18th Anniversary Celebration

What do Mama and Daddy Nomad do when they celebrate a wedding anniversary? Road trip of course. This year for our 18th Anniversary Celebration we journeyed to Wilmington, Delaware and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. What a day it was!

We all woke up, ate breakfast and hit the door. With no idea exactly what we were going to do, we thought “Hey! We’ve never been to Delaware. It’s a couple of hours from here. Why not check it out?” With those sentiments we were on our way. We chose to visit the closest city, Wilmington. With a cursory search online of what to do in Wilmington, we came upon the Riverfront. This is a mile long walk along the river with shops and restaurants. The Riverfront it is.

We arrived in Wilmington and in a few short minutes we were at the Riverfront. We found our parking at the Southern end of the Riverfront. Parking there was free and there was plenty of it. We jumped out and began to head down the pathway. We first came to two old large cranes. At first I thought they were there for construction purposes. Nope. They were preserved from World War II.

During World War II, the Riverfront Wilmington was a Naval Shipyard. They built war ships right there in the river for utilization in the foreign theaters of war. In 1941, the US Navy designated this place as the lead shipyard for making landing ships and destroyer escorts. Definitely did not expect that!

We headed on down the walkway past beautifully manicured landscape. It had various flowers, rock formations and even a small waterfall. We kept walking towards the end of the trail, where the DuPont Environmental Education Center was. We wanted to stop and use the restrooms.

However, when we got there, the doors to the upper floors were locked. As we went down to the ground floor, there were dozens and dozens of very well dressed people congregating around and in the 2 available bathrooms. Now, keep in mind, this is the kind of place you go to in shorts and tennis shoes because of jogging, not dresses, high heals and suits. We asked,  “what is going on here?” And we got another surprise. A fashion show! Who in the world goes on a hike and happens into the heart of a fashion show. The Nomads! That’s who!

We walked back to Ebony and decided to head out. We still had many things we wanted to see in Philly, so that was our next destination. We stopped off at a great Tex Mex place on the way. It is good enough that we will write a separate post on it in the near future.

After refueling our bodies, we jumped on the Interstate and were Philly bound. We had two specific things on our mind to see today. So, we headed to our first destination which is the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Did you know that the front of this place is one of the most well-known locations on film? Why? most people in pop culture know them as the Rocky Steps from the Oscar Award Winning Movie Rocky and 4 of its sequels where Rocky Balboa, an underdog, runs up the steps symbolizing a rise to the challenge. With this in mind, what do you think we had to do? You got it. Cue the music, here we go up the steps!

Once we ran up and down the steps, we stopped off for a quick pix with a 10 foot Rocky Balboa statue at the foot and to the right of the steps. From here we walked and explored a vast plethora of different sculptures in the park behind the Museum. Mama Nomad was especially attracted to this huge electrical plug. And, as we were walking back to the car, we saw a groundhog running from one of the sculptures to a nearby bush. Man was it chubby!

We jumped in the car and head over towards JFK Plaza. This is right in downtown Philly next to the beautiful City Hall building, complete with Pennsylvania founder, William Penn on top of it. Mama Nomad wanted to see the LOVE sculpture created by artist Robert Indiana.

We drove around the plaza and there was no real parking. So, I pulled over into a parking spot for City Council people only, jumped out of the car and navigated my way to the sculpture obstacle course style. I was climbing vents, running along concrete walls, leaping over tourists and a few sleeping homeless people. I got to the sculpture, snapped a half-dozen different shots and ran back. When I jumped off the last vent and landed next to Ebony, I actually received an applause. I wasn’t trying to get attention. Quite the contrary, I was trying to avoid attention; particularly the ticket giving kind.

I got back in Ebony. The sun was setting and we decided to call it a day. Wow what a wonderful day full of surprises and joy! We have done the dinner and movie route. We have even gone on a spectacular cruise on our anniversary. However, we had never happened into a fashion show, ran the Rocky steps and ended with a sculpture that depicted the feelings Mama Nomad and I have for each other, which grow stronger every year. That is a Nomad Style Anniversary. And I am looking forward to many, many more. Safe Travels.