I took a sleepless redeye on Friday the 7th to get into Philadelphia at 6:30AM on Saturday the 8th. I had quite the public transit adventure as I took a shuttle bus from the airport, since the airport line train was unavailable due to work being done. From there I took a train two stops to our hotel where I dropped off my bag, picked up a quick breakfast and hopped on another regional train to meet MJ. We spent the evening with more of the family, breaking their Yom Kippur fast with bagels, lox and other delicious foods. From there it was back down to Philly to check into our hotel for the week.
Sunday was the first day of MJ’s conference so I met up with Nita for a couple hours and had lunch in Olde City (cheesesteak, yummy!) and on her way out of the city she was able to drop me off at the Philadelphia Zoo where I met up with Jon, Crissi and the boys. As always the zoo trip was a fun one, and I was delighted to learn that they had their Xtinkshun experience still going on, so we were treated to Muppets throughout the zoo! We also got to see their new jaguar cub (which I learned about on ZooBorns).
Sunday night I met up with MJ and we went to a conference social on the 43rd floor of the Comcast building in Philadelphia, where I enjoyed a Comcastini, a mashed potato bar and stunning views of the city.
This was a working trip for me too, so I was working 9-5 each day of the week from the hotel. Unfortunately the hotel internet speeds left much to be desired on the weekend and evenings, but I was able to get work done during the day. It was probably my most productive work trip yet, we really planned my workload well to compensate for hotel internet and I was able to knock out some important asynchronous project work.
Monday evening MJ took me out with some fellow conference-goers. As mentioned in my last post Tuesday and Thursday were Ubuntu nights. Wednesday was a conference dinner event at the Franklin Institute which was a beautiful night. Not only did they have a great catered dinner with an open bar, they opened the institute exhibits to the attendees (including the special Mummies exhibit, which we saw in July), offered several Planetarium shows and even gave free rides on the Sky Bike.
Thursday during the day I was able to meet up with my boss and some co-workers for a company meeting and Friday MJ wrapped up the conference and I finished up my work week. We ended up without plans for the first time since arriving in Philly and took the opportunity to head over to dinner together at The Continental near the entrance to Penn’s Landing.
Saturday we spent with Nita, we were able to grab lunch MJ’s favorite pizzeria and headed back down to the city for a haunted house and then dinner at a “typical south Philly diner” that offered all the diner stuff I miss now that I’m living in dinerless San Francisco. Sunday we met up with some of MJ’s old friends and grabbed some lunch at Revolution House before walking down to South Street for some Rita’s for dessert. I ate far too much during this trip, I managed to get to the hotel gym once (was too busy otherwise!) but was looking forward to being home and getting back on my typical diet that consists of fewer bagels, cheesesteaks and cannolis – as delicious as they are I always overdo it when I come to Philly.
Lots more photos from the trip are up on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pleia2/sets/72157627865240312/
We had a 6PM flight out of Philly which actually put us on the ground in San Francisco at a reasonable time.