Alan Hunt 2012
Thursday:
So I landed in Philly at about 5:30pm on Thursday and ended up having a luggage crisis, wasn't that nice?
Once I left the airport, I was easily able to hop onto the subway system to take me downtown. I was staying at the Apple Hostels of Philadelphia which was located, seriously, like five minutes from the Liberty Bell/tourist stuff. It was an awesome hostel! Sheets, blanket, pillow and towel were provided when checking in, along with a laminated city map. Personal lamp and plugs at each bed. Free wi-fi, also computers where Internet time could be purchased. Full kitchen with fridge/freezer, vending machines for snacks and sodas. Free tea, coffee, hot chocolate all day and cereal in the mornings. All for the wonderful price of $34 a night. I've stayed in hostels before (one in New York City and one in Paris), this was like the best hostel ever.
I made calls for about an hour or so to the different airport, trying to be a squeaky wheel and get my bag tracked down. I started my period, always a possibility with me, pads had been packed but were with the missing luggage. So I headed out to find pads and dinner.
I ordered a Philly cheesesteak, with cheese whiz, and it was SO freaking good. ♥ At this point I was stressed out, crampy, and had a headache so it was lights out at 11pm.
Friday:
I woke up at 2am when drunk people, leaving a nearby bar, got loud in the streets. Once I was up, I couldn't go back to sleep so I drank a few glasses of tea and read for a bit. I checked out of the hostel by 8am and stashed my stuff in their luggage room (check out is 11am and things can be stowed until 8pm) and then I headed out to explore the city. I did a free tour of Independence Hall, checked out Declaration House, Congress Hall, the Liberty Bell, the President's House, the Independence Visitor Center all while decked out in a leather jacket and plaid pajama bottoms. Man, people are so judgmental! By 11am, Heather had arrived in Philadelphia and was on her way to the Amtrak station so I started making my way there. We easily found each other, which surprised me. She had turned off her phone since it costs a fortune to use in the US, so I'm glad we didn't have any trouble finding each other. We grabbed lunch and waited for our train, there was free wi-fi so we both surfed the net on our iphones. Once we boarded the train, Heather surfed and I slept. And then we were at Penn Station!
We had decided to grab a cab to the hotel so we didn't look like tourist idiots dragging out suitcases down 8th Avenue, although we easily could have walked to our hotel. We were staying at the Milford Plaza Hotel, the price of the room included continental breakfast at a restaurant a couple of doors down. Now, for being located in the heart of the theatre district and only a few block from Time Square, the price of the hotel wasn't bad. It had a bar and a gift shop in the lobby and they happily held a package, that had arrived for me on Wednesday, which I retrieved with no problems when I was checking in on Friday. However, you had to pay for access to the wi-fi and you had to pay to use the computers in the business center. There was an in-room safe, the radio/alarm clock had an ipod docking station, there was a computer desk, and they provided a noise/light blocking shade for the windows. And the elevators had assigned floors that you went to, our floor was assign elevator H. From the lobby, you entered the floor number you wanted and it told you which elevator to wait at. In order to travel other floors, from your own floor, you needed a PIN. This was a problem since the one and only ice machine was on the 18th floor, so people had to travel to the lobby and then to the 18th floor, back to the lobby and then to their floor. And, sometimes, there was a long wait for an elevator to your floor.
Once we got checked-in, we decided to rest since Heather had been traveling all night and I had been awake since 2am. We never actually ended up sleeping and eventually got up to get ready. Heather loaned me a pair of black leggings and one of Jon's t-shirts and I still had my leather jacket and dress shoes (they were in my 2nd, smaller carry-on which I had) and we went out to the Bourbon Street Bar and Grille for dinner before going to see Other Desert Cities.
Bourbon Street Bar and Grille:
Heather ordered the Three Little Pigs Po'Boy
I ordered: Red Beans and Rice and a Spiked Arnold Palmer.
We split an order of Beignets with a Honey dipping sauce.
