Post by mainstreet on Jul 28, 2018 20:51:38 GMT
I just spent 10 days or thereabouts on the East Coast, specifically in the areas of New York and Philadelphia. I feel a need to document and describe my travels, in part because I don’t want to just repeat myself a bunch of times to all my friends. A lot happened, and it was awesome.
I’m going to take this day by day, just to relive and showcase my experience. While I did take quite a few photographs, I don’t really feel like sharing them on the Internet at this time. Maybe later.
Wednesday, July 18 – The Flight Eastward
Today’s the start of our journey. Get up very early in the morning, not a whole lot of sleep after the extra-inning All-Star Game. At quarter to 5 we’re in our SuperShuttle ride to San Diego International Airport (SAN). Check in at the American Airlines counter, then hop onboard the flight to Philadelphia (PHL). It’s pretty dead this early in the morning, so this whole process goes fairly easily. (SAN does not run at all between 11pm and 5am so we were one of the first people through for our 6:25am flight).
American Airlines planes are… not good. It was cramped – we knew it would be, but… sheesh. I had a “window seat”, which was lame because WING! I was grateful for the small amount of extra room compared to Dad in the middle seat, but I’m bigger as well, so I was more cramped. Also, the promised “meal service” ended up being a pair of biscuits. Not remotely what we thought. We land in PHL and it’s now 3PM or so Eastern and we basically haven’t eaten, except a few minor snacks. Thing is, we have about half an hour to catch our connecting flight. The bus system in the back areas of PHL is nice, allowing us to quickly move from terminal to terminal without having to go through security again. We get on the plane pretty much at the last minute. We didn’t have to run, but we definitely did not have time to eat. A tiny American Eagle/Piedmont Airlines jet to Albany (ALB). At least Dad got the aisle this time, as the smaller jet was only two-wide on the right of the aisle (and one-wide on the left). And the flight was much shorter.
We land in Albany, get our bags, and head to the Enterprise counter. Bit of a walk, but we end up there. We had ordered a mid-size car. We’re big people. Well, they didn’t have a mid-size. So we got upgraded. We got a Cadillac XTS. This is pretty cool. Dad appreciated it much more than I did per se. I liked the comfort and such, but, well, he’s the car person. No question of us sharing the driving at this point, though – he wants to drive this thing, the whole time. Fair enough. We also picked up an EZPass Transponder, as a check of the map reveals there’s pretty much no way to get around the northeast without tolls.
This is Albany. We’re here because it’s one of the closest airports to Cooperstown. No other reason. No need to get fancy. So we’re just staying in a Super 8. We head to dinner – having both effectively missed lunch – right away. Carrabba’s is an okay restaurant, but, eh, I was not impressed. We then go to Target and shop for a bunch of stuff. Despite theoretically having body clocks running on Pacific time, the trip was exhausting, and we crash pretty early, all things considered.
Thursday, July 19 – The Village of Dreams
We get up early, get a quick complimentary breakfast, then get in the Caddy and start heading to the Village of Dreams, the place young boys across America dream of someday going to.
Erm, I’ll just shut up on the poetry here. It’s Cooperstown, of course. The National Baseball Hall of Fame. Google Maps recommends a bit of an unusual interior route driving through several towns and Dad loves the drive. We pull into Cooperstown around 10AM. The weird route means we end up going through back streets for a while, not really knowing what we’re doing, until we eventually hit Chestnut Street and can make our way to the Hall. Parking is a pain, and we end up parking at the nearby Doubleday Field lot and paying a substantial rate to stick around there until around 3, which is our hotel check-in. We walk a couple of blocks and go into the Hall then I realize I forgot my glasses. Go back to the car and get them. NOW go into the Hall. We do the upper floors of the Hall and see lots of cool exhibits. We actually went backwards in the exhibit that theoretically takes you through the history of the game due to crowds. I think the experience might have been even better this way, as you start with the familiar and work your way to the game’s origins. We’re getting hungry, and re-entry is allowed at the Hall – our hands got stamped – so we headed out to grab food.
Lunch at the Back Alley Café is decent. I had a burger, my dad had fish. We got there at the right time, though, as the Bayou Bombers travelball team invaded and took over most of the place right after we got there. Our order got in before all theirs, so we got to eat quickly enough. We then headed back to the Hall and did the main Hall itself, all the plaques of the Hall of Famers. This part might be sort of boring for those that are not already students of the game’s history, but for Dad and I, who’ve built so many SimLeagues Baseball teams, learned so much about the game’s players throughout the game, and so on, it was well worth it.
(If you are a baseball fan but don’t really possess a deep understanding, and plan to head to the Hall, I recommend two things: as we did, do the Hall with the plaques itself last, or near last, so you get the rest of the exhibits first, and a better understanding of history. However, even more so, before you even get there: watch Ken Burns Baseball. All of it. It is simply the best access to baseball history you can get.)
We also get to look a bit at the stuff on broadcasting and such. I get a baseball and a Trevor Hoffman Medallion at the gift shop. My dad gets a pin and a postcard of Tony Gwynn’s plaque.
A good, solid day at the Hall and we now head to our motel. The Mohican is a bit of a limited establishment quite far down the road in Cooperstown, but it was basically the closest room available. It’s a cord-cutter hotel, and Dad is at first disappointed that there’s no live TV service. But it is a smart TV with an internet connection, and… Amazon Prime? …CBS All Access? Well, hello there. Time to introduce my dad to Star Trek: Discovery.
A trip to the Doubleday Café for dinner aside, we get through 7 episodes of Discovery before crashing for the night. As to how we’ll eventually watch the rest, well, I need to work on how to manage that. No further comments on this.
Friday, July 20 – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (of Driving, and the City of Brotherly Love)
The Good: We travel out of Cooperstown, through upstate NY, and it’s simply beautiful. A stop at Denny’s in Oneonta for breakfast, as the Mohican is the one motel on this trip not to provide any, and then we continue on through Binghamton. A backway provided by Google avoids going into Binghamton proper, and we catch the 81 around it and head into Pennsylvania. Drive into Scranton, and head through the old-fashioned brick and mortar of the downtown area of the City of Scranton.
