Philadelphia

Our first full day in Philadelphia, we got up, got ready, and had the included breakfast at the hotel. I swear that cinnamon roll was one of the best cinnamon rolls I've ever had and I'm not just saying that because I haven't had one in YEARS.  It was delicious.  We then took a taxi to the stadium where the Philadelphia Phillies play so we could tour the stadium.  It was a pretty good tour.  I know nearly nothing about that baseball team, but I still enjoyed the tour.

Then it was off to Independence Hall to do a hop on hop off bus tour of the city.  We got off at the Eastern State Penitentiary and did a guided tour there.  I wasn't sure about touring a jail, but that was pretty interesting.  Our guide was informative and interesting.  After the tour, we had time to poke around a little.  Saw Al Capone's cell, which was MUCH nicer than any of the othe cells in there.

 Then we got back on the bus to head to One Liberty Plaza, which is a tower with a nice view of the city.  Unfortunately, it was raining when we got there and they said the visibility was zero so they let us exchange our voucher for the next day (so nice!, not all towers do that.)  We were going to get back on the bus, but decided to walk instead.  We walked by City Hall (a pretty cool looking building) and then to Reading Terminal Market, where there are WAY too many food choices. It's amazing.  We hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was now 5:00 so we chowed down.  Late lunch, snacks, and a variety of desserts to go (and ice-cream while we were there).  It's amazing I didn't gain 10 pounds with all those treats!   We made a stop at the Hard Rock Cafe so Mike could get a t-shirt got back to the hotel a little after 6, but nothing too touristy was still open and we weren't hungry for dinner since we ate lunch so late.  So we had a quiet night in.    

I Just Want to Go to My Hotel

So as you read in my last blog post, our flight was late and I'd worked all day so I was a bit tired when we (finally) arrived in Philadelphia.  We only brought carry on luggage since we were only going for a weekend.  We got down to ground transportation and asked the attendant (is that the right word?) where to go for our shuttle as it wasn't very clearly marked.  He said we had to call them.  I told him we had a reservation to be picked up, shouldn't they be waiting for us somewhere?  Apparently not!  So I called, got a recording and was told to dial 1 if I were waiting to be picked up.  The lady who answered told me I needed to check in with ground transportation.  I told her I'd just done that.  She told me I had to check in with them and they'd give me a number.  What the heck???  I thought perhaps I had checked in with the wrong person since when I asked him what to do he told me to call them.  I told her that and she directed me back to the same place I'd just been.  Thanks for nothing lady.  So Mike asked someone else who told us to go to that phone right there and dial 24. Just 24?  Yes.   Guess what happened when I dialed 24?  The operator told me my call could not be completed and to hang up and dial again.  Guess what happened then?  Here's a hint:  see above.  So I relunctantly went back to the grond transportation man and explained the situation to him.  He gave me a card with the number 61 on it. I called the shuttle again with this number and the woman was RUDE.  So rude that I'm ready to write a review and tell people never to do business with this company again.  She told me to wait to be announced.  I asked her where they were going to announce it, was someone going to come over the intercom?  Walk in and yell our names?  Her response was to tell me to go back to the ground transport guy who did not concur with this information.  This is the most messed up shuttle pick up I've ever seen.  I have traveled many times and either a shuttle person is waiting outside in the spot where they promised to be, inside with a sign, or gives you a number to call and hustles over from the cell phone lot.  Never have I had to keep calling the company to find out where my shuttle was and be spoken to so rudely by someone.  So eventually some guy comes in and asks if we're waiting for him. Yep.  So he drives us to our hotel--and wait for it, drives right by it.  At first, I thought, well, maybe that's not our hotel, I think there are a couple of Holiday Inns in this city, but wait, that's the right street.  Unfortunately, he can't turn around and there are a bunch of one way streets--and traffic--yes, traffic at 11:00 on a Friday night--so it takes a while to go around and get back to our hotel.  We finally checked in a little after 11:00pm.  Let's just say I'm glad the hotel staff was nice and our room was fabulous!  Good size, comfy bed, decentish view.   Oh, and by the way, the next morning, we had a text message from the shuttle company saying they were on their way. I guess it got sent sometime that night, but it didn't come through before we went to bed.  Thanks for nothing shuttle company!  (Don't give up on me based on this grumpy post, the rest of the trip was better.)  

Off to Philadelphia

My husband and I somewhat randomly decided to go to Philadelphia for Columbus Day weekend.  I'd never been there before and he hadn't been since he was a kid.  The day before was a bit hectic--I'd planned to leave work close to on time, but ended up staying two hours late (and still bringing work home grr), hitting every red light and some traffic on the way home and having to wolf down dinner before my ballet class.  For various reasons, which I will not get into right now, I have a love hate relationship with my ballet class this year.  I really didn't want to go to ballet that night since I had so much to do--like finish packing, but I ended up being glad I went as it was a good class that night.  After class, I managed to finish the work I brought home, clean the house up a bit, pack, and eventually went to bed.  I was planning to go straight from work to the airport shuttle the next day so I got up a few minutes early (after staying up too late) to make sure everything was good to go.  And off I went--on time to walk laps with a co-worker before work when I remembered my lunch was in the fridge.  Normally, I would have just said forget it, I can get a snack at work, but since I had no idea what time I'd be having dinner that night, I decided to turn around and go back home to get my lunch.  Back on the road again and off to work, I only ended up being able to walk laps for 20 minutes, but I guess it was better than nothing.  When I got to work, I remembered I forgot my ipod and though I could certainly live without it for the weekend, I really wanted it for the plane ride.  Thankfully, the planets somehow aligned correctly at work and I left at a reasonable hour--a Columbus Day weekend miracle.  I had enough time to run home and grab my ipod before catching the airport shuttle.  It was cheaper to take it from the park and ride instead of taking it directly from my house so I got there a few minutes early.  The shuttle was waiting and since I was the only one who booked it, we got to leave 15 minutes early.  Amazingly traffic wasn't bad--correction it wasn't bad the way we went it, it was awful going the other way.  I feared it would take hours to get to the airport with all the holiday weekend traffic, but it took under an hour and a half.  My husband met me there a few minutes later.  We got our boarding passes, cleared security, and had time to get a sit down meal since it was only a little after 6:00 and our flight wasn't until 8:05.    Does anyone else wonder about airport prices?  I drink a lot of water so I always a buy a water bottle when I get to the airport since you can't bring it through security, but really, does it have to cost more for a bottle of water at the airport than it costs for a case at home?  (I have a Brita so I rarely buy water any more.)  I'll save my complaints about food prices for a later blog.    Soon it was time to board the plane and off we'd go--or so I thought, but because they were waiting for some data, we got on the plane and sat there for a while. We eventually took off and landed in Philadelphia a short while later.