The food was excellent, the drink was disgusting. I took two sips max and had the waitress remove it. We were still charged for the drink, ugh.
Other Desert Cities:
The play was good, it kind of reminded me about my family. The cast was, um, uneven I guess I'd say.
Poor Stockard Channing, I love her, but she did not do well the night we saw her. She didn't really have much to work with, her character was a tough woman who didn't tolerate weakness and she plays that way through the whole play. But Heather remarked, that when the other actors were doing their lines, Stockard did a great job of imitating a statute and that at times it looked like she wasn't even mentally present on stage. She's received rave reviews for her performance which I do not understand at all, perhaps she was having an off night.
Stacy Keach was one of the best, there was a scene where he got angry and scared me so much I was looking for a way to hide myself. Seriously. He reminded me of my father when he gets angry.
Rachel Griffiths was very brusque which did not endear her character to me, I felt there would have been more sympathy for her character if she'd been played less brusquely. (Rachel has since left the production and her role was taken over by the actress who originated the role off-broadway)
Justin Kirk was a waste of space, seriously. Easily the worst actor in the play.
Judith Light was 1) unrecognizable and 2) absolutely amazing and 3) the best part of the play. Loved her, so much.
Saturday:
Sometime late Friday my suitcase had been put on a flight to NYC and was then couriered over to the hotel, so when I woke up, I called down and had my bag brought up. ♥
I took a shower and got dressed in clean clothes and we headed to the National September 11th Memorial. The museum is not yet complete but the memorial is, tickets are free but must be reserved in advance. And security is tight. You have to show you ticket about 50 times *before* you get to the metal detectors and then once more afterwards. It was incredibly moving. They have kiosks for visitors to located names on the panels but we used an iphone app to located Andrew Zucker (my 11th grade history teacher's cousin). It was cloudy and rainy which seemed appropriate. Afterwards we found free wi-fi so that Heather could Skype with her son.
We had not had breakfast so we were very hungry, we tried getting to Katz Deli but there is subway construction and we were blocked at every turn. We did, inadvertently, find Alexander Hamilton's grave. We created kind of a stir, when I exclaimed to Heather "omg, that's Alexander Hamilton's grave" and started snapping pictures. Suddenly, everyone else started snapping them too. Which we thought was funny and Heather wondered if people even knew who he was. We needed to get back to the hotel to change for our matinee show, so we grabbed a whole cheese pizza from Patzeria Perfect Pizza. So yum.
That afternoon we were going to see Wit, starring Cynthia Nixon. About halfway through the play, I ended up falling asleep for about 20 minutes. They play was so...dense? I don't know, it was good but I just couldn't keep my eyes open.
****The Manhattan Theatre Club and Lincoln Center Theatre offer $30 tickets, even for orchestra seats. They were sold out of the orchestra level seats for Other Desert Cities but we nabbed them for Wit. I could have rushed for a student price ticket for Seminar or we could have stood in line at TKTS for 50% off tickets but since we went to NYC for Alan, we just used a coupon to get 30% off regular price.****
Afterwards we went to picked up our Gray Line bus tickets, stopped at Duane Reade and then walked passed the theatre again. As we did, Cynthia Nixon was coming out and we were able to get our playbills signed. ♥
After that we headed to Time Square and went to visit the M&M World and the Hershey's store, both stores were packed and so hot you got lightheaded. We tried to go to Toys R Us, but they were just as crowded. We ended up grabbing dinner at McDonald's because the Shake Shack had a line out the door and down the street. We ran up to our room to change clothes and then headed to the Golden Theatre, the stage door for the theatre was right next to the receiving entrance for the hotel so we did not have far to go at all.
