Philadelphia & Charlottesville, 10/25-26, 2019

I’m back! Did you miss me?

Steve and I have enjoyed seeing “The Crown”, on Netflix. When I found out that Winterthur in Wilmington, Delaware was having an exhibit on the costumes for the series, I told Steve we need to check this out on our way to the Sherlock Holmes Copper Beaches Dinner meeting. That is one long run on sentence. Perhaps my longest in these series of blog postings. Since I have had an unusually long hiatus from blogging that sentence may be apt. Or I could have done a really short sentence also. Oh well!

Before we saw the exhibit we had a tram ride through the gardens. We found this pink burning bush delightful.

Here are some of the props used during the coronation scene.

The Queen’s coronation robe and gown.

Prince Phillip wore this robe.

Phil did not get a crown, but a ducal coronet.

Prince Phillip’s fancy dress uniform. My Steve never looked this fancy, but he did look equally like a prince on our wedding day. (Do you think he will buy me an extra bauble for posting this?)

This is a dress worn by Queen Mary, wife of King George V, Elizabeth’s grandmother. Many refer to her as a “magpie” because she helped herself to many jewels that were owned by others.

The jewels looked much better in the show, than in the exhibit. Steve who read all the placards told me that is because real jewels are so sparkly they look fake on TV. One of the blogs that I follow had postings about each episode and how they got the jewels correct and incorrect.

The brooch pinned to the neckline represents the Cullinan III and IV diamond. The Cullinan diamond was discovered in 1905 in South Africa. It originally weighed 3106 carats and was cut into nine stones. The oval stone is over 90 carats and the square stone over 60 carats. The Cullinan I diamond weighs 530 carats! That is the big rock in the scepter above. Those are some stones!

This is a replica of the gown worn by the then Princess Elizabeth. Like quite a few other museum goerS, I got scolded because I wanted a look at the back of the dress. That was a no no!Here is a view of the train so you don’t have to worry about being yelled at in my blog post. Steve and I had a lot of fun looking at all the costumes. It is worth a road trip to see, so go!

Then it was off to Philadelphia to check into The Union League where we were to spend the night. This was for the fall meeting of the Copper Beeches, the Sherlock Holmes Group of Philadelphia . Steve and C attend meetings in the spring and fall. We missed it in April as we were in Argentina. (To be reported on someday!)

Here are J and I on the front steps at The Raquet Club. You recall all the other years, where I take a picutre of Steve and C. J and I ended up going to the dinner. I wore that top again this past week and noticed that I was missing a button on the garment. Now I know that I had already lost it prior to Philadelphia. I guess I may have to do some button rearranging. Looks like my hair wants some rearranging also. That one lock looks like it wants to go North. Some might say west, however I know what direction I was standing and that hair frond is pointing North. J looks very happy. I am not sure why. Perhaps she knows a secret that I don’t, or she is just in a good mood.

In fact, here are Steve and C. Steve has one lock that look’s like it is pointing straight to Hell. The back end is going straight to heaven. Steve would say “I need a haircut!” C must be looking at his beloved wife J who is a real trooper, and his been to many Sherlock Holmes events with her husband. I think that she needs more baubles also, don’t you?

This is the inside of the Racquet Club in Philadelphia where the event is held.

This is the room where the Sherlock dinner was held. I thought that the meeting was “fine”. I found the toasts a little bit long winded, and the food not so great. I sat across from the future leader of the BSI, and probably committed a future career ending incident by telling him that I thought these “Sherlockians” were “wackadoodles”, however as his wife is not a Sherlockian, he probably took it all in stride and had heard worse. What intrigued me the most about the event was another couple that sat across from us. (Not C and J, who sat next to us.) This couple had their hands all over each other. At least she had her hands all over him. Steve remarked to me that the ladies hand was rubbing up and down her male friend’s leg. Perhaps she had been given a bauble earlier?

We ended up seeing the new incoming head honcho again later that evening back at the Union League lounge and at breakfast the next morning. He must not have found me terribly offensive and probably tolerable as he sat next to me at breakfast. The night before at our impromptu get together I peppered him with lots of questions. I was suitably impressed with myself when the gentleman next to me (an attorney-who usually has lot of questions of his clients and adversaries) remarked after every other question “What a good question!”. (No, I did not offer him a bauble, but I did remark to Steve and the group “See, he likes my questions!”)

I offered for Steve and I to drop Mr. Future BSI head off at the airport, but as he had not packed yet and Steve and I needed to be on the road to go see Elliott and Kanna in Charlottesville he declined. It was a good thing that he did not take us up on my offer as it took us over an hour to get out of Philadelphia. In fact it took us an hour to pretty much circle back to where we had started. Don’t get me going on the poor signage and ramp closures in Philadelphia!

We finally made it to Charlottesville and got to check out Elliott and Kanna’s new apartment. It has a lovely Mountain View. Then it was time to go to dinner. As we didn’t have a reservation we were told that we would have a 90 minute wait for dinner. Thankfully it was only 45 minutes. I think a lot of people wanted to eat early so they could watch the World Series. I ordered the fried artichokes. I think it gave Elliott the creeps. My drink. I think it was some kind of funky monkey cocktail. Rum, some kind of exotic fruit purée and some other stuff. It was really good. Except for the new trend of paper straws. I prefer plastic, although seeing pictures of sea turtles with straws in their nostrils does make me very sad.

Steve ordered the beef carpaccio with arugula and cheese. Steve loves this type of dish. For some reason it gives me the creeps. I guess now he knows why I really don’t care to share it with him!

I ordered the eggplant parmigiana. I prefer it in a ramekin with tons of cheese on it.

Steve ordered the steak.

After a big discussion Steve ordered gelato for dessert. I wanted to skip it, but Steve wanted it, so I made a big deal that he should in fact order the gelato. It didn’t really taste that great after all, so he probably should have skipped it!

My plan was to get a dessert at Wegman’s on the way home. We stopped and did a tour. It is not as big as the Wegman’s near my Mother’s old place in DeWitt. We did buy some groceries, but no dessert unless you call the chocolate chip cookies dessert.

The next morning we woke up to pouring rain. We went to Moose’s Diner that was nearby and had no wait.

They didn’t have any French toast or waffles, so I ordered the eggs over medium. I was going to send the home fries back as they were warm and not hot. Instead I just didn’t eat them.

Steve had homefires, a biscuit and an omlette. I think there must have been spinach and mushrooms in the omelette.

Elliott had a Western omelette, biscuits and home fries. He was the last one to finish, he claimed that he spent a lot of time handling the biscuit. Either that or he is a slow eater.

Kanna ordered scrambled eggs, home fries and biscuits.

We departed shortly afterward for a long trip home. As usual we took the western way home via 81 and then 84. There was a rain storm all along the east coast, but our route took us west of the rain, so “It was all good”. Long but good!

Do you know J’s secret?

How many times do you do a room check, but not a kitchen check for your groceries that you bought the previous night or your ipad charger?

How many times a day do you think your wife is a nag and should leave you in peace?