Olga and I are going to part company today as we each continue our sabbatical separately. Our friend Kathy S. is flying into Newark to meet up with Olga. Before I take her to the airport, I gave her a little tour of Allentown - my home town. I showed her the house I grew up in and the house two doors over is for sale and there was an open house. Naturally, we stopped in to see it. It's laid out like my grandparents' house was but there are some differences. Olga has never been in a 'row home' so she was intrigued by that. These are three-story homes, plus a basement. Then I showed her my high school. Our friend Gail's daughter lives in Allentown and we drove by there too. Unfortunately, midtown Allentown is no longer as nice or well kept as it was when I was growing up. I took her through Lehigh Parkway which was one of my 'happy places'. On Sunday afternoons, my friends and I used to cruise through the park. Other times, I just loved to walk around the park and enjoy the solitude. The old bridge was closed off so we had to turn around and go back the way we came, which was okay since I just looped up into the upper section of the park.
My aunt was making dinner for us but I wanted Olga to have a Yocco's hot dog, so we split one and she had a pierogi - something new for her. Yocco's hot dogs are famous for their chili sauce, plus they use Medford franks which are a smaller size hot dog and most people order more than one. Yocco's was founded in 1922 by Theodore Iacocca, uncle of Lee Iacocca, who is an Allentown native. His brother George has twin sons who were in my circle of friends during high school so I'm only three degrees of separation from Lee :). From there we drove around west Allentown a bit and went to three more open houses, then back to my aunt's house for dinner.
We left Allentown about 4:00 headed to Newark Int'l Airport to meet Kathy. Her flight got in about 30 minutes early and we arrived at the same time. Once we collected Kathy and her luggage, we took them to their hotel on Staten Island - then my aunt and I drove back to Allentown. Their adventure was beginning - a week touring New York City, a few days in Boston and a few more days on Cape Cod. They are flying home from Boston on October 4.
My next three weeks will be spent visiting with family. I will leave PA on Oct 13 for the drive back to Calif. Anyone want to fly somewhere East or Midwest and drive with me? You can contact me via csnieves@hotmail.com.
There are no pictures for this blog, but stay tuned.....
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