Starring in Seminar was Alan Rickman (of course) but also Jerry O'Connell, Lily Rabe, Hamish Linklater, and Hettienne Park. Seminar is a comedy and it was easily the best of the three plays we saw. It was funny and the entire cast was excellent. We waited at the stage door and were lucky enough to get four of the five cast members autographs. We went back to hotel on a close encounter Alan high. We had enjoyed the play so much that we paid to use the computer, and purchased tickets to see Sunday's matinee. We once again sat in the orchestra level but Heather sat on stage right and I sat on stage left. We did the stage door thing again and managed to get the fifth cast member's autograph, so now my playbill has all five. My second playbill was going to be saved for Alan only but Hamish ended up signing it too (he took it and then asked and I didn't want to offend, so...).
Back to Saturday night. After going back to the hotel to buy tickets and change, we went out to O’Flaherty’s Ale House and ordered some food and drinks. Heather ordered mozzarella sticks and Fish and Chips and I got a side salad and Shepard's Pie and we both got a Peach Bellini. Food was yum, the drinks were strong we Heather ordered a sprite and we doctored them. We had a table by the fire place and we toasted Grandma Annette and her disappearing ways, while Heather cursed her for passing those ways onto me. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped off at Junior's for dessert. Heather ordered the Chocolate Chocolate Cake a la mode and I got the Strawberry Shortcake. They're known for their cheesecakes, so perhaps we should have stuck with that. I don't think we ended up in bed until about 3am.
Sunday:
We finally made it to Daniela's Trattoria for our free continental breakfast which consisted of orange juice, tea, a croissant, and a plate of fresh sliced fruit. Afterwards we hopped the Gary Line's Uptown Loop bus tour and explored the city atop a double decker bus. We got off at FAO Schwarz were we got to look at some crazy candy, seriously they had huge boxes of stuff and all the different kind of candies that have ever existed (at least it seemed that way). I got to play on the floor piano from Big, which carries a not so little price tag of $250,000. I totally want one. Don't know how to play the piano but I'd totally learn. Two employees put on show exactly like this one. We also looked the the Lego section which had life-size Captain Jack Sparrow and Indian Jones, it was neat. They also had Dippin' Dots, bought some! If you have never heard of Dippin' Dots, click the link because you're missing out! Heather and I got separated along the way and found each other again in the Harry Potter section. We left and went over to Trump Tower so that Heather could buy Jon a Trump bar. We needed to get back to the hotel to change for the matinee, so we headed back to the hotel. After the play and stage door, we went and hung outside of Bar Centrale. It is located right next door to Joe Allen but there's no sign, it looks like a walk up entrance to apartments or something. It is a bar where cast and crew from the plays go after work and where tourists in the know go to celebrity sightsee. Heather wouldn't man up and go inside with me, so we literally hung out outside chatting and then went off to catch the Gray Line's night loop bus tour. The top of the bus offers the best view, so we braved the cold (30 degrees and windy) and rode on top. Towards the end, I was so numb, that I had to go down and inside but Heather braved the top the entire time. Afterwards, we finally got to go to the Shake Shack for dinner. Everyone raves about the place but if I had stood in one of those long ass lines to get in, I would have been really mad. We had no line, so it worked out okay. The food, it wasn't all that, In n Out Burger is so much better! After that, I was still frozen, needed to pack etc so so headed back to the hotel while Heather went looking for souvenirs. I decided I was too tired to pack so, once Heather was back, I went to bed while she packed and took a hot shower.
Monday:
I finished my packing and while Heather got up and dressed, I went down to the gift shop and purchased souvenirs. We went to go see if we could explore Toys R Us but they didn't open until 10am, so instead we went to a Broadway gift shop where Heather said Erin (someone we both knew from YTDaW) worked. Seminar has no merchandise which made us very sad but I did find a DVD release of Memphis, which excited me because 1) they're never usually released while they play is still running and 2) they're rare. Memphis was one of the plays I saw in NYC with Grandma, so it was one of the last things she saw on Broadway. I totally bought it. It was while we were checking out that I asked the cashier if he knew when Erin was working, he pointed us to the other shop they have just across the way, he also pointed us to the *one* thing in the shop that had Seminar on it (a card with the marquee of the Golden Theatre on it). So we went and chatted with Erin for a bit. Heather mentioned that we needed to be leaving but I thought we still had 15 minutes to spend with her, so we kept chatting. Everything would have been fine if 15 minutes was all we ended up staying we left after 20 minutes which involved a hectic rush to the hotel to grab out bags and get a cab to Penn Station. We literally stood by the train for five minutes and then watched it pull out. Ugh. We exchanged our tickets for a later train and headed to the food court. I grabbed a hot dog, Heather a lemonade and we stayed put.
