Better than a slide show, here’s some pictures of my vacation!!
First, though – the details:
Amanda had a work conference down in NJ (near Parsippany). Two days of meetings, team bonding exercises, etc., followed by a holiday party in the home of the company’s owner. We arrived at 11:30am Thursday morning with enough time for Amanda to shower & get to her first meeting. I spent the time watching TV and resting – I had been up late that night for work-related things (product training down on the cape) and since we had to get up at 5am when we left, and I had driven for 5 hours, I was kind of tired.
I’ve said enough about that hotel/conference center already, so let’s skip ahead a day. Friday, Amanda had meetings almost all day, so I was left to fend for myself. I found some parks in the area and snapped this neat picture of a swan:
It was kind of cool, but by and large I was dissapointed with New Jersey. It’s just … boring! Luckily I found a bookstore and the hotel had a hot tub, so I spent much of my time in there, reading (by myself, because as I said, this place was primarily a conference center and during the day people are in meetings!).
I should note that Amanda’s company’s owner is rich, rich, RICH. His house was huge, very colonial (built in the early 1800s I believe) and very, very ornate on the inside. We’re talking solid marble staircases, ornate woodwork ceilings, polished wood floors, big (BIG) curved single-pane glass windows… the works.
Unfortunately the party (this would be Friday night) was wayyyyy too much for Amanda and I. I’m no social bug, and of course I knew no one there (and had nothing in common with them) so we left after about an hour and a half. (Amanda’s feet were hurting too, damn those dress shoes – now you know why I prefer sneakers!)
Sunday morning we left early and headed down to Philladelphia, Pennsylvania. This was a bit more exciting than NJ, although it had it’s downsides, as we shall see. Here’s some pictures! (Click the picture for larger versions.)
Here we are in downtown Philladelphia!
I thought this picture was somehow… appropriate.
All that money… *sigh*
There were people in the markets wearing these kinds of hats. Must be an Amish thing?
The Constitution center had a very rousing display of the Constitution – and I’m talking about the paper document here, not the ship. I highly recommend it, if you’re ever in the area. Very informative.
On the way back home, we stopped at an IKEA store … these stores are HUGE. It’s just plain WEIRD. They have a cafeteria on the 2nd floor where you can get a really CHEAP breakfast (like, $0.99!). We had a quick breakfast and a long look around. The stuff is great, and it IS cheap… so we’ll be going back again, probably when we move. It’ll be nice to have something other than Wal-Mart furnature in the house! Fortunately for me and my car, there’s an IKEA in Connecticut, so we don’t have to make quite as long of a drive.
Besides the fire alarm going off in the hotal just as we were about to check out, the rest of the trip was nice. We had a good time, and it was good to get away & all. Round trip milage was 777 miles – an odd number, don’t you think?
Now, before I go, let me leave you with this final impression of Philladelphia:
Don’t you just love alleteration?
Ta-ta for now!
