Der Brucer had the very good idea of going downtown via the Phlash, one of the local busses. This is a sort of trolly that runs along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, supposedly every twelve minutes.
Well, while there I spotted signs for an exhibit they were holding on animation (featuring the Cartoon Network's stable of characters). On impulse we went in for an inspection. It was a fairly good exhibit, very interactive, perhaps a little too reading-heavy for a nine-year-old like the older grandlad.
Back out we went, to catch that Phlash.
Every twelve minutes? We waited a half hour!
Still, it cost just a dollar, and got us downtown, where I raided the local Tower Records and Borders Bookstore, while der B rested a bit. The we walked over to Camac Street (which is more of an alley in modern terms), to the Tavern on Camac, where we had dinner.
No pictures. It wasn't that fancy a restaurant.
We shared a plate of pate, which was more a mound of pureed calves and chicken livers (lots of purees on the day's plates), surprisingly better than I had expected. Der Brucer dined on roasted duck, I on chicken breast stuffed with crab imperial with a lobster cream sauce.
We decided enough was enough, and passed on dessert. But we went upstairs, where a woman named Paula was playing the piano and singing with a voice patinaed with years of cigarettes. She was a jolly sort, perhaps plagued with too many requests for dull standards. ("Like 'People,'" der B joked. "Oh, yes!" they replied quite seriously.) I rescued her somewhat by requesting songs like "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" and "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," stuff that was a little outside their repetoire but well within hers.
Too soon, we had to be heading home. I think der Brucer now wishes he hadn't insisted that we walk back to the car, more blocks that he is used to covering by far. That, and we couldn't have anticipated a blockage in Christiana, roadwork that required the entire four lanes of highway be diverted. That slowed our progress by quite a bit.
But it had been a wonderful day for us both.