We got into Philly and rushed off to the Bourse at Independence Mall so that Heather could have a Philly cheesesteak. We headed across the street to where the Liberty Bell was, we had luggage so we each took a turn waiting with the luggage while the other went into the building to see it. And then it was time to head to the airport. We were in different terminals, so we said a very quick goodbye as I hopped off the train. I made it through security, despite being stopped so that my shoes could tested for explosives or something (they wiped them with a wet wipe and tested it). I had an hour and a half before my flight and so I decided to surf the net and charging the iphone, at 5:20 I realized I could get to the other terminals and headed off to find Heather. We chatted, she used my phone, and I was exhausted from walking from Terminal A to Terminal D so I requested assitance at 5:50pm. My flight was at 6:20pm and in Terminal A so I thought they'd use one of the electric carts but they sent a wheel chair, karma was kicking in and my leg had begun to actually hurt and off we went. I got to my gate at 6:18 and boarded. Do you notice a pattern here? I *always* underestimate how long it will take to do things.
I landed at 10:30pm, I had checked my luggage so I waited to baggage claim. It didn't get lost this time :). The parking lot shuttle came and I went off and retrieved my car and began the 90 minute drive home. I got home at 1am, Heather made it back to her home a bit after me (there was some concern she wouldn't make it at all due to a weather advisory). And thus our Alan hunt 2012 adventure came to an end.
The End.
So I landed in Philly at about 5:30pm on Thursday and ended up having a luggage crisis, wasn't that nice?
Once I left the airport, I was easily able to hop onto the subway system to take me downtown. I was staying at the Apple Hostels of Philadelphia which was located, seriously, like five minutes from the Liberty Bell/tourist stuff. It was an awesome hostel! Sheets, blanket, pillow and towel were provided when checking in, along with a laminated city map. Personal lamp and plugs at each bed. Free wi-fi, also computers where Internet time could be purchased. Full kitchen with fridge/freezer, vending machines for snacks and sodas. Free tea, coffee, hot chocolate all day and cereal in the mornings. All for the wonderful price of $34 a night. I've stayed in hostels before (one in New York City and one in Paris), this was like the best hostel ever.
I made calls for about an hour or so to the different airport, trying to be a squeaky wheel and get my bag tracked down. I started my period, always a possibility with me, pads had been packed but were with the missing luggage. So I headed out to find pads and dinner.
I ordered a Philly cheesesteak, with cheese whiz, and it was SO freaking good. ♥ At this point I was stressed out, crampy, and had a headache so it was lights out at 11pm.
Friday:
I woke up at 2am when drunk people, leaving a nearby bar, got loud in the streets. Once I was up, I couldn't go back to sleep so I drank a few glasses of tea and read for a bit. I checked out of the hostel by 8am and stashed my stuff in their luggage room (check out is 11am and things can be stowed until 8pm) and then I headed out to explore the city. I did a free tour of Independence Hall, checked out Declaration House, Congress Hall, the Liberty Bell, the President's House, the Independence Visitor Center all while decked out in a leather jacket and plaid pajama bottoms. Man, people are so judgmental! By 11am, Heather had arrived in Philadelphia and was on her way to the Amtrak station so I started making my way there. We easily found each other, which surprised me. She had turned off her phone since it costs a fortune to use in the US, so I'm glad we didn't have any trouble finding each other. We grabbed lunch and waited for our train, there was free wi-fi so we both surfed the net on our iphones. Once we boarded the train, Heather surfed and I slept. And then we were at Penn Station!
