The Philadelphia Story - Completed 2/18 About This Page:

[crystalloubear]

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What a fun night you all had. Uh, Tara, where's your update to this evening?????

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Maybe she doesn't remember much.

[loobyoxlip]

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What a fun night you all had. Uh, Tara, where's your update to this evening?????

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Maybe she doesn't remember much.

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Good point, Crystal!!

[JoanW]

I'm going to start my part now, as it seems we've moved on to the morning, or as Tara was probably thinking, Oh God, I hope I make it to the morning!" I have to say though, I did not catch on immediately what was wrong with her when we saw her. She was holding it together pretty good, I might say.

I set the alarm for 6:00 am. and hopped in the shower. Passporter Meet Foo - Coconut Lime Verbina. DH Pat wakes up DD Rachel, age 12.5 at 6:15, and she's pretty grumpy, as she wanted to sleep another 15 minutes. We pack a day bag for the train with our Mooshi pillows (those squishy beadfilled ones) and a blanket for Rach and as all good Passporters know, a collapsable cooler with caffeinated beverages and water, just in case. I remind Pat about Grace's baskeball game and Confirmation class. We pull out of the driveway at 7:01. We pull into the Baltimore Airport train station at 7:30. We announce as we get a front parking spot, as we must at all Really Good Front Parking Spots, "This Must Be Our Lucky Day". We've never been to this station, and Rachel's never been on the train. My last train ride was in 1980, so we are excited to be there. We check in and have a 25 minute wait. There's only a few people inside a really small building. I get cash at the ATM machine. They announce the 7:54 train to Philly and we board. It's empty. We could have had our own row, but we sit together. Rachel brought a book to read as did I and we hunker down for an hour and twenty minute ride to Philly. We get out our Mooshis and the blanket for Rachel, but I think it's warm in the train. And dry. I wish I'd brought some Foo lotion. And cough drops or mints. We drink the beverages. Rachel starts to cough. And cough. Hmm. I'll have to ask Towncar Tara to stop at the CVS or something for cough drops or something.

The train goes through Baltimore, probably running parallel to I95. We go through Wilmington, Delaware and then they announce Philly is our next station. We gather our stuff and repack it into my large tote bag. We have arrived and we are on time.

[luvnwdwgal]

Keep it coming everybody!!!

[whoSEZ]

I love this multi-POV report! More, please, everyone!

[Tara O'Hara]

Sorry my update is late today, you guys!! I had to work night shift last night and it seems this terrible cough is back in full swing!!

Well, I never did get to do Karaoke, but we did stay and hear about three of the singers. The first girl was awful, but the next two were guys and they were both unbelievably good!! I thought the first guy sounded better than the real song!! After this, we were just beat and Marie and Janine went upstairs. I followed a few minutes later and when I went to bed, I really did feel fine! BUT!

At 3AM on the nose, I woke up very nauseous and very sick!! I ralphed my guts up from 3AM right through 6 AM. Poor Lynn, being a light sleeper anyway had to suffer through all of this and I owe her big time for that!! Finally, at around 6, the nausea subsided and I grabbed a hot shower and actually felt okay. I honestly didn't keep track of how many beers I actually drank but it was way too much for me!! I went back to bed after my shower and slept until 8:30. By this time, everyone was up and dressed. We had to mmet Joan at 9:15 at 30th Street Station, which was about a ten minute ride from where we were. I got up, got dressed and we all packed up and got the car after settling our bill. By 9:05 we were on our way to pick up Joan. She called on my cell when they arrived and we instructed her to wait at the 30th Street side of the station. When we got there, there was no sign of Joan or Rachel and so we called her back again. It's a good thing because we were actually on the 29th Street side and didn't realize it until speaking with her!! When we pulled around the building, sure enough, Joan and Rachel were there waiting for us! Greetings were exchanged and everybody piled back in.

[loobyoxlip]

Great updates, everyone.

Uh-oh, Tara. Glad I'm not your roommate in May

[CRCrazy]

Back to Saturday afternoon - I know - I'm way out of sequence!!