The Bad: Wait, why are we driving into Scranton proper at all? The East is a lot of beltway and it would’ve been incredibly easy to go around it. Well, to explain this, I need to back up a bit. The day before we were just checking out our area when I looked back at our car, and noticed… hey, we got Maryland plates! We got… expired… Maryland plates. This is… not good. I Google up where an Enterprise can be found. There actually was one in Oneonta as well, but a quick drive by that one did not inspire our confidence due to the small size so I just had us continue on to Scranton. We get there and the manager takes a look at it and tells us that the registration is current and not to worry about the failing tags, cops will scan it and it will be fine, rather than pull us over. Okay, fine, good actually, we get to keep the Cadillac, nice. Still, annoying that this had to come up at all, worrying us.
The Good: We go through Scranton and then start our journey on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Pennsylvania is beautiful, just so... green. Similar to upstate NY. I guess rain means green. Between this and NY, I really now understand what “the woods” are. It’s definitely a different feel. (I also saw several squirrels on this trip, also new to me.) Gas and lunch (at Panera Bread) in Allentown (no excuse for spelling Dad’s name wrong on the order here, and indeed they got it right). Also a quick stop to CVS for more stuff. Continue to Philly.
The Bad: Philadelphia Rush Hour traffic on the expressways. Eh, it’s rush hour, what do you expect? Fine, let’s just get off the freeway and…
The Ugly: Holy crap. Philadelphia downtown traffic is THE WORST EVER. No one seems to understand what a lane is, or where you should be stopping or not… We resolve not to drive again in Philly unless we absolutely have to. This was… bad. (Later, in Manhattan… we never drove in Manhattan, but just watching the traffic… it was slow, but it was… not this bad. There is a difference.) There is a subway, fortunately, so we actually don’t have to.
The Good: The Holiday Inn Express Philadelphia-Midtown gives us a nice, spacious room, and we feel quite comfortable. We take a while to unpack, then head down to the subway station.
The Bad: The subway system in Philadelphia is suboptimal. The quick trip cards simply will not scan properly. I had a lot of trouble scanning. After today, I won’t have any more trouble on the Philly subways… but Dad will not at any point after tonight get his scanned correctly the first time. It’s not good.
The Good: We sold the parking passes we paid for and now decide we don’t want to use.
The Bad: This means we turned $40 into $5.
The Good: Citizens Bank Park is a ballpark. We cruise around, he gets a pin, I get a baseball and a scorecard. It’s Philadelphia, let’s do… what a lot of people are doing, and grab a cheesesteak.
The Bad: I mean, the cheesesteak wasn’t *bad*, but I’ve had better at Jersey Mike’s. Very underwhelming. I do not recommend buying Tony Luke’s cheesesteaks. My actual recommendation comes later.
The Good: We have good seats down the first base line. The Padres jump out to a quick 4-0 lead. This feels good.
The Ugly: The Padres… are… ugly bad. Yep, this is a disaster. And we lost. No surprise there.
After the game, we head back to the room without much incident, though we do get confirmation from a couple of locals that the cheesesteaks are by no means representative and that most of the people at the ballgame are “dumb” for buying it.
Saturday, July 21 – Rain, Rain, Go Away
We start our day by making the walk to Independence National Visitors Center to, among other things, get tickets to get into Independence Hall. On the way, I pop into a FedEx Print and Ship Center and deal with a personal business matter that unfortunately could not be put off. (The details aren’t important here, just that this took time.) By the time we get there there’s a fairly long line, and the first tickets available are for a 1:15 tour. We take them, but have several hours to do… something… We end up, on impulse, taking a Big Bus tour of Philadelphia. The tour guide was great. We could have done a hop on/hop off thing with this bus if we’d had time, but we didn’t have that much time on our hands really with the upcoming Independence Hall tour, so we just do a complete loop. Get rained on a bit, but overall have fun.
After the bus tour we head down to a cheesesteak location called Sonny’s at the recommendation of our tour guide, but as much as anything else, this is convenience. No, we’re not going to make the walk all the way to Jim’s, not on any day, etc. Sonny’s is much, much better than the ballpark. The wait was worth it. Get the “loaded” cheesesteak, it is also worth it.
We head towards Independence Hall. Go through security. Security is full of jerks. I don’t want to talk about it. We eventually get in and then do the tour. The tour is honestly underwhelming, it’s basically two rooms, the courtroom setting, and the meeting room. It’s worth doing, free and all that, but actually, the Congress Hall tour, also in the secured zone, but not requiring a ticket to get in, is much better, in my opinion.
We have plenty of time left in the day before the ballgame that night, and thus, make a side trip to the Federal Reserve Bank in Philadelphia for their Money in Motion exhibit. It’s a lot of videos, and our feet are starting to hurt at this point. Standing for videos isn’t exactly our idea of a great time, and so we probably spend less than half an hour in the Fed. Got the free bag of shredded bills though.
It’s a long, hard, exhausting walk back to the hotel in the rain, and I am just simply hurting at this point. It’s raining hard enough to rain out the ballgame. Postponed for 6:05 the next night.
We don’t want to go far in the rain, and end up eating at the Sahara Grill across the street from the hotel. I get a Beef Shish Kabob that doesn’t end up actually coming on the stick, but it’s still delicious and not outrageously priced either. My dad gets some sort of eggplant dish that he also enjoys.
Sunday, July 22 – Here Come the Blisters
Yep, I got a blister on my right foot. Well, this sucks.
Let’s be a little smarter this time. Take the subway into the historic district, way early, to be near the front of the line for the Liberty Bell, which we had skipped yesterday due to excessive lines. We see the Liberty Bell. It’s sort of the thing you have to do in Philly, but once you’ve done it… I mean, it’s just a Bell. Don’t get overly excited. Do get there as early as you can, even though they don’t open until 9. The line will fill up, and it is a secured area.
The next stop for us is the Museum of the American Revolution. It’s a fairly new collection, but in my mind it’s well worth the $24. I was able to hobble around it just fine. I don’t want to be walking long distances – hence the extra subway trips – but I’m not too badly damaged. Nonetheless, that really does mean it’s time to wrap up our journeys through Philly, even though it’s not yet noon.
One more stop: Sonny’s yet again, gotta get that cheesesteak.
Spend the whole afternoon in my hotel room, read a book, read on the computer – things that don’t require me walking. When it’s time, head to the ballgame. Seats out in right field this time.
The Padres suck yet again. Of course, they won game 1 of the doubleheader… the only win was the one we didn’t go to in this series. Back to the hotel and time to crash.
Monday, July 23 – July Showers Bring August Flowers?