We had decided to grab a cab to the hotel so we didn't look like tourist idiots dragging out suitcases down 8th Avenue, although we easily could have walked to our hotel. We were staying at the Milford Plaza Hotel, the price of the room included continental breakfast at a restaurant a couple of doors down. Now, for being located in the heart of the theatre district and only a few block from Time Square, the price of the hotel wasn't bad. It had a bar and a gift shop in the lobby and they happily held a package, that had arrived for me on Wednesday, which I retrieved with no problems when I was checking in on Friday. However, you had to pay for access to the wi-fi and you had to pay to use the computers in the business center. There was an in-room safe, the radio/alarm clock had an ipod docking station, there was a computer desk, and they provided a noise/light blocking shade for the windows. And the elevators had assigned floors that you went to, our floor was assign elevator H. From the lobby, you entered the floor number you wanted and it told you which elevator to wait at. In order to travel other floors, from your own floor, you needed a PIN. This was a problem since the one and only ice machine was on the 18th floor, so people had to travel to the lobby and then to the 18th floor, back to the lobby and then to their floor. And, sometimes, there was a long wait for an elevator to your floor.
Once we got checked-in, we decided to rest since Heather had been traveling all night and I had been awake since 2am. We never actually ended up sleeping and eventually got up to get ready. Heather loaned me a pair of black leggings and one of Jon's t-shirts and I still had my leather jacket and dress shoes (they were in my 2nd, smaller carry-on which I had) and we went out to the Bourbon Street Bar and Grille for dinner before going to see Other Desert Cities.
Bourbon Street Bar and Grille:
Heather ordered the Three Little Pigs Po'Boy
I ordered: Red Beans and Rice and a Spiked Arnold Palmer.
We split an order of Beignets with a Honey dipping sauce.
The food was excellent, the drink was disgusting. I took two sips max and had the waitress remove it. We were still charged for the drink, ugh.
Other Desert Cities:
The play was good, it kind of reminded me about my family. The cast was, um, uneven I guess I'd say.
Poor Stockard Channing, I love her, but she did not do well the night we saw her. She didn't really have much to work with, her character was a tough woman who didn't tolerate weakness and she plays that way through the whole play. But Heather remarked, that when the other actors were doing their lines, Stockard did a great job of imitating a statute and that at times it looked like she wasn't even mentally present on stage. She's received rave reviews for her performance which I do not understand at all, perhaps she was having an off night.
Stacy Keach was one of the best, there was a scene where he got angry and scared me so much I was looking for a way to hide myself. Seriously. He reminded me of my father when he gets angry.
Rachel Griffiths was very brusque which did not endear her character to me, I felt there would have been more sympathy for her character if she'd been played less brusquely. (Rachel has since left the production and her role was taken over by the actress who originated the role off-broadway)
Justin Kirk was a waste of space, seriously. Easily the worst actor in the play.
Judith Light was 1) unrecognizable and 2) absolutely amazing and 3) the best part of the play. Loved her, so much.
Saturday:
Sometime late Friday my suitcase had been put on a flight to NYC and was then couriered over to the hotel, so when I woke up, I called down and had my bag brought up. ♥
I took a shower and got dressed in clean clothes and we headed to the National September 11th Memorial. The museum is not yet complete but the memorial is, tickets are free but must be reserved in advance. And security is tight. You have to show you ticket about 50 times *before* you get to the metal detectors and then once more afterwards. It was incredibly moving. They have kiosks for visitors to located names on the panels but we used an iphone app to located Andrew Zucker (my 11th grade history teacher's cousin). It was cloudy and rainy which seemed appropriate. Afterwards we found free wi-fi so that Heather could Skype with her son.
