My Philly Trip: A Photo Essay

I've been a little busy lately. In fact, yesterday was the first day in October that I had off. And I relished in it. But in the mean time, my busyness has made for some fun pictures of what I've been doing. Here are some from my work trip to Philadelphia where I was at a conference with 9,000 nutritionists. And I still had a plethora of Diet Dr. Pepper. Turns out even nutritionists love soft drinks.

A giant paint brush with a dollop of paint

Ben Franklin cranking away at being a craftsman. (Before his whore-y Paris days)

Philly City Hall-- I saw it at least twice a day because I tried to walk from my hotel everywhere. 1) I hate cabs. 2) I was trying to stay somewhat active. 

The famous LOVE statue. It made me miss Chef.

The booth is where I spent most of my time. The robot was a visitor from a neighboring booth. People loved the robot. 

My friend Meredith who found the BEST place for us to eat dinner.

The outside of Tulala's Garden. It was just as cute on the inside and MAN was the food delicious. Couldn't have had a better meal.

Philly was fun and I was also lucky enough to meet up with (but not take pictures of which is stupid of me) my friend from my college internship, Beth. I also had the joy of meeting Beth's baby, Adelaide, and her awesome husband Tim. All in all my only complaint was that it rained. And for a girl who lives in sunshine and was walking everywhere, this was an adjustment. But I look forward to going back again and actually seeing more sights!

Cookies by the Pound

I'm in Philadelphia this week for my first new work-related conference. My company is a vendor and therefor I get to attend and hang out. Granted I'm hanging out with librarians, but I'm learning a lot. I guess that's too be expected, as well.

This is my first time in Philly and I got hoodwinked almost as soon as I got off the plane. I had a driver take me to his cab. On the way there, I clearly asked if he accepted credit cards (I knew I didn't have enough cash for the entire trip). He said yes and then when I got to my destination said that he didn't have a credit card machine in his car and demanded that I pay cash. I told him that I'd pay him the $20 I had on me, but not the full fare (which was nearly double that). It then lead to a match of wills. He wanted to drive me to an ATM to get more cash. I refused. And because he didn't have a working meter in his car, I told him he could take the cash I was offering or we could see a cop who would side with me on account of his broken meter.

Long story short, I got a cheaper cab ride and told the driver that he knew it was card or nothing before I got into the cab.

That was fine, but then today it was like the cab gods were against me for messing with one of their own because I had to walk a mile back to my hotel in the snowy/rain mix. So by the time I got back to my hotel, I was cold, wet and ready for some dinner.

The best part of Philly so far is that I found a place that sells cookies by the pound. Yup, they weigh the cookies you choose and then you pay by weight. It's a whole lot of deliciousness. I had a big ole chocolate chip in my purse that made my evening worth the walk. I can understand why Philly's one of the fattest cities around. Mmm. And why they're so angry. Not enough cookies. MMMM.