Just returned from "back east."

I have become aware that people on the west coast, or at least folks in the northwest refer to anywhere east of the Rockies as "back east," as if all of us have traveled in a covered wagon west during the 1800's.  I certainly did not, but I did travel from east to west.  That being said, I don't feel as if I am from the east coast, especially since where I come from is most often called the "Midwest." This I believe is currently mislabeled, as it is more "mid-east," as it is much closer in proximity to the east coast than the west coast. 

By this time, you have either stopped or are puzzled as to why I am so obsessed with geography....

(sunrise in Philadelphia, PA)

 

Last week I returned from a two week trip to the east coast.  Three time zones away and an entirely different world, if you ask me.  It almost felt like culture shock.  In any case, I knew that I was far away from everything familiar. 

I took a Friday night red-eye flight direct from Seattle to Philadelphia, PA.  A five and a half hour flight, 2830 miles according to Google Maps, and my seat didn't recline.  At least I had some tasty Thai food, a warm sweater and a content smirk on my face from the rush that got me to the airport just in time to clear TSA, banjo and all.  Yes, I was bringing my banjo because I was headed to Philly and Clifftop (for those of you who don't know....Clifftop is a small WV town that hosts the mega old time festival of 4000+ people playing tunes 24/7). Anyways...I left Seattle at 10:15pm local time and arrived in Philadelphia at 5:45am local time. 

 (right: brick gutters, left: driveway of the estate sale)

AC picked me up from the airport and we headed to get coffee and scones at a small coffee shop in a Berkley-type neighborhood called Mt. Airy, in the north part of Philadelphia. After coffee we headed to her rental house, unloaded my stuff and started out on a walk to Wissahickon park, a huge natural park that runs the length of the city.  We were shortly detoured by the prospect of an estate sale.  Wandering up the woodsy driveway, we inquired within, the sale was officially open at 9am. I believe it was 8:30am. By the time we got back to the house, I was ready for a nap. 

I ended up walking in the Wissahickon Valley Park on Sunday alone, exploring the forest and the trails, picking up loose pieces of wissahickon schist, a shiny, flaky stone, mined in the 1800's and used to build the foundations of large stone houses.  Anneclaire and Steve's new house is built with the schist.  It took me three days to be able to roll "wissahickon schist" off my tongue. 

(wissahickon schist)

 

 Many proper names in Philly were so foreign to me; names of stones, streets, neighborhoods and then specific types of architecture, houses and flats.  Manayunk (MAN-eee-UHNK) is a trendy neighborhood where college students live, located on the banks of the schuylkill (SKOO kill) river. 

In Philadelphia, or perhaps much of the east coast, steak is not a sirloin or t-bone, but rather refers to Philly cheese steak, which is basically sliced meat on a kaiser roll with melted cheese. Steve introduced me to another local speciality that I was not aware of, the "Schmitter." It is basically a Philly cheese steak add pastrami, thousand island dressing sauce, more melted cheese and tomatoes.  To me, it tasted like cheeseburger with a different texture.  I could have done with less than half of the sauce they put on that sandwich. 

 (right: the schmitter at the tavern it originated in, left: explanation of "schmitter" at the ballpark)

 Below is a photo of me lounging on the wrap-around porch of Ac and Steve's new house in Mt. Airy neighborhood. It's a Victorian house from the 1850's made partially of wissahickon schist.  It is a four story house with a full side lot and a huge garden.  I have to say, the porch is perfect for jamming at painting.  I spent some time painting, while Ac took care of her garden work. 

 

On Monday, Steve drove me around to diffferent parts of Philly, including downtown and the colonial area where there are houses from the 1700's. The "trinity" was a special building, a very narrow brick row-house with only one window and door in the front.  It was a three story row-house with each floor only having one long room. These are now very rare and saught after in the old part of town. Unfortunately I was not able to get a photo of one. The photo on the right below is that of some brick work done in the 1700's and then again in the 1800 or 1900's.  You can see where the brick style changed. 

 

  To the left is a photo of me posing at the Magic Gardens, a place I remember from last time I was in Philadelphia about five years ago visiting a friend on the east coast.  It amazed me how many public mosaic installations this artist had throguhout the city of Philly. 

 

We stopped by the Magic Gardens (www.phillymagicgardens.org), where a local mosaic tile artist Isaiah Zagar's work is displayed. 





 On Tuesday morning after packing the car we headed out of Philly, destination Clifftop, West Virginia for a week long music festival, the Appalachian String band Music Festival.  Before leaving the Philadelphia area we went to the gas station to fill up.  Because of a broken hose attached the nozzle, gasoline began spraying inside the car as well as on Anneclaire.  It took me a second to register what was happening.  Because of the gas leak, we ended up doing the 8 hour road trip inhaling some gas fumes. Not at all pleasant, especially since the windows had to be rolled down quite a bit to get some ventilation.  Below is a picture of us at rest stop airing out the car.  I believe this story is one of those that I can laugh about now, but at the time was annoying. 

 

 

(airing out the gas fumes somewhere in the state of Virginia)

 We made it to Clifftop in time to pitch our tent and have burritos with the folks we were camping with before it got dark.  We decided to share a tent and pitch it close to the road, probably not the safest place, but definitely the most level place we could find. Clifftop does not have the most ideal camping situations.  We camped with friends of mine from Chicago and Dayton Ohio, some musicians from Melbourne, Australia and a couple from Tasmania.  They had quite the set-up by the time we arrived. 

  I didn't take nearly enough photos at clifftop this year, but I did play lots of fiddle. I was fortunate to play with many new folks, most of them from the east coast; a lovely couple from Rhode Island, a group from Connecticut and an accordian player from NYC.  Ac and I played tunes with a great banjo player camped with us from Melbourne.  We also got to catch up and play tunes with our friends David and Michelle, folks who moved from Seattle to Ithaca, NY.  The weather at clifftop was rainy and muddy some days, and sunny other days. The mud was quite thick and encompassing.  My toes were so grimy.  The couple from Tanzania cooked us the best meal one evening, I felt as though I was in Italy at the home of a gourmet cook.  I couldn't put down my fork. 

More to come....