Well, yesterday's outing proved only partly successful. Mark and I waited for a friend, Jim, to meet us at Front and Chestnut streets, about a block from Penn's Landing. Jim was taking a bus from Roxborough (the northwest part of the city) and one of its stops is at the corner where Mark and I were waiting.

Jim was a bit late, partly due to SEPTA and partly due to his needing to make an unexpected stop prior to meeting us. Eventually, he did arrive... and when we walked to Penn's Landing, instead of a German festival, all we saw was a sign that read, "The German Summerfest has been cancelled. Sorry for any inconvenience". GRRR... Good thing we arrived when we did, though. There were two older ladies who also had come for the festival, and they were searching unsuccessfully for a pay phone to notify a third friend that the festival was cancelled. Mark was able to lend them his cell phone to try and make the call, but it was too late. There was no answer at the number, so we're guessing that the third lady was on her way already. Drat, for her sake.

By the way, I had to take a picture of Hat Trick looking at the sign, since that's as close as he was going to get to attending a festival.

Mark, Jim, and I wound up eating at an indian restaurant called Shivnanda, which is on the first floor of a building where I had a temp assignment last year. Mark ordered a chicken kebob (tikka-kebab musulini)... they accidentally gave him lamb but he liked it anyway. Jim liked part of his order, the samosa, but wasn't too fond of the main dish (palak-paneer, its main components were spinach and cheese) and ordered some soup. I, on the other hand, have had palak-paneer before at a lunch buffet that includes Indian food, but since that place doesn't label their food, I had no idea what the dish was called until yesterday. It turns out that I love the stuff. My main order was called "maharaja kofta". I was flying kind of blind because I'm not extremely familiar with Indian food; I only know that what I've had so far, I've liked. But the ingredients on the menu looked promising (Indian cheese, spinach, tomatoes, cashews, raisins, and spices), so I ordered it. Now I know that there's yet another Indian dish that I like. It just goes to prove that you can order things you've never seen before, and end up really enjoying the meal. :o)

It turned into a nice outing (at least my taste buds thought so), even if it was nothing that we originally expected it to be. I just hope that the next time we head for a festival at Penn's Landing -- because they have various events just about every weekend during the summer -- they actually cooperate with us by HOLDING the festival in the first place. ;o)