Philly Visit

A much deserved vacation coincided with my niece’s joyous grad school graduation from her prestigious genetic counseling program. Although I only took a few days off, I felt refreshed rather than drained by the time I returned home.

On my first day of vacation, which was Friday morning, I took my time before hitting the road to VA. I leisurely blogged, picked up some toiletries and visited Dad.

Once I left Dad’s, I drove about an hour to an outlet shopping center. Despite the numerous shops, I beelined to one shoe store, bought a comfortable pair of heels, then resumed traveling after a pit stop for fast food.

By the time I reached my sister’s house, they already had my takeout order waiting for me: shrimp and grits with a side of baked brussel sprouts. The description doesn’t do justice to the delicious seasoning that enhanced the meal.

Fortunately, we didn’t leave the next morning as early as my sister had planned. My niece had asked her parents to come later because she had several errands to complete. Suited me and my other niece and nephew just fine.

By the time we reached Philly, we were too early to check into our hotel and to late for breakfast, so we had lunch at the downtown market. One could lose oneself in that market. My vegan niece got her food, then the rest of us went to an oyster bar–except for my nephew, who I learned hated big city crowds, and remained in the car.

The downside to having wonderfully unscheduled blocks of time is not knowing when you’re going to have your next meal. I made sure to eat to my heart’s content, but not to stuff myself. A practice I should adopt even when I’m not on vacation. Even so, we walked so much during this trip, I didn’t feel sluggish once the vacation was over.

By the time we checked into the hotel, my niece was ready to be picked up. We swung by her place first, followed by the hotel. From the brief crowds that I saw at both the market and then in the incredibly long line at the hotel, I concluded that people were in Philly for more than just graduation. All the girls and women in sequins gave me my first clue.

The real reason for the buzzing crowd: Taylor Swift’s weekend concerts. That also explained why hotel rooms were jacked up and fully booked.

Instead of queuing to check in, we left our things in the hotel luggage room, so we could make our dinner reservation at a vegan restaurant. I felt uncomfortable leaving my backpack, which contained both my iPad and laptop. Everything important was saved to the cloud, but still. The only comforting thought was at least my backpack wasn’t checked luggage at “Flintstone Airline,” a discount airline that had seats that didn’t recline unless you upgraded. Plus, they had lightened my load by knifing my luggage and stealing a designer purse. I’ve never flown them again.

The vegan restaurant had a horror movie theme from the drinks to the food, the decor and B-movies from the black and white era on a long loop. The food was well-seasoned, the drinks deliciously blended, complete with horror movie names. I don’t remember the name of my cocktail, but I remember I had vampire tacos, ironic because none of the ingredients could have bled.

We left the restaurant with a large paper bag of leftovers. Since we were on foot, we couldn’t ditch the leftovers in a car or at the hotel before reaching our second destination for the evening: a speakeasy.

My niece had told me about this place before my visit. From the street, it was a functioning barbershop during the day. It was empty and spotless when we visited. The door guy, who looked like some average pedestrian just hanging out on the street, assured us that the place was open. We walked through the barbershop, exited via a backdoor, then went up the stairs to the speakeasy bar.

My niece was concerned about whether they’d allow our large takeout bag. I shared my go-to strategy for such occasions: keep walking like you know what you’re doing until the screaming starts. Since no one yelled at us about the bag, which my nephew, who was toward the back of our group was holding by the handles such that one couldn’t readily see it, we followed the hostess to a big circular booth. While she addressed my sister and her husband at one end of the booth, the rest of us casually draped our cardigans onto the leftover bag. Out of sight.

By the time we returned to the hotel, all the Swifties were gone, but my electronics weren’t. I promptly put them into the room safe, which I locked Sunday morning when we went to breakfast.

Joining us for breakfast was my sister’s stepson, who had taken a redeye from CA. He definitely played the redeyed part. I thought he’d totally surrender to sleep deprivation by putting his head down on the table. Yet he manned up, propping his head on his fist, supported by a firm elbow kickstand on the table.