After breakfast and checking out, it’s time to get back in the car and head to New York City. We’ve got plenty of time, the drive isn’t that long, so we decide we’ll take a detour through Delaware and Maryland, mainly so I can say I’ve been to those states. Which, indeed, I have.
Getting out of the center city of Philadelphia takes 20 minutes. There’s a single onramp to the 676, it’s not well marked, and because no one understands lane management, it’s very easy to get caught in a spot to where you can’t make the ramp. We ended up missing it twice. Third time was the charm, though. We head south out of Philly through Delaware into Maryland, where we turn around. A quick supply run at Rite Aid in Elkton then we’re heading back up through Delaware into New Jersey. New Jersey is pretty and green, but it rained on us most of our time there. Ate at Applebee’s in Mercerville, NJ, and as usual, was quite underwhelmed by Applebee’s. We drive through Princeton but it’s raining so hard we can’t really see much. Eventually we switch over to the NJ Turnpike so we can make our way to Staten Island.
We get onto Staten Island and just before the Verrazano Bridge, exit and go to the beach, mainly to dip a toe in the Atlantic. Atlantic beach sand is more like… dirt with sand mixed in. It definitely felt different than Pacific beach sand. The beach was also quite deserted, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a San Diego beach that empty. Sure, it was a bit of a rainy day, but it wasn’t raining right then.
After that brief experience we head across the Verrazano into Brooklyn. We drive through Brooklyn up to Queens, and to LaGuardia to drop off the car. Rental car places aren’t exactly marked like they are in Albany or San Diego so I end up having to Google Maps to find the actual spot we’re supposed to drop it off. It’s a bit annoying, but we manage it, and get the hotel shuttle to come pick us up and get us to the Holiday Inn LaGuardia, where we spend the rest of the trip. The room we get is much smaller and barely has enough room to put our stuff. My suitcase goes on the rack, Dad ends up setting his on top of the room safe (which was left unused). We walk around to make sure we can find things: namely, the subway stations. The Mets station ends up being twice as far as the 111th Street station, so even though the latter is through a neighborhood that is far from the cleanest, it’s the best station to use. (Regardless, we’ll walk directly to the Mets game tomorrow. The distance was not so great it was worth paying to avoid.)
We don’t really feel like going to the game on Monday night. It’s the only night we have open, but we just want to crash, pretty much. The hotel’s TV guide is useless, so we end up flipping aimlessly until we can find the SNY Padres-Mets broadcast for the night. We order a pizza from Angelo’s at the recommendation of the hotel staff. Green pepper on all of it, sausage on Dad’s half, pepperoni on my half. It was a good New York pizza. The folding thing sort of worked. But it’s not like one of those things that is so good you have to have it. The Padres actually win this game. We go to bed after it ends.
Tuesday, July 24 – It’s New York City!
The blisters are really starting to be annoying, and I know I won’t be able to walk all day. We decide to do another bus tour, and so get a 2-day pass for Big Bus New York. We plan to do the Downtown Tour on day one, the Uptown Tour on day two, and figure out what to do from there.
We take the 7 into Times Square. Times Square is… well, a giant ad board, really. You’re just constantly inundated with ads. Big Bus is pretty popular, and between lines, buses failing to show, and other problems, we end up standing in line for this thing for about an hour. We eventually manage to get on the bus and do the tour. Because of how long it’s already taken, and how little progress the bus makes, we know we can’t really afford to do much hop on/hop off, so we don’t even bother. We do a complete loop then actually stay on for the next tour’s beginning, just to get off pretty quickly at Bryant Park, a place that’s marginally closer to our next location. It’s still going to be a long walk, though.
We already had purchased tickets for a guided tour of the UN Building, and they recommend getting there an hour early for security, so we do this. It takes a while to figure out where to go, but once we do it really only takes more like 15 minutes before we’re in, and thus, 45 minutes early. We end up going down to the basement and having lunch. Overpriced and mediocre sandwich. We wait around for quite some time, then take our tour. The tour itself is impressive, getting to see a lot of the chambers and exhibits and such. I do recommend the tour to people going to New York if you’re at all into geopolitics or humanitarianism. Make sure you get your tickets in advance though. I bought a magnet and a pen.
After the tour, a long walk back to Grand Central is in order to catch the 7 back to our hotel room. We get to our room, spend about 20 minutes there, and then head to the Mets game.
Citi Field is… a baseball stadium. We ended up with seats behind third base in the Excelsior level, a sort of mid-level club seating similar to Petco’s Toyota Terrace. The stadium was honestly… boring and unimpressive in every way. One game was enough to see the stadium, we were glad we didn’t bother getting tickets for multiple games. This was mediocre. I bought a program and a baseball. Also, the Padres lost again. 0-3 in games we attended, 2-0 on the road trip in games we missed. (They would lose the next one on Wednesday though, going 2-4 on the road trip overall.)
Wednesday, July 25 – The Apple and the Witch… Wait, Wrong Story…
We get up and, after breakfast, take the 7 out to Times Square, then immediately transfer to the 1 up to 50th Street. This allows us to catch the Big Bus Uptown Tour at the optimal spot. We get on and take the tour around Central Park, then debark at Columbus Circle to pick up the special Harlem Tour which our tickets allowed us to do. (Specifically, we could pick one of the Harlem, Brooklyn, or Night Tours, and we felt the Harlem Tour would be best for us.) The original plan was to take the Harlem bus to the Natural History Museum and do that. But these stupid blisters are reminding me just how terrible an idea that is. Even walking around a corner of Central Park waiting for the bus is proving painful. We end up just doing the complete Harlem loop then getting on the 1 and heading to Times Square, transferring to the 7 back to the hotel. It’s about 2 PM, and we’ve got a few hours before our next event, and walking is not being good to me, so this is necessary.
I basically spend the time in the hotel on the computer. However, we do eat dinner at the hotel’s restaurant. We basically skipped lunch, so we’re quite hungry for this early dinner. I get a “super chicken parm”, and it is… actually the best chicken parm I’ve ever had, but stuffing it with extra cheeses was likely to do that. Yum. At around 5:30, back on the 7 to Times Square then the 1 to 50th Street.
