty will be back working again soon!
Congrats to our friend Melanie and Devin who got married last weekend!
