One last set of Philadelphia pictures

Ha - thought I was done with Philadelphia, did you? Well, I have a bunch more, but I am getting rather tired of posting them, so I will just give you one last set.

I was actually there for a reason - the Special Libraries Association Annual Conference. Which Philadelphia put on the flyers that were hanging on the streetlights around the city. I presume that the purpose is two-fold: to welcome the visitors, and to let the locals know which group of weirdos has taken over the convention center that week.

This is a scale model of the convention center itself. Can you tell how huge it is? It covers at least three blocks, and crosses the street to another section as well (that domed building to the back left). The conference was only in the left end of the building, but I walked the length of it outside several times.

Double click on the picture to see it larger. This is the domed area, what used to be the Reading Train Terminal. That is a wood ceiling. It is huge. See the booth in the center? That was at least 6 feet tall.

And right next door to the convention center (and my hotel) was my favorite place in Philadelphia - the Reading Terminal Market. For those of you who have been to Seattle, it is sort of a smaller version of Pike Place Market, with Amish vendors (well, some of the vendors are Amish anyway). I bought loose-leaf tea, pastries, pizza, fruit, bread, breakfast (mmm...crepes - forgot to take a picture, I was too busy eating) and lunch there. If I lived in Philadelphia, I would be hard pressed not to spend every Saturday morning there...

So that is most of my trip to Philadelphia. Who knows what I will post about next week. Maybe the heat - we have hit 100 every day this week, and Wednesday we broke the all-time record for Little Rock, with 114. I am so ready for fall...

Record Heat

So, Little Rock just created a new heat record - 112 F. Yay us? Last night when I got home, I went out to the backyard to water some plants and let Miikka play in the water, but I had to run the hose for a good 4 minutes before it was cool enough to do either. Seriously, I could have made a cup of tea with the water that was coming out. And forget about a truly cold shower right now.

Philadelphia Gay Pride Parade

Before I get to the pictures of rainbow poodles and drag queens who have way better hair and makeup than I, quick re-cap of my tennis weekend, for anyone who is actually interested. I lost both my matches, but one I feel disappointed about my performance and one I don't. Friday night, I lost 5-7, 0-6. That one, I feel bad about; the first set was a mental battle for me, and I had been up 5-3 at one point, before collapsing. The second set was all about me mentally giving up. The woman I played was definitely better than me (she went on to play in the final match), but I should have been able to at least get a game or two from her in that second set. Ah well.  learning experience. The second match was Saturday, and I lost that one 6-4, 3-6, 0-1 (8-10 tiebreak). I don't feel bad about that one at all. The other player was a bit better than me, but we were still pretty evenly matched. I fought. And it was about 100, no shade, at 10:30-12:30 in the middle of the day. So that was my first tournament. I have my eye on one in October, one in which Benjamin and I can play mixed doubles together.

Back to Philadelphia.  The Sunday when I was doing all my sightseeing also happened to be the day of the Philadelphia Gay Pride Parade. I didn't realize this until I was eating my cheese steak on a sidewalk table and groups of people began to claim other tables and line up on the sidewalk across the street. There was an excellent Lady Gaga - tried to get a picture, but I didn't have the right lens with me. I watched from my table for a while, but there were gaps between all the groups and floats - the city hadn't completely shut down the cross streets, so the floats would have to wait for cars to pass, and the groups all stopped farther up the route to vamp for the judges (or whatever you call that when they hang out in front of the judges table). I left and walked around for a while, then wound my way up to the head of the parade and grabbed a few more shots of floats.

This marching band was pretty good, although I can't remember what they were playing. I mostly liked the twirlers though.

Someone dyed their poodle herd in rainbow colors. The little pink one looks pretty happy - show-off! Personally, I can't imagine trying to dye a poodle - I have enough trouble getting Miikka bathed without adding a hair treatment!

I have no idea what this float was for - a nightclub maybe? I got a picture of another one that was definitely advertising a night club, but it was perhaps a bit much for my poor little blog. 

I think this one was in honor of gay and lesbian members of the military, but I could be wrong. The two ladies on the left look way better in those nurse outfits than I ever would, that's for sure. The one in with the red bandana looks an awful lot like Corporal Klinger from here...

And even the Park Service got involved - the judges' area was in the plaza area right outside. I probably missed quite a few good floats by wandering off, but I am glad I got to see some of it, at least.