Philadelphia story so far

I couldn't resist the title, sorry. I'm corny, and there's an oh-so-tenuous connection to the movie for me.

I've not blogged in several days. Last week was a very busy one in Chicago leading up to my trip here to Philadelphia on Friday. Conrad is not with me - he's in Honolulu right now, and I am busy with events at the ALA Midwinter Meetings. Back to Chicago on Wednesday, but still more to do.

I'll separately blog the dinner on Saturday with Chris and Ronnie, but to otherwise give you a sense of what I've been doing:

• Task force meetings, vendor presentations, visiting exhibits, two candidates' forums, and attendance at a Round Table social.
• Swim practice with the Philadelphia Fins - the swimmers I met were all very very welcoming, and I delighted by that and sorry I couldn't go for dim sum with them.
• Dinner last night at Amada with my roomie, Martin, and David from Houston. I forgot to bring the camera, but it's just as well as sometimes it's nicer just to be able to go and dine. Funnily enough, the host was one of the Fins, and he recognized me from the practice earlier that day. The food, I should add, was outstanding. We all settled on the chef's selection of tapas, and there were multiple highs like the piquillos rellenos (crab stuffed peppers), the garbanzos con spinacas (chickpeas with spinach - marvelously garlicky!), albondigas (lamb meatballs with shaved manchego), and the madre e hijo (chicken breast cooked sous-vide style with fried egg, fingerling potatoes, and black truffle). We all had the wine pairings with it (including a Portuguese red that had a delicious scent of violets) and shared two desserts of which the Manchego (sheep cheese)Mousse with Pistachio Shortdough, Apple Crumb, and Apple Cider Sorbet was my favourite.

Above all, though, I want to highlight Saturday's visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Good gosh but that's a magnificent building with a remarkable collection.

I had the opportunity on Saturday morning to attend an early morning lecture by the author and photographer of a book called Rocky Stories. The Museum steps, you see, are featured in the Rocky movies thanks to the iconic scene in the first film where Rocky runs up the steps and celebrates with a solitary jig at dawn at the top. Tourists and others come to Philadelphia to see the steps and do the same run/jig. Okay, I get it. It sounds hokey to me in so far as I've never seen the movie, but you know what? The two men speaking put together what sounded like a fascinating book about everyday people and celebrations of their personal triumphs. I fell for it and bought the book and got it signed.

A handful of hours later, and I was meeting Chris and Ronnie on the steps, admiring the city view before heading inside.
The weather was quite fine - sunny and around 12 Celsius - and the view is terrific. I hadn't seen them since they visited Chicago the year after their wedding, so it was great to catch up as we wandered through the galleries.Afterwards, it was a nice stroll back to the city center and on to the restaurant for dinner. But that will keep for the next posting, I think.