On yet another ridiculously quick business trip, I went to Philadelphia. It was going to be a pretty standard trip: fly out Day 1, work Day 2, fly home Day 3. And it was going to be better than most because it would actually be during the week. I'd get to keep my weekend for a change!
This is until it was decided that we had to work on the robot during the night as to not hinder it's use during the day when it was needed most. Fun...
So last Monday, we flew out to Philly. Everything went smoothly except for a half hour delay on the last leg of our flights. We quickly began to do the math at hand realized that with the delay, we'd only have about an hour to get dinner before heading to the customer site. Add in the extra half hour it took to get the rental car and we were quickly losing time.
The biggest difficulty though? I had the wrong address for the hotel. There was a hotel only five minutes from the customer site, so I naively assumed it was the one that was booked. Only after arriving and finding out that there were no reservations under our names did we realize our work had booked them at the hotel with the same name twenty minutes away. By the time we got to the correct hotel (plus a couple of additional times that I got us lost), we had just enough time to drop off our luggage and change before heading to the customer site.
It was pretty easy work at the site. It went as smoothly as you could hope and with the time difference between coasts, it didn't feel as late as it was. Although I can't mention the specific site I went to, while I was there, I did see a minor celebrity. And I use the term "celebrity" loosely (if at all) because she was on "Dancing with the Stars". (If you really wanted to figure out the customer site, it wouldn't be hard given who she is and when I was working.)
Although everything went smoothly, it was still after 3:30AM by the time we finished. Even though I had a candy bar about midway through, I had no energy and think I slept the best I've ever slept in a hotel bed.
The best thing about working through the night is that it gave us most of Tuesday to explore Philly! After finding a place that served all-day breakfast (I was in desperate need of some french toast), we set off for downtown Philly.
Our hop on/hop off tour bus
The steps from "Rocky"
You can see New Jersey across the river
Just chilling with the Liberty Bell, in my new, cool jacket
Because we got a late start, we missed the last tour of Independence Hall, but we did make it just in time for the last tour of Congress Hall, the building that housed the first House of Representatives and the Senate.
The clock tower of Congress Hall
Sites were starting to close and it was beginning to sprinkle, we headed to the Reading Terminal Market to kill some time and fill our bellies a bit before heading to dinner. I really wish we had a whole day to spend there and just eat and eat and eat the day away.
Here's the reason this one was a poor decision: it was a mile from where we wanted to eat dinner. Not a big deal on a normal day, but this was not a normal day. About half mile into our walk through downtown, this happened.
I have never before seen rain like this. And there was nowhere to hide. We shielded ourselves as best as possible until the rain let up and then tried to run to the next awning. By the time we got to the restaurant, I looked like this.
We ate at the City Tavern, which has all kinds of history, but pretty blah food. It definitely did not agree with me.
But other than getting lost a bunch, working through the night, and getting soaked to the bone, fun trip!
For our little vacation this year, we went to Six Flags Magic Mountain! I hadn't been there since I was 14 and Dan was jonesing for some roller coasters. We originally were planning to go in late August, once everyone was back in school so things would be less crowded, but Dan's best friend Jim and his girlfriend Abby wanted to go as well. Since they have a little one going into second grade (I think, I can't ever remember these things, sorry Abby!), we shifted things up a bit. And since June is apparently insane for everyone this year, only one weekend worked. So, we booked our hotels, planned our route, and off we went!
A nine hour drive later, this is what we saw! A blurry Six Flags sign!
Side note: we bought tickets for two days, but by the end of it, if you have a weekday to visit the park, you can adequately go on basically every ride a couple of times in a day and a half. If you want to go on the insanely popular rides a TON, maybe two days would be a better idea.
Something you should know about me: I can be very easily peer pressured into going on roller coasters. I don't really enjoy them, but I go on them. I feel like I'm having an anxiety attack the whole time and will most likely have my eyes closed for 90% of it, but somehow I end up on every ride. I was a good sport the first day, but the second day, I was more than happy to sit on a bench, people watch, and read books on my phone while they went on some of the more ridiculous rides.
Besides, when did roller coasters becomes a one-up contest? It has to be the tallest, the fastest, the most dimensional for it to be good? Some of the best ones are the simplest ones. Take that to the bank, roller coaster engineers!
I went on every roller coaster except Tatsu. It was too crowded the first day and by the second day, I knew better. How did I know better? I went on X2. If you haven't heard about X2, it's the ride Satan designed. Imagine a regular roller coaster, but the first drop is completely vertical. 90 degrees straight at the ground. Maybe you're brave and it doesn't sound so bad, but it gets worse. It doesn't have normal roller coaster cars. The cars rotate. And not willy-nilly rotate due to gravity. No, they are programmed to rotate to make things as scary as possible. Just watch.
After the ride was over, I told Dan that he better run because I was going to punch him in the crotch. That boy was very lucky I was restrained. I've learned that I don't mind being upside-down momentarily, like in loops on normal roller coasters, but I HATE being held upside-down. And vertical freefalls. Stupid X2.
Of course Dan loved it so he went on it a total of three times. Boys. We went on the carousel instead.
