So, by chance my good friend S.A. McAuley was in Philadelphia today too. (Not only is she my good friend, but she is also a pretty impressive new author, so if you’re looking for reading material I suggest you check her out.)

I picked her up today in my rental BMW that I had to Google how to start (seriously, sat in the rental lot and Googled ‘how do I start a BMW’ because I could not figure the stupid thing out). Also, the gear shifter is stupidly complicated. Which is a pretty inauspicious way to start a trip.

But we accidentally had an amazing time in Philly today!

We missed a turn (and by a I mean like five turns) because the GPS is … not quick on the draw, and we stumbled across the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. We also discovered that my knowledge of the Revolutionary War era is sad, because every question she asked I was all I DON’T KNOW OMG! We found Thomas Jefferson’s gardens, and Thomas Jefferson is not impressed.

We were on our way to a cute little food court area in the Bourse and happened upon a world-renowned restaurant that was hundreds of years old instead. OR SO WE THOUGHT, BUT THE BUILDING WAS ALL A LIE! REBUILT IN 1975! We fixed the wobbly table with our tourist map and my container of Percocet. The crab cakes were to die for though, and so were the cocktails, all circa 1700’s recipes. Thomas Jefferson is very impressed with those.

We walked five blocks through the pouring rain, so wet that I had drops in my eyelashes and kept having to wipe them away so I could see, but when the rain stopped and our hair dried we wound up accidentally looking like rock stars.

And then on the way to the Phillies game, we got in the wrong lane and thought we’d have to U-turn back into traffic, but we ended up in the VIP lane where I used my temporary handicap sticker from my surgery to park right next to the stadium.

We encountered no lines, and snuck into enemy territory and no one knew I was a Braves fan or she was a Tigers fan. We had $10 tickets but climbed no stairs. We got sprinkles on our ice cream. We both checked off Bucket List items.

On the way home we accidentally got in the correct lane, and we never took a wrong turn even though the GPS seemed to want us to drive through the stadium and then hit a bike path or something to her hotel. We saw the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, which is beautiful and Thomas Jefferson is probably pissed that he just got a shitty garden. We drove unintentionally through China Town, and the historic area of Philly on a weeknight is almost deserted and so very beautiful.

After I dropped Sam off and was heading back to my hotel like I knew where I was going like a boss, some chick pulled up beside me and asked for directions, and because Sam and I stared at my cheap tourist map all day, I knew where to tell her to go! I felt all LOCAL! LOL!

Overall it was an amazing day of ‘oops, this is what traveling with Abi is like.’ My knee doesn’t even hurt after all the walking, although that might be the Percocet talking. I wish every day could be like this, where I get to spend time with a friend I love and everything is perfect and even the things that go wrong end up right in the end. It was a good day.

[I will probably go back and add pictures to this when my wireless doesn’t think it’s the apocalypse.]

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