A short walk away and we’re at the Gershwin Theatre, ready for something, that, a year ago, neither Dad nor I thought we’d ever end up doing: a Broadway musical. Specifically, we’re here to see Wicked. Wicked is essentially a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, telling the tale of the three Witches and how they came to end up in the positions they were in for the events of The Wizard of Oz, the last few scenes providing a sort of behind-the-scenes look at The Wizard of Oz itself. Without spoiling, I will simply say that the entire production was amazing in every way. It was completely worth going. I was surprised and gratified by the ending, but even without that little surprise there, it would still have been amazing.
I don’t really buy any souvenirs before entering the play, but it turns out not to be necessary for two reasons. The Playbill itself is quite a good one, and also, people leave behind their drink cups, and they are actually a quite ideal size to take home, and solid plastic too. I grab an abandoned beer cup. The 1 to the 7 to the hotel room. Dad carefully washes out the cup and we head to bed.
Thursday, July 26 – It’s Not Only the Padres Who Embarrass Themselves on the Diamond
My foot is doing marginally better, but not great. We decided to spend most of Thursday at the hotel room just relaxing. One thing we sort of missed was the ability to get a decent shot of the Statue of Liberty, so we head out at about 3 PM down to Battery Park. The 7 to Times Square, then the 1 to South Ferry. Walk around Battery Park for a bit, get a decent shot of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, then walk up to do the same for Charging Bull and Fearless Girl, which are just up Bowling Green from the Battery. (I’ve actually taken a lot of pictures on this trip as I go, which is generally not typical for me. I haven’t really discussed my pictures because until now they’ve been incidental to everything else I’ve been doing. This is the only time we did something with essentially the sole intent to take pictures.) At about 5, board the subway again, taking the 4 from Bowling Green straight to Yankee Stadium.
Yankee Stadium has really long lines when we finally get there. Between us waiting a little too long at Bowling Green, these lines, etc. we miss out on getting to see Monument Park, but frankly, this is Yankee Stadium’s own fault, because opening the gates 90 minutes out and closing the park 45 minutes out is… silly. We do go through the Yankees Museum, but it’s not the same. I buy a baseball. It must be emphasized that Yankee Stadium is just that: a stadium. It is not really a ballpark. It is enclosed and complete. The sightlines aren’t that great. The food, however, is.
A quick side note to comment collectively on the food at all three parks on this trip: the Bank and Citi both have this annoying tendency to cook food well in advance and have poor warming. Meaning, of course, that it’s cold by the time you get it. With Citi there simply wasn’t much variety. Both Philly and Queens simply fail on ballpark food. Yankee, on the other hand, actually has really good food. The NYY Steak Sandwich is better than the tri-tip at Petco. The vendors, on the other hand, are dishonest. As a customer, you’ll be fine, but I wonder how much money the Yankees lose to vendor behavior… eh, it’s the Yankees, who cares. I bought a shake and the receipt said I bought a soda; I’m sure the cashier pocketed the difference in price. Dad had a similar experience where someone simply sold him “any food item he wanted for $5 cash”. It never went in the system. Also, Yankee is the only ballpark I’ve seen that deals in change less than a quarter at its concession stands. Why you’d bother is beyond me, but whatever.
We have seats well down the first base line and they are not angled to home plate so it is not engrossing. Between this and the terrible, embarrassing play of the Kansas City Royals, it’s a hard game to get involved in. After a few innings Dad and I walked around the stadium again, looking for food. We ended up splitting up and having the experience I mentioned above. He ended up with fries and a box that turned out to be wings and fries, because that was about all they had ready right away. So he got fries with his fries. We didn’t finish the fries.
The Royals continued to be pretty bad all game, and the Yankees won 7-2. The 4 to Grand Central and the 7 back to the hotel, and bed, await.
Friday, July 27 – Really, Where Would You Rather Be Than San Diego?
We wake up early and eat breakfast. Our flight leaves at 11:30 so we planned for a car service to pick us up at 9. They actually show up at 8:30 so we have a bit of a scramble, but we get in the car and out to JFK. We’re at the airport by 9:15, checking bags quickly, then going through security. With Delta we had managed to get a TSA Precheck. (Did I pay for that? I must have but I don’t remember it.) That gets us through the line faster and we have… well, plenty of time on our hands. Due to the experience we had with American’s “meal service”, we have the foresight to buy turkey and avocado sandwiches while waiting to board, planning to eat on the plane.
We get on and it’s pretty quickly a different experience. I have the aisle seat, Dad has the middle, on the left side of the plane. Right away that gives me a little extra room on occasion, and it’s very nice. Every seat has a screen in front of it. After we take off, there’s a wide variety of movies and shows to choose from. Unfortunately, due to the noise of the plane and my own hearing difficulties, it ends up being pointless. I give up on the screen about 15 minutes into Transformers: the Last Knight, when I realize I can’t understand half of what’s being said, and just read my book and play music on my iPod, which comes through just fine. The lady in the window seat in our row kept having her screen not work at all, she calls attendants over multiple times to reset it without success, and they eventually end up offering to move her to another seat. She accepts this, and thus the window seat is now open. After Dad’s movie finishes, he moves into that seat, though keeps using his original screen, and now we have plenty of room. Delta actually does feed us real meals. We get the meals and put them away at first, eating the ones we bought in the airport first before the avocado goes bad. They’re decent but a bit overpriced now knowing that it wasn’t our only chance at lunch. Nonetheless, a couple of hours later we pull those Delta sandwiches out and eat those too. It was good as well. They also provided lots of snacks and such at the end. Delta is much better for providing services than American is. Overall a much better flight experience on the way home than flying out.
We pull into SAN and the baggage claim carousel has problems working, so it takes us and a lot of others on the flight far too long to get our bags. Eventually we get our bags and SuperShuttle home. And… that’s a wrap!
Conclusions
The trip to the East Coast on the whole was amazing. I wish I was in better shape than I was, we were heavily limited by my inability to walk due to blisters at the end there. The Hall of Fame was magnificent, the region was beautiful as a whole, baseball is a fun time, the historical sites of Philadelphia and the famous sites of New York were worth going to, and Wicked was simply amazing.
If anything, the ballparks were the least impressive part of going. Out of the 11 MLB current stadiums I’ve been to, I’m going to rate Citizens Bank Park #7, Yankee Stadium #8, and Citi Field #10. (The complete ranking, in order: Petco, AT&T, Safeco, Coors, Dodger, Angel, Citizens Bank, Yankee, Chase, Citi, O.co) 6 through 9 are all very close, though.
Google Maps is amazing. We would not have been nearly as successful without me being able to pull out my phone and orient us.
