For those of you who don’t know, my sweetie is a luthier. He can design, build and repair just about any stringed instrument. And even though he says he has no problem with me asking question about this that and the other thing in his shop – Fret No More Instrument Repair – I can never keep anything straight in my head. All the strings and electronics and tuners make my head spin. I’m sure it’s that same with him when I talk about yarn and hooks and stitches and gauge swatches.
Anyway, one of the downfalls of his job is that he goes on tour with different bands and is gone for a good part of every year. Which, really, is why I have so much time to work on Uglee Little Things.
And every so often, he works for a band which is an awesome band. Mostly they’re on what I call “heritage tours” (I’m sure that’s not the industry name, but they’re bands who’ve been around forever, this time it’s Journey/Foreigner/Night Ranger) and those guys have kids and long standing marriages and value family, so they schedule blocks of time off in interesting cities and encourage their crews to fly in wives for romantic weekends. And that’s what happened this past weekend!
PHILADELPHIA! WOO HOO!
Of course we had Pat’s Cheesesteaks, which are only the best sandwiches ever anywhere in the whole entire world! Danny’s tour manager, Todd, ordered in bags full of sandwiches for the bus ride to the Hotel Palomar, where we were staying for the weekend (stay there when you go to Philadelphia, it’s amazing and the staff is so good at spoiling guests & their watermelon sangria cannot be beat). Yes, bus ride, as in the tour bus, which most people think is super glamourous, but I can assure you, it’s really not. Tour buses are just super lived in RVs! LOL!
One of the things Danny and I like to do is find out of the way restaurants to try out in each city and on a rainy Sunday afternoon, we found just such a place – Pietro’s. Really good, unpretentious Italian food. Here’s how happy Danny was:
And then later that night, Todd and his girlfriend, Lois (who was super awesome and the newest member of the Road Crew Widow club) invited us, Eric & his wife Wendy and another crew member, Glenn, to Morimoto’s for sushi. And that was also amazing! Tim there took such good care of us. This is another place I would recommend checking out when you get to the city!
And yes, of course we took the tour at Independence Hall and saw the Liberty Bell! Danny was more interested in the Masonic history of the city, since he is a Mason.
Here are some pictures of the Masonic Temple, I think Danny said it’s the one of the oldest, if not the oldest Temples in the country, not the building mind you, but the group. I love architecture, and to say that this is a beautiful building is an understatement, I adore the attention to detail in every part of the facade.
And finally, a picture of how I feel about Danny:
It was a great weekend! So, big thanks to Night Ranger, Journey, Foreigner for scheduling and another big thanks to Todd for sending out a day sheet that told everyone to relax and enjoy a weekend on the road with their wives and girlfriends, since those are few and far between in a life on the road!
And with that, much love from Danny and me:
