Big News for Philly Mormons

Maybe it wasn't big news wherever you were, but it was pretty big around here.

"Stop the presses!"

The LDS church held a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the newest temple in Philadelphia.

Many luminaries lumined.  Mayor Nutter was there.  He's everywhere.

The Philadelphia Inquirer ran a several page--mostly fair--summary (click here  for article) of the church and what the temple means to us, especially since we currently go to DC right now.

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The location, near the Franklin Parkway, next to art museums, the library and the Catholic basilica is very accessible by public transit.

The design is a nod to the colonial style of Philadelphia, and the spires will rise about 200 feet.  Enough to give it that vertical sweep, but not so much that William Penn (on city hall) need feel threatened by Moroni.

After the groundbreaking (not sure how much actual ground was actually broken, but, oh well) President Henry Eyring came to our building on Chestnut Street for a nice lunch in the primary room (cleaned to within an inch of its life by the Chin family...).  Terisa got to help with the catering and was able to greet President Eyring as well as members of his security staff that we had worked with in our Conference Center first aid days.

Principal construction will start in the spring and handover will be about 2 years after that.

Big news for Philly Mormons, indeed.

Politeness in Philly

I had some apprehension about east coast politeness.  I witnessed the difference in airports several years ago.  In California, the flight attendants begged people to get on the plane.

In Newark, when they announced preboarding, burly men in suits  elbowed old ladies and children aside.

But today as I walked around the front of a car that had pulled too far into the crosswalk, the driver apologized to me. Didn't have to, just being polite.

We see a lot of politeness here.  Makes us smile.

What was Forged at Valley Forge?

Ironically, Labor Day gives us a day off of labor.

We used it for our first visit to Valley Forge National Historic Park.

Pop quiz:  who won the Battle of Valley Forge, the French or the British?

It was a trick question, and not because the French have a reputation of surrender...

Valley Forge was not a battle, but a fortified winter encampment from which the Continental Army emerged a real army, with central command and control, capable of winning the revolutionary war.

Winter was typically an off-season for war, so General Washington looked for a good place with  water and wood to hole up.  They built 1500 cabins, and recruited, trained and resupplied, although  supplies were kind of spotty until spring.  The lack of good clothes and boots, and the spread of disease in non-hygienic close quarters, plus uncertain nutrition caused the most hardship and death.  Not battles.

 The rangers recreated the the look of the time and place.  And this guy was a walking encyclopedia.
  Plus he had the coolest Brown Bess: a smooth bore, 75 caliber, flintlock musket.  I'll bet it really worked, but he wouldn't let me try it...

Today the park is a pretty--and pretty big--tract of land with some monuments,

...trees, historic buildings, and picnic grounds.

The next night, despite a deluge from the remnants of Hurricane Lee,  we held a tri-ward youth activity: Philly's Got Talent.  Oh yes, it does!

After a kind of slow start, where the young men and young women tried to decide if they would be cool or have fun, they opted for having fun and really cut loose.  Justin Beiber songs were popular. And there were some very strong voices here.


We also had a karaoke machine.  I didn't know if anyone would do that sober, but here is proof:


 And here is a one man air-band:
no instrument was safe from his monumental shredding!

The judges were impressed with all of the acts,


..but audience reaction was mixed, sometimes.


The reason I was there, is I've been called into the Young Men's organization in the ward.  Here is a picture of some of the boys after a scout activity.


It's a pretty cool bunch and they haven't tortured me too much, yet, but we haven't actually been on a campout together.  The September one got Irene-d.

 
As a parting shot, it sure seems like my hair is growing faster out here.  Actually, this up-do is a shoutout to granddaughters Grace and Alice who both love their pigtails.

How Cool Is That?

Here is a little of everything: pot pourri, as Alex would say.  

A lot of different activities, but all with one theme:

First, I spent a couple of days in Crystal City at my bosses'  office.  It turns out that my niece, Jenna, works about a block away from our offices.  How cool is that?  

We had a very pleasant lunch, which we will repeat often.

Later in the week we went to Baltimore Avenue's Dollar Walk.  Baltimore Ave is very eclectic, with a lot of interesting people.  It is what I imagine South Street was before it began trying so hard. (See previous blog)

 

Dollar Walk is where each of the local merchants find something on their menu and sell it off a table on the street for a buck.  Here is Desi's Indian selling a potato pastry thing, and some yummy mango custard.

Our modus operandi was to find the longest lines and get in them.  The food was correspondingly delectable.  The spring rolls at Vientaine were out of this world, after a 50-yard line.  

Of course, there was music.  Here is a jazz-rock combo that had a really chill bass and drum riff that everyone else played off.  The guy on the right was playing a sort of synthesized sax-o-ma-phone. 

This interesting duo was proud of the fact they had avoided their mary-ju-ana songs in their family-friendly set for the evening.

And I don't know exactly what these flying saucers were.  They sounded a bit like metal drums, but under water.

And this guy had a drum machine and a synthesizer and sounded like an ensemble of six.  

 

He was good, but he made me wistful for the true one-man-band.

Here is Mr. Magic, whose act came straight from the box under his table of "125 Magic Tricks to Amaze Your Friends,"  but he still got me with the cigarette in the handkerchief trick.  How cool is that?  Plus he was gamely working the crowd waiting for the heavenly spring rolls.

Finally, in a hat tip to my sister who encourages this sort of thing when not actually participating in it:  a yarn bombing right here in River City!  Yes, that 3-inch steel pipe set in tons o' concrete, that most ubiquitous of unmovable urban landscape features has a knitted woolen cover.  In the summer!

 

And here is our local water ice (Slushee-esque summer coolers) purveyor.  His face says what he has to be thinking:  "How cool is that?"

On the weekend, we went out to Lancaster to meet up with Lynne and Kit at an arts and crafts fair.  (They camped the night before.)  We drove through a number of quintessential small towns to get there.  

Everything is classier in a small town.

This 24-year-old fair had all of the hallmarks of greatness:  it had your wandering pipes and drum band.

It had your demonstrating artists, including a fascinating make-your-own-silk-scarf-pattern that I completely forget to photograph.

It had your BBQ stands, "Mr Bill's Grill,"

It had your local patrons of the arts. 

(Okay, Lynne and Kit from Weehawken)

We were on a safari of sorts.  Our apartment walls are still in need of decoration befitting our Pennsylvania adventure.  We ended up with this double panel from a PA restaurant tin ceiling.  Nice clean pattern, original paint--unmarred by the fire that did in the restaurant--and a nicely crafted mahogany frame.  For scale, the tag dangling off the frame is a standard business card.

Also, we picked up a Pennsylvania classic: a redware dish.  It looks like the doiley is baked right in, but that's the fired pattern. It will adorn our breakfast nook.  How cool is that?

One other item on our safari list we didn't get to check off was light switch plate covers.  Ours are painted into the wall and we were hoping for something wild and unexpected.

We'll have to wait until the next craft show.  But that means we still have an excuse to keep going to craft shows.  How cool is that?