Washington D.C. and Philadelphia

After returning from eastern Canada I stayed a few days in Kingston, did my laundry, and off I were again. This time I visited Barbara once again before flying back to Germany. The first few days we spent in Terre Haute, I had some stuff to do for my and Barbara for her thesis. However, I still don’t want to talk about work so let’s get to the fun things we did while I was there.

Since Barbara had not yet been in Washington D.C. and Philadelphia we wanted to do a trip to these two cities. Besides that I always wanted to visit my former host family in Potter County (north central Pennsylvania) and it seemed to be good to combine these things. So one day before we wanted to leave for D.C. I called my host mom and she was totally excited to hear me again after what must have been two years. Through her caller ID she also knew that I was in Indiana and after I told her about our plans she was very happy to be seeing me again (and of course the girl I take along) soon. Also she told us that my host sister Dawn lives in a city very close to D.C. and that we might be able to stay at her place. So I called Dawn and asked her if it would be ok, if we would show up in 24 hours and as American are it was not the slightest problem.

The next day we started with Silent Bob (Barbara’s car) to drive. After about 650 miles we arrived in Falls Church, Virginia, and were welcomed by Dawn and her fiancé Adam. Their apartment was just 20 minutes by train to downtown D.C. and it was perfect for us. Within two days we tried to see as much of the US capitol as possible and I can tell you it was a lot of walking. But that was not too bad since we got really lucky with the weather and had sun most of the time. However, after these days we had to say good bye to our wonderful hosts and went to Philadelphia. On the way there we made a quick stop at Rehoboth beach in Delaware and arrived in Philly around eight at night.

In Philly we stayed at Sandy’s apartment. Sandy is a woman we got to know through the internet (www.globalfreeloaders.com). Her apartment was just a few blocks from the city hall and she is one of the sweetest persons Barbara and I have ever met.

The next few days we explored Philadelphia and saw pretty much everything the US has to offer in terms of “early” history. All the sights were in walking distance so that we didn’t even have to buy tickets for public transport. Altogether I have to say that I did not expect a lot of Philly, but at the end was really surprised what a nice city it is and I think it is one of my favorites in the US. Everywhere you can find streets that are so narrow that it is not possible to fit a car through there and the whole city had a very nice flair that was awesome to experience.

Nonetheless, after a few days we had to leave and went on the long way to Potter County to visit one of my homes. After about six hours driving we were there and I passed the driveway… So we turned around and I was “back”. The rest of the day we spent talking with Wanda (my host mom) and George (her husband) and with a visit at my former High School and the store I used to work in. Also we went to the house of my dear friend Ashley who just got married a few months ago and had a little baby boy. However, we didn’t find anybody at her parents’ house.

The day after we had to hit the road to get back to Terre Haute in time so I can catch my flight back to Toronto. Before we started though, we went one more time to Ashley’s parents’ house, but she was not there. However her mom and sister were there and we were all really excited to meet again after all these years. We were then able to call Ashley and decided to meet in Wellsboro, which was not really on our way, but also not too far off. So we met Ashley and her husband Randy as well as little Matt in Wellsboro and went for a walk. We talked a little about how life has treated us and decided that we will never ever loose touch. Nonetheless we had to head back to Terre Haute so we said good bye and several hundred miles later we arrived at Barbara’s apartment and fell asleep in no time.

Two days later I flew back to Toronto and took the bus back to Kingston to spend a few more days there before finally leaving the North American continent. But I will write more about that and what I’ve been doing in Europe after my return later on.

Last but not least I want to provide you with some pictures so you can see how much fun we had and get an impression of all the stuff that we have seen.