It was a fun, but exhausting, 10 days, and I’m looking forward to a relaxing next… 2 weeks. Then it’s my first training for my TA position for grad school. Oh boy.
I’m going to take this day by day, just to relive and showcase my experience. While I did take quite a few photographs, I don’t really feel like sharing them on the Internet at this time. Maybe later.
Wednesday, July 18 – The Flight Eastward
Today’s the start of our journey. Get up very early in the morning, not a whole lot of sleep after the extra-inning All-Star Game. At quarter to 5 we’re in our SuperShuttle ride to San Diego International Airport (SAN). Check in at the American Airlines counter, then hop onboard the flight to Philadelphia (PHL). It’s pretty dead this early in the morning, so this whole process goes fairly easily. (SAN does not run at all between 11pm and 5am so we were one of the first people through for our 6:25am flight).
American Airlines planes are… not good. It was cramped – we knew it would be, but… sheesh. I had a “window seat”, which was lame because WING! I was grateful for the small amount of extra room compared to Dad in the middle seat, but I’m bigger as well, so I was more cramped. Also, the promised “meal service” ended up being a pair of biscuits. Not remotely what we thought. We land in PHL and it’s now 3PM or so Eastern and we basically haven’t eaten, except a few minor snacks. Thing is, we have about half an hour to catch our connecting flight. The bus system in the back areas of PHL is nice, allowing us to quickly move from terminal to terminal without having to go through security again. We get on the plane pretty much at the last minute. We didn’t have to run, but we definitely did not have time to eat. A tiny American Eagle/Piedmont Airlines jet to Albany (ALB). At least Dad got the aisle this time, as the smaller jet was only two-wide on the right of the aisle (and one-wide on the left). And the flight was much shorter.
We land in Albany, get our bags, and head to the Enterprise counter. Bit of a walk, but we end up there. We had ordered a mid-size car. We’re big people. Well, they didn’t have a mid-size. So we got upgraded. We got a Cadillac XTS. This is pretty cool. Dad appreciated it much more than I did per se. I liked the comfort and such, but, well, he’s the car person. No question of us sharing the driving at this point, though – he wants to drive this thing, the whole time. Fair enough. We also picked up an EZPass Transponder, as a check of the map reveals there’s pretty much no way to get around the northeast without tolls.
This is Albany. We’re here because it’s one of the closest airports to Cooperstown. No other reason. No need to get fancy. So we’re just staying in a Super 8. We head to dinner – having both effectively missed lunch – right away. Carrabba’s is an okay restaurant, but, eh, I was not impressed. We then go to Target and shop for a bunch of stuff. Despite theoretically having body clocks running on Pacific time, the trip was exhausting, and we crash pretty early, all things considered.
Thursday, July 19 – The Village of Dreams
We get up early, get a quick complimentary breakfast, then get in the Caddy and start heading to the Village of Dreams, the place young boys across America dream of someday going to.
Erm, I’ll just shut up on the poetry here. It’s Cooperstown, of course. The National Baseball Hall of Fame. Google Maps recommends a bit of an unusual interior route driving through several towns and Dad loves the drive. We pull into Cooperstown around 10AM. The weird route means we end up going through back streets for a while, not really knowing what we’re doing, until we eventually hit Chestnut Street and can make our way to the Hall. Parking is a pain, and we end up parking at the nearby Doubleday Field lot and paying a substantial rate to stick around there until around 3, which is our hotel check-in. We walk a couple of blocks and go into the Hall then I realize I forgot my glasses. Go back to the car and get them. NOW go into the Hall. We do the upper floors of the Hall and see lots of cool exhibits. We actually went backwards in the exhibit that theoretically takes you through the history of the game due to crowds. I think the experience might have been even better this way, as you start with the familiar and work your way to the game’s origins. We’re getting hungry, and re-entry is allowed at the Hall – our hands got stamped – so we headed out to grab food.
Lunch at the Back Alley Café is decent. I had a burger, my dad had fish. We got there at the right time, though, as the Bayou Bombers travelball team invaded and took over most of the place right after we got there. Our order got in before all theirs, so we got to eat quickly enough. We then headed back to the Hall and did the main Hall itself, all the plaques of the Hall of Famers. This part might be sort of boring for those that are not already students of the game’s history, but for Dad and I, who’ve built so many SimLeagues Baseball teams, learned so much about the game’s players throughout the game, and so on, it was well worth it.
(If you are a baseball fan but don’t really possess a deep understanding, and plan to head to the Hall, I recommend two things: as we did, do the Hall with the plaques itself last, or near last, so you get the rest of the exhibits first, and a better understanding of history. However, even more so, before you even get there: watch Ken Burns Baseball. All of it. It is simply the best access to baseball history you can get.)
We also get to look a bit at the stuff on broadcasting and such. I get a baseball and a Trevor Hoffman Medallion at the gift shop. My dad gets a pin and a postcard of Tony Gwynn’s plaque.
A good, solid day at the Hall and we now head to our motel. The Mohican is a bit of a limited establishment quite far down the road in Cooperstown, but it was basically the closest room available. It’s a cord-cutter hotel, and Dad is at first disappointed that there’s no live TV service. But it is a smart TV with an internet connection, and… Amazon Prime? …CBS All Access? Well, hello there. Time to introduce my dad to Star Trek: Discovery.
A trip to the Doubleday Café for dinner aside, we get through 7 episodes of Discovery before crashing for the night. As to how we’ll eventually watch the rest, well, I need to work on how to manage that. No further comments on this.
Friday, July 20 – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (of Driving, and the City of Brotherly Love)
The Good: We travel out of Cooperstown, through upstate NY, and it’s simply beautiful. A stop at Denny’s in Oneonta for breakfast, as the Mohican is the one motel on this trip not to provide any, and then we continue on through Binghamton. A backway provided by Google avoids going into Binghamton proper, and we catch the 81 around it and head into Pennsylvania. Drive into Scranton, and head through the old-fashioned brick and mortar of the downtown area of the City of Scranton.
The Bad: Wait, why are we driving into Scranton proper at all? The East is a lot of beltway and it would’ve been incredibly easy to go around it. Well, to explain this, I need to back up a bit. The day before we were just checking out our area when I looked back at our car, and noticed… hey, we got Maryland plates! We got… expired… Maryland plates. This is… not good. I Google up where an Enterprise can be found. There actually was one in Oneonta as well, but a quick drive by that one did not inspire our confidence due to the small size so I just had us continue on to Scranton. We get there and the manager takes a look at it and tells us that the registration is current and not to worry about the failing tags, cops will scan it and it will be fine, rather than pull us over. Okay, fine, good actually, we get to keep the Cadillac, nice. Still, annoying that this had to come up at all, worrying us.