Okay - we all piled out of the Suburban, and started walking through the streets of South Philly towards that mecca of fine dining, Pat's - King of Steaks!

Nancy & I kept commenting how similar Philly is to Boston in some ways - but I really like how Philly has funky art stuff all over! They even have cute little Indians (I know - Native Americans to the politically correct!) on their manhole covers! I didn't take many pictures through the weekend - I kept forgetting my camera - but I will toss in the ones I did take! We got to Pat's - and it was JUST like the Food Channel's program!! The line stretched out into the road, and Geno's across the street had the same sized line! Nancy and I were a little nervous about the ordering - Janine was fine, since she used to live nearby! Luckily - they provide you with written instructions!! Tara held our table, while the rest of us went to brave the line! They have lots of pictures of past celebrities who've eaten there - some ballerina even left a pair of her old toe shoes - I had to get a shot of these for my Jennie! I listened to Janine place her order - then followed the rules - I'll have a mushroom cheese steak wit - Provolone - Yay!! I did it right - in about 20 seconds - my sandwich was at the window, and my change was in my hand! They really do slap them together! Then we headed into the OTHER line to order drinks and fries - Nancy and I decided to share an order of cheesy fries - since we didn't have any "Whiz" on our sandwiches - when in Philly.....

It totally cracked me up how everyone was eating their sandwiches in line waiting for their drinks! There really is an art to the Philly Cheese Steak! I remembered I was supposed to grab napkins as souvenirs for the Fire Explorers back home - they wanted Cheese Steaks, but agreed to settle for napkins - since they wouldn't survive the trip home! (Unlike Nancy's boys - who wanted the real thing!) What - they only had plain old cheap white school type napkins - NO LOGO!!! Well - so much for that idea!! We went back to the table, and squeezed in to enjoy the cheese steaks. At the risk of being flamed by all you Philly Passporters - I wasn't really impressed - it really wasn't any different than a cheese steak from our local sub shop here in Northern NH!!! I don't know what I was expecting! It was still a fun experience though!! Since I couldn't get any napkins - we took pictures of each other in front of Pat's with our Pat's drink cups! Then we headed back to the Tara mobile - to find our home away from home for the night.

[CRCrazy]

Walking back to the truck, I couldn't resist taking pictures of some more funky Philly art - everywhere you look, there are murals on the sides of the brick buildings! There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the subject matter. There was one building that was covered in broken bits of glass and pottery! Okay - weird art lesson over for now!

Well - as you know - we had just a little adventure finding our hotel - the Philly streets are narrow - and people were parked in the middle of them! Unlike Boston, Philly is laid out on a grid, so with Lynn as the trusty navigator, we were able to locate the Crowne Plaza pretty easily. We dropped the Tara mobile off in the parking garage, and went to check in. I asked the desk clerk for connecting rooms if possible, or adjoining if not. We weren't exactly quiet even then, so imagine my surprise when he said there weren't any connecting rooms, but he had put us next to each other, and gave me two envelopes with keys to rooms on the 18th floor. We headed up to check things out - and yep - it was the QUIET ZONE! No housekeeping or maintenance between 9 pm and 10 am, please no banging of doors, or loud singing in the shower!!! I AM SERIOUS!! After we opened up both rooms and checked things out - we got down to serious Passporter business! BIRTHDAY present time!! I hadn't mailed out Tara's gift, so I needed to lighten up my suitcase! It was a little AKL away from WDW - a bottle of the wine they serve in the concierge lounge, some wine charms and glasses, an African mask, and a relaxation CD (couldn't find any good African rhythmic music at home - I LOVE my Jabula CD!) - oh, and a puppy for good measure!! I also handed out some little party favors for our girls weekend out - Princess Bubble Wands for everyone! Tara also handed out lovely little goody bags for everyone - aren't Passporters just the most fun! After freshening up a minute, we decided to go out and walk around Center City - before everything closed up!

