city of brotherly love.

I met my aunt and uncle at our rendezvous point yesterday morning. Our agreed upon time was 9AM but they did not arrive until 9:15, which in my opinion was no big deal. It was, however, a big deal to my uncle and by the time we had moved about 100 feet, my aunt and uncle had their first spat. My first thought was that it was cute and I was glad they were feeling comfortable enough to spat in front of me. Not all couples are cute like that and engage in more uncomfortable behavior such as smiling through gritted teeth and pretending like all is well even though you can cut the tension with a dull butter knife. No, not in this car. By the 4th spat, about 1000 feet down the street, it wasn't cute anymore. And I was hoping for gritted teeth and pretending. I'm good at pretending. I'm not so good at dealing with snippy old people. Luckily I have not been the target of any snippiness... yet. We still have a few days together.

Anyhoo...

Other than that, the trip was fairly noneventful. Lots and lots of talking. Luckily my aunt and uncle are very smart people and have interesting things to say. I didn't have to say much at all.

We arrived in Philly last night around 7 but since we had missed an exit at some point, it took us a long time to find our hotel. My uncle printed out the local map of the hotel but did not, for some reason, print out google, Mapquest, or Yahoo driving directions. I have a feeling he knows how to do that, but prefers the excitement of navigating mapless. I didn't mind because I had no plans and just sat in the backseat in my Dramamine induced coma and watched north Philly pass by my window.

Last night before I fell asleep I decided to open the curtains a bit hoping the morning sunshine would keep me from sleeping all day. I hate being the one in the group that sleeps super late and holds everyone else up. I forgot that we are on the other side of the time zone and this morning when I woke, saw the bright sun, stretched and prepared to get my lazy ass out of bed, I looked at the clock and it was 5:30. Damn. Closed the curtains and went back to sleep until a respectable 7:30.

Here are some photos from our hotel window. We are downtown on the 11th floor of a Hampton Inn. My uncle is very good at booking nice hotel rooms!




This morning we go in search of a diner (yay Julie! I'll try to take photos and notes!) and then to the game this afternoon. And then after we're all hot and sweaty and nasty from sitting in 90+ degree weather all afternoon, we'll get in the car and drive to Washington, DC. Good times.