Began the morning with breakfast and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. I wanted to introduce Lauren to the show after she bought that Rainbow Dash toy yesterday. Rainbow Applejack compete to see who is the most athletic pony in Equestria, but it comes out a tie. They take part in the "Running of the Leaves," the Ponies' big fall race to see who can knock down the most leaves, but spend the race trying to take out each other. When even Twilight, who has never raced before, comes in before them, they realize that the most important thing is having fun, not who comes in first.
We headed out after that. It was a gorgeous day for a walk to the PATCO. It was hot, hazy, and sunny, more humid than yesterday, but not as bad as it could be. Maybe that's why the train wasn't terribly full when we arrived. (That, and it was quarter of 11. We likely just missed the lunch rush.) We got off at 8th Street and Market at 11 PM.
(Oh, and while we didn't get off there, I must mention that they FINALLY finished the Franklin Square PATCO entrance. The train stopped there, and it's now listed as a stop on the ticket kiosks. And they're now working on the other side of the Collingswood station, which means the escalator is working, but not the elevator.)
I wanted to show Lauren all the great places I found in South Philly last summer and early fall, starting with checking out the vibes at that anarchist bookstore. Repo Records was pretty busy. She didn't get anything here, but I found two records and a CD I'd been looking for. The records were:
Wings - London Town
Peggy Lee and George Shearing - Beauty and the Beat!
The one CD was:
Jimmy Buffet - Ballads (The missing CD from that 3-disc set Jodie gave me that used to belong to Dad.)
On our way down 6th Street to the Italian Market, we ran into Philly AIDS Thrift Shop. This is one of those stores that looks small on the outside, but the inside is room after room after room of clothes, books, musical instruments, toys, and furniture. There was some great stuff...that we'd have to carry back with us on the train. I just ended up with two CDs:
1993 London concert recording of On the Town with Tyne Daly and Cleo Laine
A double soundtrack (that I suspect might be a bootleg) of Holiday In Mexico and Weekend In Havana
We did better when we made it to the bustling Italian Market. There was no way we were going to leave Philly without having cheese steaks for lunch. I took her to Lorenzo's Pizza, the place I ate at when I went to the Market last summer. She had just a plain old cheese steak. I had a chicken cheese steak with spinach. Oh, yum! Mine was so good, just the right salty and earthy. We washed them down with Diet Cokes.
Molly's Books and Records proved to be an even bigger hit. This time, there were no interviews being recorded, and we were easily able to check out the stacks of books in the narrow back area. Molly's specialty is cookbooks and classic literature. The last thing I need is more of the former, but we both found something from the latter we wanted. Lauren bought a copy of the Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. I bought two of Andrew Lang's color fairy tale collections, The Blue Fairy Book and The Gray Fairy Book, along with the soundtrack from Ghostbusters II. I've had the soundtrack album from the original film for over a decade, but could never find any of the sequels.
Our last stop in South Philly was another book store that looked deceptively small from the outside. Mostly Books is situated in a slightly dilapidated bright blue row house, but that doesn't stop it from being floor-to-ceiling books, CDs, DVDs, and records inside. At least the records were in bins this time, rather than dropped in an alcove in the very back of the store. Lauren didn't get anything, but I ended up with three records and two books. The records were:
The 1985 studio cast recording for Richard Rodgers' last musical, I Remember Mama (still sealed!), and the original cast for the 1952 revival of Of Thee I Sing.
Secret Love, a 4-disc collection of soft ballads from the 70s and 80s
The books were:
Spindle's End, by Robin McKinley
Scarmouche, by Rafael Sabatini
By this point, it was 4 PM. Not only was rush hour beginning, but we'd done enough walking. I called Uber. The driver arrived in 4 minutes, not bad for the start of rush hour in downtown Philly, and got us to the Primark entrance at the Fashion District Mall in less than 10.
Lauren loves Primark, the Irish department store, but I'm not as big of a fan. They don't have much in the way of plus sizes, and a lot of their clothes are kind of on the cheap side. She got packs of underwear and pajama bottoms. I headed out early and went to the bathroom.
Our plans got a check when we made it to the top floor. The Round 1 next-door to the AMC Theater was closed. In fact, if the sign on the door from the health inspector was any indication, it had just been forced to close yesterday. Rather suddenly, if the gaggle of disappointed boys who didn't know either were any indication.
Good thing I spotted a mini-golf course downstairs on our way to the PATCO station inside. The theme on this black-lit indoor course was ancient history, from day-glow orange pyramids and tall brown camels to resin columns covered in real grape vines and surrounded by potted olive trees. I think Lauren won (after she took a call from her parents, who wanted to know about a package they just got in the mail), but not by much.
After that, we tried the smallest of the billiards tables in the game room next-door. Lauren's guy buddy has taught her to play. She's probably no pool shark, but at least she could figure out how to hold the stick. I think I got one ball in. She got all the others. At least I can say I tried.
We dashed downstairs to the PATCO concourse just in time to catch the 5:30 train home. Maybe that wasn't such a great idea. The 5:30 was literally elbow-to-elbow with commuters on their way home from work. Even when I found a seat, it was jammed next to a big, huge guy. I was so grateful when we finally got off at Collingswood. Called Uber here, too. They arrived in 9 minutes, and barely needed five to get us home.
As soon as we got in, we put everything upstairs, then went right back out. By 6 PM, it was cloudy and hazy, but also windy and much cooler and more humid. It was too cool to hang out inside. Besides, Lauren wanted to eat at Jalapeno's Bar and Grill, the Mexican restaurant a block from the WaWa. They were surprisingly quiet for the dinner hour when we got in. She had fish tacos that looked amazing. I went with my favorite shrimp quesadilla.
Since she treated me to Mexican, I treated her to Hispanic ice cream at the Mexican Ice Cream parlor two blocks from Jalapeno's. La Moretense Plus was also busy with people getting a cool respite from the earlier heat, but we did manage to find a seat. She had intensely pink strawberry ice cream with sprinkles. I had a cherry nut milkshake that was also very pink...and very, very cherry!
Finished the night back at my rooms after a shower with The Singing Fool. I go further into the massive hit Al Jolson vehicle that introduced audiences to "Sonny Boy" and truly pushed sound as a viable medium for film at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.
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