The Good: We go through Scranton and then start our journey on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Pennsylvania is beautiful, just so... green. Similar to upstate NY. I guess rain means green. Between this and NY, I really now understand what “the woods” are. It’s definitely a different feel. (I also saw several squirrels on this trip, also new to me.) Gas and lunch (at Panera Bread) in Allentown (no excuse for spelling Dad’s name wrong on the order here, and indeed they got it right). Also a quick stop to CVS for more stuff. Continue to Philly.
The Bad: Philadelphia Rush Hour traffic on the expressways. Eh, it’s rush hour, what do you expect? Fine, let’s just get off the freeway and…
The Ugly: Holy crap. Philadelphia downtown traffic is THE WORST EVER. No one seems to understand what a lane is, or where you should be stopping or not… We resolve not to drive again in Philly unless we absolutely have to. This was… bad. (Later, in Manhattan… we never drove in Manhattan, but just watching the traffic… it was slow, but it was… not this bad. There is a difference.) There is a subway, fortunately, so we actually don’t have to.
The Good: The Holiday Inn Express Philadelphia-Midtown gives us a nice, spacious room, and we feel quite comfortable. We take a while to unpack, then head down to the subway station.
The Bad: The subway system in Philadelphia is suboptimal. The quick trip cards simply will not scan properly. I had a lot of trouble scanning. After today, I won’t have any more trouble on the Philly subways… but Dad will not at any point after tonight get his scanned correctly the first time. It’s not good.
The Good: We sold the parking passes we paid for and now decide we don’t want to use.
The Bad: This means we turned $40 into $5.
The Good: Citizens Bank Park is a ballpark. We cruise around, he gets a pin, I get a baseball and a scorecard. It’s Philadelphia, let’s do… what a lot of people are doing, and grab a cheesesteak.
The Bad: I mean, the cheesesteak wasn’t *bad*, but I’ve had better at Jersey Mike’s. Very underwhelming. I do not recommend buying Tony Luke’s cheesesteaks. My actual recommendation comes later.
The Good: We have good seats down the first base line. The Padres jump out to a quick 4-0 lead. This feels good.
The Ugly: The Padres… are… ugly bad. Yep, this is a disaster. And we lost. No surprise there.
After the game, we head back to the room without much incident, though we do get confirmation from a couple of locals that the cheesesteaks are by no means representative and that most of the people at the ballgame are “dumb” for buying it.
Saturday, July 21 – Rain, Rain, Go Away
We start our day by making the walk to Independence National Visitors Center to, among other things, get tickets to get into Independence Hall. On the way, I pop into a FedEx Print and Ship Center and deal with a personal business matter that unfortunately could not be put off. (The details aren’t important here, just that this took time.) By the time we get there there’s a fairly long line, and the first tickets available are for a 1:15 tour. We take them, but have several hours to do… something… We end up, on impulse, taking a Big Bus tour of Philadelphia. The tour guide was great. We could have done a hop on/hop off thing with this bus if we’d had time, but we didn’t have that much time on our hands really with the upcoming Independence Hall tour, so we just do a complete loop. Get rained on a bit, but overall have fun.
After the bus tour we head down to a cheesesteak location called Sonny’s at the recommendation of our tour guide, but as much as anything else, this is convenience. No, we’re not going to make the walk all the way to Jim’s, not on any day, etc. Sonny’s is much, much better than the ballpark. The wait was worth it. Get the “loaded” cheesesteak, it is also worth it.
We head towards Independence Hall. Go through security. Security is full of jerks. I don’t want to talk about it. We eventually get in and then do the tour. The tour is honestly underwhelming, it’s basically two rooms, the courtroom setting, and the meeting room. It’s worth doing, free and all that, but actually, the Congress Hall tour, also in the secured zone, but not requiring a ticket to get in, is much better, in my opinion.
We have plenty of time left in the day before the ballgame that night, and thus, make a side trip to the Federal Reserve Bank in Philadelphia for their Money in Motion exhibit. It’s a lot of videos, and our feet are starting to hurt at this point. Standing for videos isn’t exactly our idea of a great time, and so we probably spend less than half an hour in the Fed. Got the free bag of shredded bills though.
It’s a long, hard, exhausting walk back to the hotel in the rain, and I am just simply hurting at this point. It’s raining hard enough to rain out the ballgame. Postponed for 6:05 the next night.
We don’t want to go far in the rain, and end up eating at the Sahara Grill across the street from the hotel. I get a Beef Shish Kabob that doesn’t end up actually coming on the stick, but it’s still delicious and not outrageously priced either. My dad gets some sort of eggplant dish that he also enjoys.
Sunday, July 22 – Here Come the Blisters
Yep, I got a blister on my right foot. Well, this sucks.
Let’s be a little smarter this time. Take the subway into the historic district, way early, to be near the front of the line for the Liberty Bell, which we had skipped yesterday due to excessive lines. We see the Liberty Bell. It’s sort of the thing you have to do in Philly, but once you’ve done it… I mean, it’s just a Bell. Don’t get overly excited. Do get there as early as you can, even though they don’t open until 9. The line will fill up, and it is a secured area.
The next stop for us is the Museum of the American Revolution. It’s a fairly new collection, but in my mind it’s well worth the $24. I was able to hobble around it just fine. I don’t want to be walking long distances – hence the extra subway trips – but I’m not too badly damaged. Nonetheless, that really does mean it’s time to wrap up our journeys through Philly, even though it’s not yet noon.
One more stop: Sonny’s yet again, gotta get that cheesesteak.
Spend the whole afternoon in my hotel room, read a book, read on the computer – things that don’t require me walking. When it’s time, head to the ballgame. Seats out in right field this time.
The Padres suck yet again. Of course, they won game 1 of the doubleheader… the only win was the one we didn’t go to in this series. Back to the hotel and time to crash.
Monday, July 23 – July Showers Bring August Flowers?
After breakfast and checking out, it’s time to get back in the car and head to New York City. We’ve got plenty of time, the drive isn’t that long, so we decide we’ll take a detour through Delaware and Maryland, mainly so I can say I’ve been to those states. Which, indeed, I have.