Pretty Abby on her white horse
And then, we bought the greatest thing ever: funnel cake covered in ice cream! Specifically, it was a regular funnel cake, topped with chocolate syrup, then soft-serve vanilla ice cream, surrounded by whipped cream, and another layer of chocolate syrup. Dear lord it was good. Good thing we walked an estimated ten miles each day around the park.
Don't worry, we shared it. The boys caught up with us near the end and Dan inhaled the last quarter of it.
It wouldn't be one of my trips if I didn't have a celebrity sighting, right? Well, this one is random and involves Dan almost getting beat up by bodyguards. OK, so we were standing in line for Batman, one of Dan's favorite rides. We were next in line, but it seemed like they were having some technical problems because the queue gates kept opening and closing on the previous train. Our train arrived and, at the same time, a bunch of park officially came onto the platform through the back door. I just stood there, watching them, but apparently Dan didn't notice them shooing people away from the gates because the gates opened and he bolted for the car to strap himself in. I tried to call him back, but he couldn't hear me. Immediately, park officials were all over Dan, telling him to go back in line. Poor guy was so confused.
Then, through the back door, a bunch of skinny teenage guys walk onto the platform. After a couple of seconds and some analysis of some bad hair, I realized it was the new it band One Direction. Dan, Jimmy, and Abby had no idea who they were, which was odd given that they are Abby's ringtone. My pictures aren't that great because of the poor lighting on the platform and the amount of security, but trust me, that's One Direction strapping themselves in. My sister pointed out that, since we were on the next train, we were on the roller coaster at the same time as One Direction. That's got to count for something, right? Not something remotely important, but something, right?
One Direction is in there somewhere
See the bad hair? Maybe the roller coaster wind helped...
Afterward, in a move that makes complete sense in my head, I pretended to be Superman in front of the Batman ride. And to clear up any awkward questions, no, my boobs aren't that massive. It's a floppy shirt that was catching an unfortunate breeze.
Also, did anyone else know that Six Flags had parades? While the others were on a ride, I was walking to a shop and almost got run over by a small parade. I asked the clerk in the shop about it and she didn't even know that there was a parade.
The tail end of the parade, which was also the front of the parade, too.
It was a really fun, really exhausting little vacation. I was sunburned in weird ways. I spent a lot of time with some people that I need to make more of an effort with, I went on a lot of rides I didn't think I would have the guts to try. It was great, but Dan and I definitely agree that our next vacation will involve a lot of sitting, looking at pretty views, and being waited on hand and foot.
On my grand business trip to England, one of my coworkers upgraded us to business class and it was one of the greatest things ever! We were in the admiral's club before our 12 hour flight boarded and I tried to sneak some pictures of the swankiness. Only then did I realize that although I had remembered to charge the battery in my camera, I had forgotten my memory card. D'oh!
Luckily for me, airports now have these crazy kiosk/vending machines that sell electronics and accessories and I had found access to a new memory card. I stood there, waiting for the repairman to finish working on the only one in the concourse and I turned around to see how many people were also waiting and BAM!
Minnie Driver is standing right behind me.
Although she hasn't been in many movies lately, she was in my favorite cult-classic romantic comedy "Return To Me" with David Duchovny centered around a heart transplant (If you haven't seen it, you should. It's not terrible and it's got a great cast.)
Anyway, she was playing with her son at the terminal and I figured it made sense for them to be on a red-eye flight from LA to London since she's British. Assuming this would be the last I would see of her, because she would probably be in first class, imagine my surprise to see them sitting across the aisle and two rows up in business. I was able to sneak this picture of the back of her head.
I SWEAR that's her!
Maybe it's because I'm from Tucson and I consider seeing one of the local news anchors at my hair salon a celebrity sighting, but I feel like I learned somethings from stealing glances at Minnie Driver for 12 hours:
You couldn't tell how expensive her clothes were. So many magazines publish articles on how to get the designer look for less, but this kind of proved how mute the designer ones are in the first place. She had an amazing pair of mid-calf brown suede boots on, but from afar, they didn't look like anything that would cost more that $75 at DSW. Unless you want something covered in logos or brandnames, can you really tell if it's designer?
Her hair wasn't done. She didn't have these perfectly styled ringlets that effortlessly bounced every time she moved her hair. It looked like normal, curly hair that would probably inflate if she tried to brush it out. I don't know if she usually has a stylist do it or didn't feel the need to do it for a flight, but I'm kind of reassured that my own messy mane is acceptable celebrity standard for a airplane ride. As hard as I try, I just can't stay looking put together when I'm traveling.
She has to entertain her kid when she's flying with him. Her son must have been about 3, had the cutest blond ringlets, and was remarkably well-behaved. I think we were all a little nervous when we saw him running around the terminal that we would be in for a long and loud flight, but aside from pretending the airplane was a rocket ship at take-off, I don't think I heard much from him until morning. And it's nice to know that all celebrities don't rely on nannies to watch their kids. She pretended to blast-off with him, she snuggled up with him when they went to sleep (I did some more spying when I got up to go to the bathroom), and she made sure he said "please" and "thank you" to the flight attendants. Apparently not all celebrity's are bad parents and not all celebrity children are brats.
I know these revelations aren't anything grand, but it helped me realize that these celebrities I see so often on gossip blogs are just human. They aren't any better than I am because they can actually afford business class and have people who do their hair.
