On to PHL then drove to Delaware

I left DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth) at 0835 hrs and flew into PHL (Philadelphia) on Tuesday, October 2nd. My flight left DFW at 0835hrs. It was raining when I arrived at PHL. Luckily I had planned for that and I had my raincoat. I rented.....yes.....another Toyota Yaris! That car has grown on me...I looked it up...it gets 38 mpg!

I drove down to Dover, Delaware, which is about 1.5 hours drive from PHL.  My son and granddaughter were home and they met me outside!  What a nice greeting! We stopped by the recruiting office in town to say hi to my daughter-in-law.

The doggies resting together-aren't they cute!!!???!!!

and their kitty:

That night we went to Chipotle for dinner. Because of the location their unsweetened tea is labeled:

I have yet to get accustomed to the "sweet tea"!

The next day we went to a nearby grocery store called Byler's. There are a lot of Amish people in the area, and they park in the same parking lot with all the cars:

We decided to just "hang out" around the house while I was there...which was nice and relaxing!  The next evening we had dinner at The Yukon Korean BBQ and Sushi Bar. The food there was delicious!

We went to the Fifer Ranch, which is a nice place to get fresh vegetables. They have a maze set up for fall which looks like a lot of fun!

I bought a pie at Fifer's, which was the best apple pie I had ever had!  It was apple, carmel and walnut!

Then we decided to go down to The Green. This is where Delaware voted to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

After getting about an hour tour there, we met my daughter-in-law for lunch at Chick-Fil-A. I had never eaten there before-they make a great chicken sandwich!

After lunch, while my granddaughter was taking a nap, I took some of my belongings over to the UPS store to have them box it up for me, then to the Post Office to mail it to myself!  I had left some things behind the last time I was in the States, because my suitcase was over the weight limit. The Post Office was in the town of Woodside and is in a little old building:

There is a cute little church across the street:

That evening we had dinner at La Tolteca Restaurant where I had delicious fish tacos. They had invited their neighbor and her eight year old daughter.

I had brought puzzles for the grandkids. My granddaughter loved hers and learned to put it together pretty quickly!

The last day I was there we met my daughter-in-law for lunch at Franco's Pizza and Pasta:

Well, I had to say good-bye again......

We got a call from my daughter in California that my father-in-law had been hospitalized again for pneumonia and they didn't know if he was going to make it through the night. So, my son decided he wanted to go to see him. He was able to get some time off from work and he planned his trip so that we could go to PHL together on Saturday, October 6th. His flight was leaving at around 0700, mine at 1330hrs. So, we got up early and drove up to PHL together. I dropped him off in front of Southwest Departures and went to return the car.

Since I had purchased a roundtrip ticket from Amsterdam to Minneapolis-St. Paul, I had to fly back to MSP to catch my flight. It was going backwards, but when I planned my trip it was the best way to do it since I wanted MN to be my first stop (wanted to get there before the weather started to turn!).

On our drive up to PHL, my son and I stopped at Wawa for gas and snacks! I had seen signs for Wawa along the highways and wondered what it was. My son and daughter-in-law told me--"you have to check it out!".  It is pretty neat inside...they have all kinds of fresh food, snacks, all kinds of drinks, etc. I filled up the tank in Dover, drove to PHL and still had a full tank when we arrived and hour and a half later....love that little Yaris!

When I arrived at the airport I checked in at U.S. Airways. They were able to get me on an earlier flight, so I left at 11:30 instead of 1330hrs. I had considered calling my sister to meet me for lunch, but remembered that all the restaurants are past security....and I didn't want to leave and return and worry about the time. So, I just stayed inside the airport. I had lunch at Chili's:

 and walked around a bit. I found this display for one of my favorite candy bars in the world-the "Nut Goodies"!

I got on the plane at around 1930hrs to Schiphol (Amsterdam). It's an eight and a half hour flight from MSP. On the plane I sat next to a sweet older Dutch gentleman. We ended up exchanging names and addresses. He said he would love to have my husband and I come to visit him. He lives about 45 mins. north of us.

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Throughout my travels I found people to be very friendly everywhere I went. It became very obvious to me that the pace at which people move is much faster in the Bay Area, CA than anywhere I visited. It's also more expensive than the other places I visited. Dallas is biggggg, and a bit fast also, till you get into the suburbs.