After a good flight to JFK Airport we were met by Mona and set off for Philadelphia to meet up with Marj & Celene (we met all 3 on our tour of Syria & Jordan) who had organized a very busy few days for us . Marj lives in a lovely 2 storey terrace in South Philly close to the Italian Market. Both Marj & Celene had been teachers and, now retired, they enjoyed travel as well as history, arts etc so we had an excellent tour of old Philadelphia - the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, the story of the declaration of Independence, the few streets that still have some of the original 2 storey timber houses, old warehouses which have been refurbished (some cast iron from 1850's)- as well as tasting a local delicacy Philadelphia Cheesesteak!!! . Marj booked us in on a tour of the Reading Market which adjoins the old main train station; the markets have heritage stalls that have been selling the same produce for years, and we sampled icecreams, turtle soup, hand made soft pretzels. That night we listened to a talk by PJ O'Rourke about his latest book(his cars) which was very funny; went to a play in a small theatre about doo wap music which was good; and met their friends at a party at Marj's (some are students they taught years ago!!). On Sunday we had a day out in the countryside, visiting Washington Crossing, where George Washington crossed the Delaware and beat the British at a decisive battle. We also visited two delightful little towns, Lambertville and New Hope, one in Pennsylvania and the other across the Delaware in New Jersey. Each had a rail line, the one in New Hope with a steam train which runs for about 9 miles. We had a tour of a house museum in New Hope which was very interesting - the home of a wealthy mill owner, but the rest of the town was pretty touristy. We had a super time there and look forward to showing them both around Sydney soon.