Princess Di and Pops A Cappella

We left Boston at 7:30 am. Some of our good friends (including the Owens family, who are off to Canada) left the tour at this point - we hugged Mary goodbye.

It was a long drive to Philadelphia. We stopped in Philadelphia to visit the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, but there were no tickets left to Independence Hall so I decided to see the Princess Di exhibition which was on at the Constitution Exhibition Centre instead: $23 and half an hour to see it. Actually it was good value: lots of photos and film clips of Diana from when she was a child right through to her marriage, plus jewellery, The Wedding Dress, and several other couture outfits that she wore.

The highlight of the day - and one of the highlights of the trip - was visiting Pops A Cappella. they are a mixed a cappella group that toured New Zealand earlier this year and had joint shows with Waikata Rivertones. They put on a pot luck dinner for us, and performed for us, and invited the Rivertones to perform as well. They rehearse in business premises owned by Siemens, so we had to sign in as visitors and be escorted down to the rehearsal hall. Like the River Blenders they were delightfully friendly and hospitable people. I really enjoyed their singing: while they don't do the "synchronised swimming" choreo of Sweet Adelines, they were very expressive and had lots of interactive stuff going on between the men and the women, which was a lot of fun. They also had some very good soloists. It made me want to sing mixed a cappella too.

For this night only we stayed at a hotel called the Staybridge Suites in Malvern, Pennsylvania, where we five Aussies shared a two bedroom, two bathroom suite. Sue was banished to the sofa bed in the living room as she has a very fluey cough.

This netbook worked for a while and then wouldn't connect to the internet: very frustrating, as I need to book flights and accommodation to get me from Louisville to St Louis on Saturday.