We were pretty excited to find out where we were going…

…SURPRISED & HAPPY! PHILADELPHIA!! Neither one of us had ever been there before.

I’d been certain that wherever we were going, it would be a direct flight, but not so. We had a just-right layover in Chicago (both directions) and arrived at PHL at about 2:30 on Wednesday, which was perfect timing for checking into our hotel — Kimpton Hotel Palomar. In addition to all the info & event tickets relevant to our trip, our Pack Up + Go packet also included a ride-share voucher, which served us well for the whole trip. We booked the trip during a promotion, so there was also a $75 Visa gift card! And there was a ton of general info about Philly, neighborhoods, other places to visit, restaurants, photo ops, quirky stuff… a lot of info!

Our hotel was very close to Rittenhouse Square Park, which was just starting to come alive & there was a lot of gardening/caretaking activity going on. We visited a few times, and there was a nice market set up on Saturday!

Hellebores, tulips, magnolias, cherry blossoms… green grass! The weather was much milder in Philly than at home. Thursday was the best weather day — sunny & 70F. There was supposed to be a deluge on Friday morning, but there was just regular rain & we didn’t even see it… it was just a little wet when we went out (a lot cooler, though).

Besides the travel & lodging arrangements, here’s what was planned for us:

• Dinner reservation at Sueño for Wednesday
• Historic Old City Dine Around on Thursday (late pm)
• Philadelphia Murals and Street Art Tour with Magic Gardens on Friday afternoon
• Dinner reservaton at Little Nonna’s for Friday
• Admission to Eastern State Penitentiary for whenever we wanted

We had plenty of time to visit other places, too. The Kimpton has free first-come-first-served bicycles available, so we took advantage of that on Thursday & rode them over to see the Clothespin sculpture, then to visit The Barnes (from where I have zero photos). There are many bike lanes, but also many one-way streets & unfamiliar traffic patterns, so that could have been a little smoother, but we made it! We were helped by a “bicycles share the road” attitude, though I’m sure there were still many curses aimed at us that we didn’t hear.

These are mostly photo galleries, so you can click on any to make it bigger/scroll through. Check out my Instagram > for more.

Before meeting for the food tour, we visited Elsfreth’s Alley & Betsy Ross House (we didn’t actually take the tour but we did visit the gift shop… always the gift shop!). Since I sewed the first flag of New Island, I feel a kinship with Betsy Ross.

The New Island flag at an exhibition in Green Bay, WI; it’s also flown at micronations exhibitions in New York City, Paris, and Biel, Switzerland.

There were only two other people on our food tour — a couple of traveling nurses who were childhood friends & now engaged! They were fun to talk to. Our tour leader was knowledgeable about history and food… I don’t know if he gives the same tour every time, but he made it feel like he designed the tour just for us.

We started across the street from the visitor’s center at the President’s House. Some of the panels relating to slavery had been removed, and some had been replaced… but others had actually been destroyed, so folks were taking it upon themselves to fill in the blanks.

There was a lot of history shared along the way as we visited National Mechanics (cider, mac & cheese, pretzel & mustard), Khyber Pass Pub (beer & gumbo), The Plough & The Stars (ale & shepherd’s pie), and Shane Confectionery (a lovely chocolate sampler). And that was supper — it was late enough in the day that we didn’t need any more! I’d go back to Philly just to have more of that mac & cheese. And you may wonder about the historical significance of that… Thomas Jefferson fell in love with it while in France & “brought it back” to the US, and even served it at a state dinner (scandalous!).

On Friday, we walked over to the LOVE sculpture, then Uber’d over to the penitentiary. From there, we walked to the Rocky Steps — I waited while Annie walked up there! I could have walked up, but going down is super hard on my hip (already stressed from a lot of walking). We walked back toward the penitentiary to have lunch at Zorba’s, which we clocked on our way to the steps. Yum.

The art tour was fun, led by a former teacher; there was also only one other couple on that tour, but they weren’t very engaged (with us or, really, even each other).

Ann was looking across the street as we waited, and asked, “Is that art??” The mini blinds creation… such angst!