We had not had breakfast so we were very hungry, we tried getting to Katz Deli but there is subway construction and we were blocked at every turn. We did, inadvertently, find Alexander Hamilton's grave. We created kind of a stir, when I exclaimed to Heather "omg, that's Alexander Hamilton's grave" and started snapping pictures. Suddenly, everyone else started snapping them too. Which we thought was funny and Heather wondered if people even knew who he was. We needed to get back to the hotel to change for our matinee show, so we grabbed a whole cheese pizza from Patzeria Perfect Pizza. So yum.
That afternoon we were going to see Wit, starring Cynthia Nixon. About halfway through the play, I ended up falling asleep for about 20 minutes. They play was so...dense? I don't know, it was good but I just couldn't keep my eyes open.
****The Manhattan Theatre Club and Lincoln Center Theatre offer $30 tickets, even for orchestra seats. They were sold out of the orchestra level seats for Other Desert Cities but we nabbed them for Wit. I could have rushed for a student price ticket for Seminar or we could have stood in line at TKTS for 50% off tickets but since we went to NYC for Alan, we just used a coupon to get 30% off regular price.****
Afterwards we went to picked up our Gray Line bus tickets, stopped at Duane Reade and then walked passed the theatre again. As we did, Cynthia Nixon was coming out and we were able to get our playbills signed. ♥
After that we headed to Time Square and went to visit the M&M World and the Hershey's store, both stores were packed and so hot you got lightheaded. We tried to go to Toys R Us, but they were just as crowded. We ended up grabbing dinner at McDonald's because the Shake Shack had a line out the door and down the street. We ran up to our room to change clothes and then headed to the Golden Theatre, the stage door for the theatre was right next to the receiving entrance for the hotel so we did not have far to go at all.
Starring in Seminar was Alan Rickman (of course) but also Jerry O'Connell, Lily Rabe, Hamish Linklater, and Hettienne Park. Seminar is a comedy and it was easily the best of the three plays we saw. It was funny and the entire cast was excellent. We waited at the stage door and were lucky enough to get four of the five cast members autographs. We went back to hotel on a close encounter Alan high. We had enjoyed the play so much that we paid to use the computer, and purchased tickets to see Sunday's matinee. We once again sat in the orchestra level but Heather sat on stage right and I sat on stage left. We did the stage door thing again and managed to get the fifth cast member's autograph, so now my playbill has all five. My second playbill was going to be saved for Alan only but Hamish ended up signing it too (he took it and then asked and I didn't want to offend, so...).
Back to Saturday night. After going back to the hotel to buy tickets and change, we went out to O’Flaherty’s Ale House and ordered some food and drinks. Heather ordered mozzarella sticks and Fish and Chips and I got a side salad and Shepard's Pie and we both got a Peach Bellini. Food was yum, the drinks were strong we Heather ordered a sprite and we doctored them. We had a table by the fire place and we toasted Grandma Annette and her disappearing ways, while Heather cursed her for passing those ways onto me. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped off at Junior's for dessert. Heather ordered the Chocolate Chocolate Cake a la mode and I got the Strawberry Shortcake. They're known for their cheesecakes, so perhaps we should have stuck with that. I don't think we ended up in bed until about 3am.
