Sunday 11th October - Philly

After not a bad's night sleep we headed down for the Marriott "pig-yourself-stupid" buffet breakfast - which as it turns out was our first mistake of the day.

It was a lovely Sunday morning in Philly so we decided to have a walk out and see a few sites. We stopped for a while in Love Park and watched the fountain.

Around 10:15am we headed to the Football Stadium to join up with Dave Leitham's Eagles tailgate party. After wandering around the massive parking lot packed with Eagles fans bar-b-quing, drinking and having fun (and a few phone calls to Dave) we eventually tracked Dave down and were soon standing drink in hand. These events do have rules.....you can drink what you like, but it must be out of a cup/glass not a bottle!!!

There was more food than you could shake a stick out and it became obvious that the decision to go for the enourmous breakfast was the wrong one. However there is always room for some Alaskan King Crabs legs freshly cooked on the barbie.
Many, many thanks to Dave, his boys (who tried to teach me the art of throwing the odd-shaped football) and the guys & girls he tailgates with. English football has a lot to learn!

For the walk to the Stadium Dave supplied me with a Golden Monkey beer from Victory - at 8.9% alcohol this was as close to a Belgium beer as I tasted from an American brewery - but at 12:30pm was pretty heavy going.

We left Dave inside the stadium as his seats were at the opposite end of the field to Peter's. The Sun was beating down as we sat in the stadium - and we both got a little sun burnt.
Peter (Brennen) and Steve (Meek) arrived just after the first Eagles touchdown and we launched an assault on the stadiums supply of Bud lite!

It was great to catch up with Peter & Steve and the Eagles supported by winning pretty comfortably. As predicted the locals got a little lively at times - and with no "away" fans to express their anger against turned against each other.

We left early in the 4th quarter when it was clear that the Eagles were going to win and jumped in a cab to head back to the city and further beers in McGillins (my favourite bar in Philly). We had a couple of Pitchers of Dog Fishhead IPA and 25 hot wings before Julia and I retired to the hotel for a wash and brush up prior to dinner. Many thanks to Peter for the Eagles tickets - it was a very memoriable part of our trip.

We met prior to dinner in the Marriott bar and were served by the same waitress that served me my first ever beer in the Marriott about 5 years ago. The team in the bar was:
Bob V (Tangeray 10 martini, straight-up 3 olives), Steve & Trish Meek, Peter Brennan, Brad Huddleston and Eileen Dowds.

We set out for the resturant (El Vez) at around 6:15pm, losing Peter along the way and gaining Deb & Pete Harrsch and Paul Neralich once there. After several Margarita's and a very nice meal the group split around 9pm with Bob, Brad and Paul joining Julia and I back in McGillins.
Many thanks to Deb for getting a table for 10 at 6:30pm....something I know was a struggle...and for everyone for again taking the time and effort to meet up on a weekend evening.

After a couple of beers, and resisting the urge to do Karoake upstairs, Julia and I headed for the hotel around 10pm - I must admit a few tears were shed - probably due to way to much beer - but possibly due to seeing good friends for probably the last time (I know big girly!)