We saw plenty of “real” art — much of it (the mosaics, The Magic Garden) by Isaiah Zagar, who must have been a real character (he recently passed away). The Magic Garden, especially, reminded me of Fred Smith’s Concrete Park, which I visited last August with Maddy, and the Dickeyville Grotto, which I visited in November with Kate (on our way to Omaha) — both of which are located in Wisconsin. The murals, many sponsored by Mural Arts Philadelphia, were plentiful & amazing — we saw a tiny fraction of them. The yarn bomb was spotted at a playground.

On Saturday, we returned to Parc, a really lovely French/European restaurant right on Rittenhouse Square. We had breakfast on Thursday morning and thought we’d have the same on Saturday, but it was full-blown (and amazing) brunch! OK. I’d go back to Philly for more meals at Parc, too. After brunch (a beautiful quiche that was about 3″ tall), we walked down to the No Kings protest & joined in for as long as we could. We had to peel off, check out of our hotel, and head to the airport!

Pack Up + Go. 10/10 – Would Do It Again! In a word… wonderful! We were both very impressed with their planning, process & bookings, contact throughout & customer service. I love all the different types of trips & options they offer, from various Destination Guides, if you just want recommendations (I’ve already purchased one of those for a trip in late summer), to Plane Trips, Road Trips, Outdoors Plane Trips, Outdoors Road Trips, or You Pick Trips. Full disclosure: Our trip cost $1,500 each for a 4-day/3-night trip, which included round-trip airfare, accommodations, $115 ride-share credit, and paid admission to three activities — those things all came out of our budget; they also made two dinner reservations for us & provided an extensive list of recommendations; plus, we booked during a promotion, so also had the extra $75 gift card. I hope they made a little money on us! If you ever book a trip, I’d love it if you’d mention my name when they ask “How did you hear about Pack Up + Go?” I’ll earn points which can translate to discounts on future trips… and there will be future trips (maybe our anniversary trip next year)!

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In other news…

This little lady turned 8 on March 25th, and lost that second front tooth when she took her first bite of birthday cake! We had a belated but fun party/get together on Sunday to celebrate.

Well, I was going to link to the post I wrote about meeting Ann in Boston in January 2023, but it appears that I never actually wrote a post about that!

Ann was in Boston for a work thing & I tagged along because I’d never been. While she did work stuff, I visited a couple of museums, and we got together in the evenings for dinner & whatnot. I even rented a car one day and went to visit Carole & Dale! Ann didn’t have to work all day/every day, and had suggested that we go on a walking food tour — she always likes to do a little something like that. It was really fun, we learned a lot (like, lobster didn’t used to be a “fancy” food & was so plentiful that it was fed to prisoners), and we visited some great places & sampled lots of yummy food. There was opportunity to chat with fellow tour-goers, and we learned that one guy was there because it was part of the “surprise trip” itinerary planned for him by a company called Pack Up + Go.

It was his second or third such trip. It sounded fun, interesting & adventurous… so fun that Ann gave me a gift certificate the following Christmas, and we finally got around to booking a trip for ourselves! We’re flying on Wednesday morning — to who-knows-where?

Pack Up + Go offers several types of trips — plane trips, road trips, outdoor adventure trips, and more. There’s a survey wherein dates & a budget are established, as well as interests, preferences & travel history — they won’t send you someplace you may have already visited, if you don’t want them to. We actually left that wide open because there’s always something new! They book relevant round-trip travel from the location of your choosing (we had three possible departure airports listed) & accommodations, make dinner reservations, pre-book at least one activity, and provide a list of recommendations.

Last week, we each received an email with a weather forecast for our unknown vacation destination, along with a suggested packing list, and where/when to go — our flight leaves early Wednesday morning from Green Bay!

On Thursday, I received the surprise envelope shown above by Priority Mail. We won’t open it until we get to the airport!

We’re super excited that departure is imminent, though not without some concern about what’s happening with TSA… and I’m not going to get into that much, except to say: PAY THOSE PEOPLE! It’s ridiculous that funding TSA is fettered. Anyway, I can already say that Pack Up + Go’s customer service is excellent, as Ann emailed with concerns… they were quick to respond, professional & reassuring. AND in the course of that exchange, we got a little clue in that we’re connecting (somewhere) — I was sure that wherever we were going, it would be a direct flight. haha.

I’m behind on the travelogue, obviously, but stay tuned… I’ll be sure to let you know where we land & what we do!! (And promise to catch up soon.)