Getting out of the center city of Philadelphia takes 20 minutes. There’s a single onramp to the 676, it’s not well marked, and because no one understands lane management, it’s very easy to get caught in a spot to where you can’t make the ramp. We ended up missing it twice. Third time was the charm, though. We head south out of Philly through Delaware into Maryland, where we turn around. A quick supply run at Rite Aid in Elkton then we’re heading back up through Delaware into New Jersey. New Jersey is pretty and green, but it rained on us most of our time there. Ate at Applebee’s in Mercerville, NJ, and as usual, was quite underwhelmed by Applebee’s. We drive through Princeton but it’s raining so hard we can’t really see much. Eventually we switch over to the NJ Turnpike so we can make our way to Staten Island.
We get onto Staten Island and just before the Verrazano Bridge, exit and go to the beach, mainly to dip a toe in the Atlantic. Atlantic beach sand is more like… dirt with sand mixed in. It definitely felt different than Pacific beach sand. The beach was also quite deserted, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a San Diego beach that empty. Sure, it was a bit of a rainy day, but it wasn’t raining right then.
After that brief experience we head across the Verrazano into Brooklyn. We drive through Brooklyn up to Queens, and to LaGuardia to drop off the car. Rental car places aren’t exactly marked like they are in Albany or San Diego so I end up having to Google Maps to find the actual spot we’re supposed to drop it off. It’s a bit annoying, but we manage it, and get the hotel shuttle to come pick us up and get us to the Holiday Inn LaGuardia, where we spend the rest of the trip. The room we get is much smaller and barely has enough room to put our stuff. My suitcase goes on the rack, Dad ends up setting his on top of the room safe (which was left unused). We walk around to make sure we can find things: namely, the subway stations. The Mets station ends up being twice as far as the 111th Street station, so even though the latter is through a neighborhood that is far from the cleanest, it’s the best station to use. (Regardless, we’ll walk directly to the Mets game tomorrow. The distance was not so great it was worth paying to avoid.)
We don’t really feel like going to the game on Monday night. It’s the only night we have open, but we just want to crash, pretty much. The hotel’s TV guide is useless, so we end up flipping aimlessly until we can find the SNY Padres-Mets broadcast for the night. We order a pizza from Angelo’s at the recommendation of the hotel staff. Green pepper on all of it, sausage on Dad’s half, pepperoni on my half. It was a good New York pizza. The folding thing sort of worked. But it’s not like one of those things that is so good you have to have it. The Padres actually win this game. We go to bed after it ends.
Tuesday, July 24 – It’s New York City!
The blisters are really starting to be annoying, and I know I won’t be able to walk all day. We decide to do another bus tour, and so get a 2-day pass for Big Bus New York. We plan to do the Downtown Tour on day one, the Uptown Tour on day two, and figure out what to do from there.
We take the 7 into Times Square. Times Square is… well, a giant ad board, really. You’re just constantly inundated with ads. Big Bus is pretty popular, and between lines, buses failing to show, and other problems, we end up standing in line for this thing for about an hour. We eventually manage to get on the bus and do the tour. Because of how long it’s already taken, and how little progress the bus makes, we know we can’t really afford to do much hop on/hop off, so we don’t even bother. We do a complete loop then actually stay on for the next tour’s beginning, just to get off pretty quickly at Bryant Park, a place that’s marginally closer to our next location. It’s still going to be a long walk, though.
We already had purchased tickets for a guided tour of the UN Building, and they recommend getting there an hour early for security, so we do this. It takes a while to figure out where to go, but once we do it really only takes more like 15 minutes before we’re in, and thus, 45 minutes early. We end up going down to the basement and having lunch. Overpriced and mediocre sandwich. We wait around for quite some time, then take our tour. The tour itself is impressive, getting to see a lot of the chambers and exhibits and such. I do recommend the tour to people going to New York if you’re at all into geopolitics or humanitarianism. Make sure you get your tickets in advance though. I bought a magnet and a pen.
After the tour, a long walk back to Grand Central is in order to catch the 7 back to our hotel room. We get to our room, spend about 20 minutes there, and then head to the Mets game.
Citi Field is… a baseball stadium. We ended up with seats behind third base in the Excelsior level, a sort of mid-level club seating similar to Petco’s Toyota Terrace. The stadium was honestly… boring and unimpressive in every way. One game was enough to see the stadium, we were glad we didn’t bother getting tickets for multiple games. This was mediocre. I bought a program and a baseball. Also, the Padres lost again. 0-3 in games we attended, 2-0 on the road trip in games we missed. (They would lose the next one on Wednesday though, going 2-4 on the road trip overall.)
Wednesday, July 25 – The Apple and the Witch… Wait, Wrong Story…
We get up and, after breakfast, take the 7 out to Times Square, then immediately transfer to the 1 up to 50th Street. This allows us to catch the Big Bus Uptown Tour at the optimal spot. We get on and take the tour around Central Park, then debark at Columbus Circle to pick up the special Harlem Tour which our tickets allowed us to do. (Specifically, we could pick one of the Harlem, Brooklyn, or Night Tours, and we felt the Harlem Tour would be best for us.) The original plan was to take the Harlem bus to the Natural History Museum and do that. But these stupid blisters are reminding me just how terrible an idea that is. Even walking around a corner of Central Park waiting for the bus is proving painful. We end up just doing the complete Harlem loop then getting on the 1 and heading to Times Square, transferring to the 7 back to the hotel. It’s about 2 PM, and we’ve got a few hours before our next event, and walking is not being good to me, so this is necessary.
I basically spend the time in the hotel on the computer. However, we do eat dinner at the hotel’s restaurant. We basically skipped lunch, so we’re quite hungry for this early dinner. I get a “super chicken parm”, and it is… actually the best chicken parm I’ve ever had, but stuffing it with extra cheeses was likely to do that. Yum. At around 5:30, back on the 7 to Times Square then the 1 to 50th Street.
A short walk away and we’re at the Gershwin Theatre, ready for something, that, a year ago, neither Dad nor I thought we’d ever end up doing: a Broadway musical. Specifically, we’re here to see Wicked. Wicked is essentially a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, telling the tale of the three Witches and how they came to end up in the positions they were in for the events of The Wizard of Oz, the last few scenes providing a sort of behind-the-scenes look at The Wizard of Oz itself. Without spoiling, I will simply say that the entire production was amazing in every way. It was completely worth going. I was surprised and gratified by the ending, but even without that little surprise there, it would still have been amazing.
