Mini-Escape

Happy March!
People across New York City mourned the end of mid-winter recess as children went back to school. Well by people I mean teachers and students. Parents on the other hand are probably thrilled to get the kids out of the house.
This means I'm back to work shuttling two sisters to and from school and other various babysitting gigs. Oh gee golly!

Some of my charges did not need me last week due to the lack of school and so Mark and I decided to take that opportunity to hightail it out of the city. We considered Savannah, GA, I dreamed of Florida, and even for one second of madness I imagined an island easily hopped to from JFK. So we booked our trip and headed off last Thursday to...Philadelphia, PA! WoooHooo.
It got to the point where we realized everything was either too far by train or too expensive by faster airplane. I discovered that Megabus was giving away free tickets, which when full price aren't very expensive anyway, and so I booked a round trip to Philly, found a hotel room in the Center City area and away we went. Mind you, a semi-warm beach would have been great but when it came down to it we just wanted to wake up and not be in our own apartment with a parrot screaming in the living room.

Hmmm. Philadelphia. What can I say? Strangely sketch and quaint all at the same time. Of course there is beautiful, colonial architecture everywhere. That's always fun if you like that sort of stuff (not total sarcasm, I do find enjoyment in lovely structures). In Center City, where we stayed, there are restaurant options aplenty. We had vegetarian Chinese, food court Indian, trendy Mexican, convenience store 'hoagies' (aka best sandwich EVER), amazing soft pretzels, artful chocolate, nice wine bars. Etc. Etc. Even the breakfast at the hotel was a shade better than breakfasts I've had at other hotels.
However, wander around the tiny sidewalks or hop aboard a bus or subway and if you're not blind and have any sort of social conscience at all you'll realize there is a serious problem with race and poverty. I'm not claiming to know anything about Philadelphia but it was quite clear that people of color do not have it easy there. And that's coming from someone who grew up and lives in a neighborhood where the majority is considered a minority and public services help make ends meet for most of the households.

But anyway-it was nice to get away. So now we're back. We're busy. We're already exhausted.