When we left the hotel - right outside the pub (which we would become better acquainted with later that night!!) was a recreation of the traditional English phone booth! I made the girls stuff themselves in - in honor of all those goofy pictures in the UK section of Epcot! We didn't have time to go down to the Historic District, so we just walked around enjoying the sites - Hard Rock was our first stop - and I had to get Jennie a cute little T-shirt - she has a collection of Hard Rock clothes! We saw some really cool old architecture and some more funky art stuff - who ever commissioned a 35 foot clothespin?????

It was a gorgeous February afternoon in Philadelphia, and I don't think we ever stopped talking! Outside the Hard Rock, there were bunches of street vendors selling unlicensed Eagles gear (EVERYTHING in this city was totally focused on the Eagles!!!) Tara wanted to buy one of the pink hats in the worst way, and we finally found a guy selling them - he had 3 left - and Nancy and I decided to join Tara - sure - we are hard core Pats fans, but the you've gotta admire that Eagle spirit!!

The Reading Terminal Market was just a fun place to be!! It was starting to close up for the afternoon - the Amish people had to head back to their farms...for milking....

Lynn spotted a cool Amish version of our favorite mouse's girlfriend! They even had a pressed penny machine - but I didn't have any coins in my pockets (airplane scanners, don't ya know!) but we all gave thanks for that little Disney moment. I did buy some postcards for my boys in class with all the traditional Philadelphia landmarks on them - we just finished a unit on the Revolutionary War era. I also bought a little brass Liberty bell model. When I emerged from the PA store - I found Nancy drooling in the kitchen shop! Yes - she was in love - with Mr. Whiskie!! Poor Nancy - she wasn't able to get her Amish cookbook - but thank heavens, she did come home with her new man!!

It was starting to get late, and the market was winding down for the day, so we headed back to the hotel to freshen up for our special dinner at Ralph's. We split up into our 2 rooms, and Nancy, Janine, and I just kind of vegged, checking out the room, and freshened up, and we THOUGHT Tara and Lynn were doing the same - but Tara was busy down in the pub, corrupting minors!!

When she came back up - she and Lynn headed over to our room, where Tara was bemoaning the smell of cigarette smoke in her hair - Mango Mandarin foo to the rescue! I spritzed her with the Foo of the week body spray - no more smoky smell! Gotta love the Foo!

Be back soon with my take on our dinner at Ralph's!

[luvnwdwgal]

Great updates you guys!!! DH and I went shopping tonight at the Mall, and went into the Kitchen Collection, where I found......Mr. Whiskie!!!
Hurry with more!!

[BostonTeaParty]

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When I emerged from the PA store - I found Nancy drooling in the kitchen shop! Yes - she was in love - with Mr. Whiskie!! Poor Nancy - she wasn't able to get her Amish cookbook - but thank heavens, she did come home with her new man!!

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Marie, thanks for all the great photos! Even though it's only been a week, it brings back a lot of memories. I totally forgot about squishing into the phone booth! How funny was that??

[JoanW]

Oh I should have come up the night before by myself for the slumber party. And Tara, you can be my roommate anytime. I have earplugs.

[GoofyMom]

Hey, Nancy! What's the idea of picking on the Canadian Divas? However, I do have to say how much I am in agreement with you and Lynn about Celine -- blech... (sorry, I kinda like Shania's nasal whine... )

These are all great updates -- I'm really enjoying reading everybody's updates! And I'm looking forward to more!

P.S. Mental note to self: Must match Tara wobbly for wobbly during the Gr8 MomDaughter Trip so she doesn't keep me up all night when we're roomies! Tara, I'll hold your hair back, if you'll hold back mine! <Wait -- Public Service Announcement: Please drink responsibly! >

[DopeyGirl]

Again, you are all too funny!!!

So, Tara got "the flu", eh? Funny how those things just kind of sneak up on you . . .

[chezp]

Oh wow - I am just loving the way everyone's contributing their own parts to this story, it's so Thanks everyone - Marie in particular - for bringing back some great memories of Philly. It is so wonderful to see all your photos - and I have to laugh at the British phonebox, especially as it says Elephant and Castle. Believe it or not, that's where I studied in London for a year! How weird is that?

More please!