Steve has always enjoyed reading Sherlock Holmes stories, and so off we went to Philadelphia for the fall meeting of the Copper Beeches. The Copper Beeches, until this fall were a men only Scion(group) of Sherlock Holmes Afficianados. Some times we made a weekend of the meetings, but as this time there was going to be a meeting Sunday night by our scion (The Hudson Valley Scionists) we elected to make it a one nighter.
We drove down to Philly in the trusted van, and accompanying us were LL and CL. Both are crazy about Holmes, and were founders of the Hudson Valley Scion. LL had been to the Philly meeting before, but as CLis a female this was her first opportunity to attend. CL was a little nervous as generally one is required to prepare a toast to present at the meeting on short notice. Steve had related to me that previous toasts had been quite creative, rapping ala Hamilton, or sung by operatic quality singers. CL was kind enough to share a number of photos that she took of our adventure.
Steve and I checked into the Union League (pictured above), where we were going to meet CB and JB. CB is really into Holmes, and often dresses in Holmesian themed clothes. (At the meetings, mind you!). Last year one of the brass railings was stolen from the front steps of the Union League, there was quite an uproar regarding this.
Every time we attend this event we see a couple in their wedding attire getting photographed. tonight was no exception!
While walking the guys to the meeting we saw a car I had never seen before. I asked the driver what a Saleen was, he told me to google it! Well it is a fancy Mustang, and looked pretty hot! The car had quite the motor rumble also. As you can tell by the vanity plate, the driver was pretty pleased to own it!
Here are Steve and CB on the steps of the Philadelphia Racquet Club. In the Lacrosse bag was as a set of single sticks that Steve and CB were going to give a demonstration on at the meeting. The hat is a Deerstalker. It looks great on CB, doesn’t it?
Here is a photo of CB giving part of his talk. Steve was waiting to the side to demonstrate. 
Here is a picture of some of the attendees. As I wasn’t there, I can’t tell you why some are seated, and some are staring at the seated lady with grey hair!
JB and I had dinner reservations at the Union League. The food there is really good, but you either have to be a member or be staying at the hotel to dine there. Last time Steve and I made hotel reservations to late at the hotel and were closed out and JB had to treat me, as we couldn’t share as the tab goes on your hotel bill. Tonight was going to be my treat. We each started with drinks, JB had a very large Martini. I had a Blackberry Bourbon Julep that was delicious! It was large also, although I made a mess splashing on the starched white linen tablecloth, I finished my drink! We couldn’t get enough of the Parmesan crackers, and the bread was also quite tasty. In fact we kept requesting more refills of the crackers! I was hoping the wàiter would slip me a cracker filled goody bag at the end of dinner but no luck! 
JB and I shared the green salad, JB had the cod, with green cabbage, squash and golden raisins. I had the sea bass with black truffle, gem lettuce and green apple.
Here is JB taking a picture of me, I hoped I looked nice. For dessert we shared the Mont Blanc, coffee chestnut chiffon, Caramelia milk chocolate creamaux and pomegranate coulis. We were also given some more treats, in case we weren’t already thoroughly stuffed.
JB and CB had to leave early the next morning to attend another Sherlock meeting in Washington DC. Steve and I had breakfast at the hotel with LL and CL. Here is another lovely picture of our trip that CL took.
