In West Philadelphia, born and raised

One week ago today, at 4:30 in the stinking morning, I embarked upon a long weekend adventure.  That adventure involved a lot of driving, a lot of walking, not nearly enough food, and even less sleep.  But it was a darn good time.  I went on a trip with my mom, my two best friends from childhood, and their mothers.  What was originally supposed to be a trip to “visit Shannon in Delaware” ended up being a trek through Philadelphia, New York City, Atlantic City, Newark, DE, and Washington D.C.  And yes, we are aware that we are insane.  Thanks for asking.

The five of us, plus Shannon’s new puppy, set out dark and early Thursday morning.  We made one stop just across the PA border, and other than that drove the ten hours to Philly straight through.  We arrived in Philly late in the afternoon, and met Shannon and her husband, Brian.  Brian took the puppy and headed home…only to have the puppy vomit up the cookies Mariah fed her an hour outside of Philadelphia.

We did Philadelphia, the two hour don’t stop for anything tour.  In that time we saw:

The Liberty Bell

Had really nasty traveler’s hair in front of the Liberty Bell (maybe that was just me?)

The outside of Independence Hall

A Quaker Church (no picture)

Ben Franklin’s gravesite

A museum that was closing, so the girl rang a replica Liberty Bell for us (why is there a replica not more than 1/3 mile from the original?)

And the site where Franklin’s home once stood.

Then it was time to leave Philadelphia, and head to Jersey City, NJ to our hotel for the night.  We got minorly lost, but between our 46 maps (we seriously had maps coming out our ears) and the Little Man (aka the GPS device Andy and I got as a wedding gift two years ago…the others on the trip called him The Voice, but in our house, he is forever the Little Man) we carved out a new route quickly and nearly painlessly.  It would have been even more painless (less painful?) if they had let me run to the liquor store at the stoplight.  Oh, I kid.

We stayed that night (and the next) in the Doubletree in Jersey City, and they had by far the BEST prices of any hotel we looked at in the area.  It was a really nice little suite, with 2 queen beds and a pullout couch.  And a yummy warm chocolate chip cookie for each of us when we checked in.   And a really helpful and friendly staff.  I will definitely look into that hotel again the next time I’m in NYC (because there will be a next time…a lot of next times, I love that city). All of Thursday was gray and gloomy, and in Jersey City, it was cloudy enough we couldn’t even see the NYC skyline.  It was crazy!  And thus ends Day One of our vacation.