Over breakfast, my niece ran through some possible touristy things that we could do. “Wanna see The Liberty Bell?” she asked the table. Without looking up from his phone, my nephew replied, “What does it do?” After an outburst of laughter, we didn’t visit our most famous bell.

Since we rode to the breakfast place, we ditched our leftovers in the car, then walked to U Penn on the pretext of my niece giving us a guided tour. In reality, she returned two library books. That brief excursion was enough for me. Study libraries have definitely changed. There was a study desk atop of a stationary bike, but what I found most impressive were the study booths, where library users could bring food and still plug in their devices from the outlet hub, conveniently located in the middle of the table.

Next stop: the Art Museum AKA The Rocky Steps. Only three of us walked up the steps. The rest were content to only walk up the first flight to take a group picture, then get ice cream. One day, I may actually enter the museum.

Once we returned to the hotel, I optimistically thought I’d be able to chill until dinner. My sister had other ideas. Despite the hordes of clothes and shoes she has at home, there’s never a shopping opportunity that she passes up. I was voluntold that I’d be her shopping buddy…something her adult kids call a “sibling excursion.”

All I was going to do was give her my employee retail pharmacy discount card since she needed to buy aloe vera gel. That was the lure. We ended up going to two other stores, which happen to be on en route to the pharmacy.

I must have been in a weird mood because I actually bought some things. I’d been wanting to replace my cheap fanny pack, but I wasn’t willing to pay hundreds for fanny pack with the designer’s name all over it. Fortunately, I found one a tenth of the price, no visible designer’s name and all leather. Only the color was wrong. I love black accessories, but leather tan will do.

I barely had a nap before time to walk to our next destination. My niece was very strategic with her hotel choice since we could walk to nearly everything. Not only is walking great exercise, but it’s wonderful way to absorb the local flavor. The route we took to the bar, which hosted her cohort’s pizza and beer open bar mixer, however, was more than we’d bargained for.

We’d passed by a few unhoused people along all of our walks, but on this excursion, I held my breath during one stretch. That experience reminded me how most societies don’t have a working solution to shelter people nor enough shower/toilet facilities. One of the many challenges is having a bathing/hygiene strategy.

In a few minutes, we’d arrived to another reality where 17 students of an elite institution and their families had gathered to celebrate their upcoming graduation. For once, I was content to merely be introduced as the aunt, not caring a bit about networking.

After the two-hour event was over, the bar itself started to close down. We took a different walking route back to the hotel. From there, my niece got a ride share back to her place since her morning started much earlier than any of us cared for.

She attended the big graduation ceremony with the undergrads, including one of President Biden’s granddaughters. However, we literally met her on a street corner after parking in a nearby garage to walk (of course!) to a much smaller venue for the genetic counseling cohort graduation.

That ceremony was livestreamed, which meant that my other sister and parents saw us as we entered the room. My favorite part was hearing a blurb about each graduate as they were called up individually.

As now was the well-established routine, we walked a lot before regrouping and relaxing at the hotel. We dined at an upscale national Italian restaurant, where I’d eaten at in Denver and Austin. Initially, I thought our party of 8, which included my niece’s mentee who was in her first year of the genetic counseling program, would get our own private room. Instead, we were the largest table in a small room where three other smaller tables were. Nonetheless, our energy pervaded throughout. I’d like to say that given how our average age was around 35, we weren’t rowdy, but that’s from an insider’s perspective.

Apparently my weird shopping mood continued. I bought two books, which focused on two different aspects of screenwriting. One dealt with all things about script formatting while the other dealt with all things to creatively develop the story. Then, I renewed my Austin Public Library card, which I had to pay for since I was no longer a resident. Very much worth the investment since my present local library doesn’t have the extensive ebook/audiobook collection as APL.

Not that I needed justification to spend my own money, but I considered those three purchases to investments to making my first real short film versus a spur of the moment in the pandemic short.