Monday, July 13, 2009

The Adventures of Country Mouse

Country Mouse is back in the country! I had a wonderful time in the Big City meeting City Mouse Cynical Knitting Gal from Chicago. I'll admit that I was a little nervous about going into Philly, and then a LOT nervous right before I got off the PATCO train. For a fleeting moment, I considered calling CKG and telling her I couldn't do it, and just staying on the train and riding right back to the (relative) safety of New Jersey.

That was just a fleeting moment of weakness, though, and I got off the train and found my way up to ground level and just started walking like I knew where I was going. Luckily, I was headed in the right direction (I had a 50/50 chance of being right) and kept walking until I came to Rittenhouse Square - a lovely park! There were dogs everywhere. It seemed as though I saw every breed except for brittanys. That's probably a good thing, though, because at that point I was so highly strung that if I saw a brittany I probably would have accosted the dog and smothered it with hugs and kissed just to be near something familiar. Then the owner would have called the police and I would have been carted off to jail and I never would have made it to the place where CKG and I were to meet, which is here:
Rosie's Yarn Cellar on Locust Street, just west of Rittenhouse Square. Sadly, that is the only picture I took in the city. Rosie's truly is a cellar - small, and cramped, but good things come in small packages! There was yarn everywhere. It was really warm in there - uncomfortably warm - so after some fingering of yarns, we made our purchases and then set out to find somewhere to have a bite of lunch. Nearby was a place called the Irish Pub (I think) and they had veggie burgers! Jackpot! (I mentioned to my mom that I was happy they had veggie burgers, and she said it's not surprising-- lots of restaurants in the city are catering to "weirdos who don't eat meat". Those were her exact words...) We spent quite a bit of time there talking about knitting and dogs and more knitting and more dogs, then wandered around Philly some more and found a cafe type place and sat and drank coffee & tea and talked more about knitting and dogs.

Then we wandered back toward my subway station, and I descended into the bowels of the city once again and got on a train back to New Jersey. ,It was great to meet CKG in person after blog commenting and emailing back and forth for a couple of years. I had an absolutely wonderful time, scary parts and all!

8 comments:

SissySees said...

What a neat little shop! What'd you buy?

I truly LOL'd at your mom's comment. Clearly, she didn't inspire your food choices, huh?

Sue said...

Yes, you must show us what treasures you found. See, now you're an expert and an go into Philly any old time.

I remember the first time I rode the trolly to meet my cousin in downtown Philly and suddenly the trolly went underground. I didn't know what was happening and thought it was all over.

Sonya said...

My three kids and I are some of those weirdos. :-)

Knitting it Out in an Urban Zoo said...

I had so much fun meeting you too! I had no idea how scared you were, you covered it well.

My photos are forthcoming, including the one with evidence that we actually met - the inevitable self portrait of two tourist-types who didn't want anyone to know we were tourist-types. Tee hee.

Donna Lee said...

I wish I'd known you were coming! I ride that train every day to work and could have eased your fears (and probably tagged along making a nuisance of myself). I'm glad you had a good time. I've never travelled to Rosie's but have heard lots about it.

margo said...

wondered what city you were venturing into.
It's been years, but I used to commute to Moore College of Art daily. Eventually I got a room at the dorm and LIVED in the city.
I remember missing the crickets and couldn't wait to go home most weekends. Got the whole city thing out of my system.
Can't believe my nephew and his wife live in Brooklyn and thrive. (with two Puggles)
Green Acres is the place to be laa laaa laa

silfert said...

I want to meet you at a yarn cellar, too! I'll bring my favorite recipe for Spinach and Porcini Mushroom Lasagne with Bechemel Sauce. I've been known to be weird...

Criquette said...

I wish I had an excuse to visit the east coast so I could meet and hang out and buy yarn and eat weird food, too.