On Monday, a Canadian and I were in a Japanese car, listening to a Scottish band, driving through Maryland and Delaware to go to Pennsylvania to see a Welsh band. We had Chinese food and Indian food during our stay. How’s that for multiculturalism?

But seriously. Monday Kitti and I hit the road and drove up route 40 into Delaware. We went through Wilmington, and eventually found ourselves in Pennsylvania. Made our way to Philadelphia, and found the hotel with no problem. We checked in, then headed out for the Mütter Museum. Photography isn’t allowed in there, which is just as well. Some of you might have nightmares. I’m going to put one picture that I found online of probably the coolest, creepiest, Tim Burtonyest thing there. It’s beautiful, in a way.

After that, we had dinner at a vegetarian Chinese restaurant. VEGETARIAN! NO meat at all. Not even fish. You have no idea how exciting it was to eat in a restaurant where I didn’t have to worry about cross contamination. Everything on the menu was safe for me, and almost everything was okay for Kitti (there were things that contained egg noodles, but they were clearly marked). They also kept the hot tea and ice water coming.

Tuesday morning we had breakfast at a little dive across from the hotel. Fantastic! Coffee was only a dollar and it was unlimited refills. We walked to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, wandered around in there, and I got completely pissed off at the modern art. I’m sorry. Writing down the names of Greek gods and drawing juvenile phallic symbols on a canvas and calling it art does NOT fly in my book. A 4×4 square of white stucco is not art. Grabbing a fistful of crayons and making a great big scribbled circle is not art once you’re older than 2. Even if you call it “Shield of Agamemnon”.

After that, back to the hotel. I dozed a little and Kitti kept exploring. He went to “Love” Park.

We caught a cab to the show, had dinner at the venue, and we were right up against the stage, just to the right of Nicky Wire, the bass player. Cameras were supposedly not allowed, but lots of people brought them. Did we? No. Do I regret this? Deeply. The show was incredible. Loud and fun and absolutely the best show I’ve ever been to.

We were back at the hotel by 10. The Manics don’t play around, man. Watched some tv until our brains stopped going WHRRRRRRRR.

This morning we checked out and hit the road. The Tomtom for some reason kept giving us directions that included highways, which I didn’t want — especially because it’s insanely windy out there today. The route it planned took us into New Jersey (!?). We got breakfast at a Wawa there, recalculated our trip, and then headed back out again. This time instead of going through Wilmington we skirted around it (still on highways) but after that we were back on Route 40 and just cruised on home.

A++ Would do it all again (although next time I think I’d take a camera to the show, and not wait until New Jersey to have breakfast).