Back for her 7th trip to America, my mother-in-law Jutta Engelhardt finally landed and found her way out of Philadelphia airport. I flew into Baltimore, picked up a rental car, and drove north to Philly. Typically, my mother-in-law and I spend some part of her vacation on a ‘son-in-law/mother-in-law’ trip, and this one would be no different, except this time, it was placed at the beginning of our journey. Actually, it was a strategy to cut down on the jetlag she experiences after traveling 20 or so hours to get to Arizona. By flying to Philadelphia on a non-stop from Frankfurt, Germany, she flew a brief 9 hours before touchdown.

After fetching her bags, we loaded up the car and drove southwest to New Castle, Delaware, for dinner at the historic Jessop’s Tavern.

After leaving this old town founded in 1683, we made our way to St. Michaels on the Chesapeake Bay where we’ll spend the next three evenings before meeting up with Caroline.