This past weekend one of my judo students parents Kathy, my mom, and me, took a field trip to King of Prussia Mall. As mom herself does not like driving long distances alone, Kathy offered to come along as she had nothing better to do.

My main objective of course was to visit the Apple Store, and check out the new MacBook Pro 17-inch matte screen laptops, and if they had gotten in any of the new Mac Pro towers yet. The trip down was uneventful, and traffic was not too bad.

We entered the mall, and I was more then shocked that it was very crowded. But we made our way to the restrooms first, with me leading the way. As always the cane comes in handy some times, most nice folks move aside when they see me coming. I still find this some what amusing – in a good way.

After our small rest stop, we headed to the Apple Store, I entered and looked around. To my surprised they did in fact have both a MacBook Pro 17-inch matte screen system, and glossy screen system side by side to look at. The matte screen is likely the one I will get; I did find the matte screen much easier to read. I set the resolution down from it’s native 1920 by 1200 to 1152 by 720, I think it was, and every thing seemed OK to read. Of coruse if I use it at my desk at home I will hook it up to my 23-inch Apple HD Display. I will have to order the system on-line to get the hardware I need installed, and request the matte screen option. – Not that I mind, I would get a nice 18% discount because of my membership to NAPP, (The National Association of Photoshop Professionals).

Yes I’m still kicking MacBook Pro vs Mac Pro tower around in my head! But MacBook Pro still seems to be winning!

Our, (my), main objective complete we had nothing better to do then roam around the mall, no rush, nothing to do on a Sunday afternoon. Kathy grabbed a mall map, and we headed to the food-court to grab something to eat. We got some stuff from Taco Bell… Leisurely ate our food and chatted. I was explaining to Kathy about my Orientation and Mobility training, and how some day Elaine wanted me travel here, to the mall, on the bus, alone… Kathy jokingly suggested that her and my mom leave, and I could ride the bus home now. All in jest, and we laughed, but I really don’t like that. It is a big fear of mine. – Why is it so hard for some to understand a fear? It’s so simple of a task for some, but yet for folks like me, travel is some what of a mini-triumph when accomplished.

We finished eating, and roamed some more. Kathy stopped in some small shops looking for a small gift to give to her son, for his birthday this week. Nothing was found, cheap any way. Did I mention King of Prussia Mall is really kind of high dollar to us simple town folk? It’s not easy to find something cheap at KOP.

We continued walking and visited a few other stores. One sold luggage, nice bags and all, but again, not cheap. Mom seen a bag she liked, but it was $79, others I looked at that would hold laptops and such where around $180… We walked on… We seen another store that sold tea, (Teavana) and partook in some free samples, very tasty! This is one I will have to remember, I do like hot teas. As I recall the average price was around $15 for 4oz tea dried tea.

We then made our way out and to another whole building of the mall complex. Kathy then spotted The Cheesecake Factory, and we popped in to visit. She got a slice of Cheesecake ($8 – Slice!), to take home for her son and her to share. I thought the place neat, but did not care for the way it was lit, and it’s dark bar like atmosphere. I don’t like dark crowded stores. But I survived.

We then made our way to Borders Books. I was awe struck. It looked like a damn library; you could have fit five plus of our local Borders in this place. (Can you tell I don’t get out much?) Kathy headed off to look for some books for her son, and I headed to the photography section. WOW they actually had a selection of books! Amazing! A few of the books I had actually wanted for years about portrait photography and lighting. Sadly I really don’t need them now, I really do very little studio portrait lighting any more, every thing is sports or on-location. But it was nice to look.

With the mall almost ready to close now just before 7PM on Sunday, Kathy found some books for her son and we headed out to go home. The trip was fun, and by far was the longest, and most we had ever roamed around in the King of Prussia Mall. If my travels and skills come about, I could see myself going almost weekly to simply walk around.

Well thanks to my front page debut on the Pottstown Mercury, and some followers over on the Twitter social networking site, I attracted the attention of Joseph Zlomek, who follows my twitter updates because I’m a local.

From visiting this site, and a message I sent him, about having some local sports images on file, he asked if he could use one of my Pottsgrove Wrestling Club photos to promote my sports photography work.

Joseph Zlomek, is the Managing Editor of the Sanatoga Post… Check out this nice post about my photography work he put up for me! Thanks Joe!

Check out the post here…

If you use Twitter and you wish to follow me you can @Sensei_Rich, if you’d like to follow Joe you can @jzlomek. Thanks to Joe, this is my first professional “By Line”, in a local news publication website.