so, i have arrived back from the City of Brotherly Love.
did you miss me?
the trip was fab-u-lous. i will have pictures up soon (hopefully) but until then, here is a rundown of our mini-vacation.
we were supposed to leave at 8AM on Friday but because of "low ceilings" in Philly, we were delayed for a bit which led to the discovery that airport bars serve liquor at all hours of the day, even 8:15AM. and there is nothing like a bloody mary (or 2) to calm a nervous flier ;-) because of the late departure, we arrived at our hotel only 15 minutes before our scheduled tour of Citizen's Bank Park so we checked in, threw our luggage in our room and immediately hopped a cab to the stadium.
let me just say that i think watching a game in Fenway, after seeing this stadium, will be like going back to coach after having been sitting in first class, if you know what i mean. it was gorgeous, and spacious, and we even got to see Curt Schilling warming up on the field. Adam, ever the little boy, broke away from the group and got some nice close up shots of him. and we met some nice older men who sold us tickets for the Saturday afternoon game for face value!
after the tour we went out for lunch and then back to the hotel to shower/change for the 7:30 game. we had great seats and were surrounded almost completely by Boston fans which was great (and probably good for our safety since Boston kicked the Phillies' ass and there was ALOT of bitterness amongst the Phillies fans) :-)
the next morning we had a leisurely brunch at this adorable "Swingers" style restaurant called "The Continental" and then headed over to watch batting practice at the Park before the game. At this point it was about 97 degrees out and let me just say that i Do Not Do Heat. if i am in anything above 90 degree weather my body just shuts down. Half of the "sold out" park emptied out before the 5th inning because it was just SO DAMN HOT. we made it to the 5th and then had to cab it back to the hotel and watch it from the AC heaven of our hotel. and it is a good thing i wore sunblock because the one patch that i missed on my shoulder was PURPLE by the time we got back to the hotel. yikes!
that night, we decided to explore the restaurants/bars in Center City, so we had dinner at the Elephant and Castle, drinks at the Contiental and Drinker's Pub (where all the bartenders wear shirts that say "fuck me". charming!)
...we then went back to the hotel because we were drunk enough to partake of the karaoke contest that was going on in the hotel bar! Adam did a stunning rendition of G&R's "Mr Brownstone" and i brought the house down with Journey's "Don't Stop Believing". we tried to stick it out until 2AM to see who won, but after 5 glasses of wine, 1 martini and 2 gin&tonics i was pretty much unfit for public exposure so we made our way to our room and passed out.
the next day we tried to do as much of the "history" stuff as possible. we had brunch at the lovely Marathon Grill, we went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, we visited t he Liberty Bell and Independence Center but were unable to get tickets to Independence Hall (booo!) and we were back at the airport for our flight home at 3PM.
all in all, it was a fantastic time. the baseball portion of it ended up taking up more of our time than i thought but it was still fun. we plan on going back in the early fall to check out the things that we missed. I really love Philadelphia, it's alot like Boston in that it is very historical and you can walk basically anywhere. I can't wait to go back.
(and on a side note, my mother went to Cleveland before i left for Philly to see the series with the Indians. my mom had never seen a baseball game in her life but she LOVED it and she and her friends ended up running into Kevin Millar (swoon) at the Ritz in Cleveland and my mom saw his ring and asked "can i touch your Superbowl Ring?" oh jacqueline)
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
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5 comments:
Ha, your family rules, as per usual.
Just thought I'd display my embarassingly complete knowledge of Real World trivia and point out that Drinker's Pub is the bar that Melanie on the Philly season wouldn't let her other roommates come to because it was "her" bar, and then brought a pack of her oh-so-punk friends back to the house one night where Landon threatened to stab one and other drama ensued.
It's not like I have this vast capacity for remembering this shit, it's just that MTV shows the episodes like 30 times.
*Hangs head in shame, to hide secret delight that the next episode of the Austin season is on tonight*
-Kristen
Well, from what I can tell, you'all didn't take ANY of my advice as what to see or do while in Philly--even though you ASKED FOR IT prior to departure. Can't really blame you--only so many hours in the day, etc. Like anything else, it takes many days in a city to really "know" it.
I should also note that the condiment made by Texas Pete that I raved about is no longer made--same old story--not enough people bought it, etc.,....not like in the old days when a company would keep a really good product on the books even though it wasn't in the top tier of sales simply because of the view that its adherents would also buy OTHER products of the same brand once enticed in. The product managers I recently talked to on the phone all RAVED about it, and likewise lamented its demise. Soo--I guess the moral of that tale is: "support your local sheriff."
P.S.,You should STILL find a way to hit "Mel's" in Philly once in your lifetime.
yes i would have loved to have been able to check out everything that i WANTED to but as i said in my post, the baseball portion of our trip took up way more time than i thought it would. i do appreciate your tip though and when we go back to Philly in the fall i will DEFINITELY check out Mel's :-)
Glad you are back. Adam looks positively FRIGHTENED in that second picture! haha.
aww i think he looks real cute! i suppose one woman's frightened is another woman's cute ;-)
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