Sunday:
We finally made it to Daniela's Trattoria for our free continental breakfast which consisted of orange juice, tea, a croissant, and a plate of fresh sliced fruit. Afterwards we hopped the Gary Line's Uptown Loop bus tour and explored the city atop a double decker bus. We got off at FAO Schwarz were we got to look at some crazy candy, seriously they had huge boxes of stuff and all the different kind of candies that have ever existed (at least it seemed that way). I got to play on the floor piano from Big, which carries a not so little price tag of $250,000. I totally want one. Don't know how to play the piano but I'd totally learn. Two employees put on show exactly like this one. We also looked the the Lego section which had life-size Captain Jack Sparrow and Indian Jones, it was neat. They also had Dippin' Dots, bought some! If you have never heard of Dippin' Dots, click the link because you're missing out! Heather and I got separated along the way and found each other again in the Harry Potter section. We left and went over to Trump Tower so that Heather could buy Jon a Trump bar. We needed to get back to the hotel to change for the matinee, so we headed back to the hotel. After the play and stage door, we went and hung outside of Bar Centrale. It is located right next door to Joe Allen but there's no sign, it looks like a walk up entrance to apartments or something. It is a bar where cast and crew from the plays go after work and where tourists in the know go to celebrity sightsee. Heather wouldn't man up and go inside with me, so we literally hung out outside chatting and then went off to catch the Gray Line's night loop bus tour. The top of the bus offers the best view, so we braved the cold (30 degrees and windy) and rode on top. Towards the end, I was so numb, that I had to go down and inside but Heather braved the top the entire time. Afterwards, we finally got to go to the Shake Shack for dinner. Everyone raves about the place but if I had stood in one of those long ass lines to get in, I would have been really mad. We had no line, so it worked out okay. The food, it wasn't all that, In n Out Burger is so much better! After that, I was still frozen, needed to pack etc so so headed back to the hotel while Heather went looking for souvenirs. I decided I was too tired to pack so, once Heather was back, I went to bed while she packed and took a hot shower.
Monday:
I finished my packing and while Heather got up and dressed, I went down to the gift shop and purchased souvenirs. We went to go see if we could explore Toys R Us but they didn't open until 10am, so instead we went to a Broadway gift shop where Heather said Erin (someone we both knew from YTDaW) worked. Seminar has no merchandise which made us very sad but I did find a DVD release of Memphis, which excited me because 1) they're never usually released while they play is still running and 2) they're rare. Memphis was one of the plays I saw in NYC with Grandma, so it was one of the last things she saw on Broadway. I totally bought it. It was while we were checking out that I asked the cashier if he knew when Erin was working, he pointed us to the other shop they have just across the way, he also pointed us to the *one* thing in the shop that had Seminar on it (a card with the marquee of the Golden Theatre on it). So we went and chatted with Erin for a bit. Heather mentioned that we needed to be leaving but I thought we still had 15 minutes to spend with her, so we kept chatting. Everything would have been fine if 15 minutes was all we ended up staying we left after 20 minutes which involved a hectic rush to the hotel to grab out bags and get a cab to Penn Station. We literally stood by the train for five minutes and then watched it pull out. Ugh. We exchanged our tickets for a later train and headed to the food court. I grabbed a hot dog, Heather a lemonade and we stayed put.
We got into Philly and rushed off to the Bourse at Independence Mall so that Heather could have a Philly cheesesteak. We headed across the street to where the Liberty Bell was, we had luggage so we each took a turn waiting with the luggage while the other went into the building to see it. And then it was time to head to the airport. We were in different terminals, so we said a very quick goodbye as I hopped off the train. I made it through security, despite being stopped so that my shoes could tested for explosives or something (they wiped them with a wet wipe and tested it). I had an hour and a half before my flight and so I decided to surf the net and charging the iphone, at 5:20 I realized I could get to the other terminals and headed off to find Heather. We chatted, she used my phone, and I was exhausted from walking from Terminal A to Terminal D so I requested assitance at 5:50pm. My flight was at 6:20pm and in Terminal A so I thought they'd use one of the electric carts but they sent a wheel chair, karma was kicking in and my leg had begun to actually hurt and off we went. I got to my gate at 6:18 and boarded. Do you notice a pattern here? I *always* underestimate how long it will take to do things.
I landed at 10:30pm, I had checked my luggage so I waited to baggage claim. It didn't get lost this time :). The parking lot shuttle came and I went off and retrieved my car and began the 90 minute drive home. I got home at 1am, Heather made it back to her home a bit after me (there was some concern she wouldn't make it at all due to a weather advisory). And thus our Alan hunt 2012 adventure came to an end.
The End.