I don’t really buy any souvenirs before entering the play, but it turns out not to be necessary for two reasons. The Playbill itself is quite a good one, and also, people leave behind their drink cups, and they are actually a quite ideal size to take home, and solid plastic too. I grab an abandoned beer cup. The 1 to the 7 to the hotel room. Dad carefully washes out the cup and we head to bed.
Thursday, July 26 – It’s Not Only the Padres Who Embarrass Themselves on the Diamond
My foot is doing marginally better, but not great. We decided to spend most of Thursday at the hotel room just relaxing. One thing we sort of missed was the ability to get a decent shot of the Statue of Liberty, so we head out at about 3 PM down to Battery Park. The 7 to Times Square, then the 1 to South Ferry. Walk around Battery Park for a bit, get a decent shot of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, then walk up to do the same for Charging Bull and Fearless Girl, which are just up Bowling Green from the Battery. (I’ve actually taken a lot of pictures on this trip as I go, which is generally not typical for me. I haven’t really discussed my pictures because until now they’ve been incidental to everything else I’ve been doing. This is the only time we did something with essentially the sole intent to take pictures.) At about 5, board the subway again, taking the 4 from Bowling Green straight to Yankee Stadium.
Yankee Stadium has really long lines when we finally get there. Between us waiting a little too long at Bowling Green, these lines, etc. we miss out on getting to see Monument Park, but frankly, this is Yankee Stadium’s own fault, because opening the gates 90 minutes out and closing the park 45 minutes out is… silly. We do go through the Yankees Museum, but it’s not the same. I buy a baseball. It must be emphasized that Yankee Stadium is just that: a stadium. It is not really a ballpark. It is enclosed and complete. The sightlines aren’t that great. The food, however, is.
A quick side note to comment collectively on the food at all three parks on this trip: the Bank and Citi both have this annoying tendency to cook food well in advance and have poor warming. Meaning, of course, that it’s cold by the time you get it. With Citi there simply wasn’t much variety. Both Philly and Queens simply fail on ballpark food. Yankee, on the other hand, actually has really good food. The NYY Steak Sandwich is better than the tri-tip at Petco. The vendors, on the other hand, are dishonest. As a customer, you’ll be fine, but I wonder how much money the Yankees lose to vendor behavior… eh, it’s the Yankees, who cares. I bought a shake and the receipt said I bought a soda; I’m sure the cashier pocketed the difference in price. Dad had a similar experience where someone simply sold him “any food item he wanted for $5 cash”. It never went in the system. Also, Yankee is the only ballpark I’ve seen that deals in change less than a quarter at its concession stands. Why you’d bother is beyond me, but whatever.
We have seats well down the first base line and they are not angled to home plate so it is not engrossing. Between this and the terrible, embarrassing play of the Kansas City Royals, it’s a hard game to get involved in. After a few innings Dad and I walked around the stadium again, looking for food. We ended up splitting up and having the experience I mentioned above. He ended up with fries and a box that turned out to be wings and fries, because that was about all they had ready right away. So he got fries with his fries. We didn’t finish the fries.
The Royals continued to be pretty bad all game, and the Yankees won 7-2. The 4 to Grand Central and the 7 back to the hotel, and bed, await.
Friday, July 27 – Really, Where Would You Rather Be Than San Diego?
We wake up early and eat breakfast. Our flight leaves at 11:30 so we planned for a car service to pick us up at 9. They actually show up at 8:30 so we have a bit of a scramble, but we get in the car and out to JFK. We’re at the airport by 9:15, checking bags quickly, then going through security. With Delta we had managed to get a TSA Precheck. (Did I pay for that? I must have but I don’t remember it.) That gets us through the line faster and we have… well, plenty of time on our hands. Due to the experience we had with American’s “meal service”, we have the foresight to buy turkey and avocado sandwiches while waiting to board, planning to eat on the plane.
We get on and it’s pretty quickly a different experience. I have the aisle seat, Dad has the middle, on the left side of the plane. Right away that gives me a little extra room on occasion, and it’s very nice. Every seat has a screen in front of it. After we take off, there’s a wide variety of movies and shows to choose from. Unfortunately, due to the noise of the plane and my own hearing difficulties, it ends up being pointless. I give up on the screen about 15 minutes into Transformers: the Last Knight, when I realize I can’t understand half of what’s being said, and just read my book and play music on my iPod, which comes through just fine. The lady in the window seat in our row kept having her screen not work at all, she calls attendants over multiple times to reset it without success, and they eventually end up offering to move her to another seat. She accepts this, and thus the window seat is now open. After Dad’s movie finishes, he moves into that seat, though keeps using his original screen, and now we have plenty of room. Delta actually does feed us real meals. We get the meals and put them away at first, eating the ones we bought in the airport first before the avocado goes bad. They’re decent but a bit overpriced now knowing that it wasn’t our only chance at lunch. Nonetheless, a couple of hours later we pull those Delta sandwiches out and eat those too. It was good as well. They also provided lots of snacks and such at the end. Delta is much better for providing services than American is. Overall a much better flight experience on the way home than flying out.
We pull into SAN and the baggage claim carousel has problems working, so it takes us and a lot of others on the flight far too long to get our bags. Eventually we get our bags and SuperShuttle home. And… that’s a wrap!
Conclusions
The trip to the East Coast on the whole was amazing. I wish I was in better shape than I was, we were heavily limited by my inability to walk due to blisters at the end there. The Hall of Fame was magnificent, the region was beautiful as a whole, baseball is a fun time, the historical sites of Philadelphia and the famous sites of New York were worth going to, and Wicked was simply amazing.
If anything, the ballparks were the least impressive part of going. Out of the 11 MLB current stadiums I’ve been to, I’m going to rate Citizens Bank Park #7, Yankee Stadium #8, and Citi Field #10. (The complete ranking, in order: Petco, AT&T, Safeco, Coors, Dodger, Angel, Citizens Bank, Yankee, Chase, Citi, O.co) 6 through 9 are all very close, though.
Google Maps is amazing. We would not have been nearly as successful without me being able to pull out my phone and orient us.
It was a fun, but exhausting, 10 days, and I’m looking forward to a relaxing next… 2 weeks. Then it’s my first training for my TA position for grad school. Oh boy.