Lcuy's quick trip to Princeton and Philadelphia
Nov 14th, 2005 | 09:04 PM
#1
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Joined: Jan 2003
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Lcuy's quick trip to Princeton and Philadelphia
Tals about spur of the moment. I found out my daughter was perticipating in the "belly of the Carnagie novice crew regatta at Princeton on Monday; by Friday afternoon I was on my way from Honolulu.
got a fairly decent ticket on United -$543 HNL to Chicago and PHL. Based on comments herem I got waitlisted at the Nassau Inn in Princeton for Saturday night, and had a room at Marriot Courtyard at the Philadelphia Airport on Sunday night.
On Thursday, the Nassau Inn came through with a room. There really isn't much else in Princeton though, so I grabbed it. Reserved an Alamo compact- $52 total for two days with the Costco discount.
The flight from Honolulu was jsut brutal- Left at 5:20 pm and arrived in Chicago at 5:20 am. An ecomomy seat, no meals on an eight hour flight, and lots of kids. Luckily I had packed food, but many others didn't and seemed quite cranky.
From ORD, it was a quick wait and another 2 hour flight to PHL. UAL is trying the zone boarding again...It should work, but some passengers sneak ahead and then they -the aisle seat people who are zone 4 and should board last- end up blocking the window folks. It only works if the gate agent enforces it.
Several squabbles over checking strollers and suitcases at the door also kept the boarding slow on all my flights.
Anyway..arrived into PHL at about 9:45am. Alamo gave me an "upgrade" to midsize (they were out of compacts)then scolded me when the car I picked from the "midsize" stall was a full size; parked there by their employee by mistake, but how was I supposed to know? They all look alike...
At teh counter, the clerk put my return time as 11:58pm on Sunday. i said that since I had a two day rental, it should say 9:45 am Monday. He gave me some reason and said don't worry, monday would be fine.
I set out for Princeton on 95-N, then cut off at 206. It was a gorgeous day- the tree leaves were still pretty, and there was NO traffic! Took about 45 minutes.
Princeton was much cuter than I expected and the University much grander. I checked into the Nassau Inn. It is an historic Inn right across the street from the University and in the center of lots of interesting shops. Parking is a block away and costs $14/night. Check in was perfunctory..not particularly friendly or helpful. I was given room 504 on the top floor.
The room was very basic- a double bed, two nightstands, and an armoire with TV. No view. Bathroom had a pedestal sink, small shelf and a tub with shower head. The bed had a double sheeted blanket and two pillows. the TV had a very limited number of channels. Really a small and unimpressive room. Luckily the weather was warm, as the heater didn't work and the roll up window shade, didn't.
I really felt it was grossly overcharged at $215 plus taxes, but is was decent, and I had things to do, so I didn't complain. I did have to go back and ask for the breakfast that was included.
The Soup Nazi from Seinfeld had just opened a "soup man shop outside the Inn. There were TV reporters and lots of people, but it smelled good, so I got a lobster bisque and salad to eat in my room. It was very tasty.
A little lated, I got word my daughter's team had arrived at the boathouse. Her coach told me to just walk down, but the hotel clerks thankfully sugessted I drive (it was about a mile away!).
I was able to surprise my daughter just before they did a practice, and the coaches were really kind in filling me in on the sport and their team. After practice, I followed their bus on a drive thru of Princeton and then out to the Holiday Inn on Independence road off route One. We all had a buffet dinner and I hung out with the girls for a while, until they discovered the Harvard boys crew team down the hall, and left the action! I'll have to add that the Holiday room was much larger and more nicely equipted than my Nassau Inn. The location was really out of town though.
The race the next day was a lot of fun, as well as the Potluck afterwards. One of my daughter's high school classmates who is attending Princeton came by, and one of my older daughters High school classmates was rowing for the GW team! It is such a small world!
I got a guided tour of Princeton by driving our Princeton student back to his dorm and then took off for Philadelphia around 2 pm.
Checked into the Marriott Courtyards just accross from PHL Airport. Very friendly hotel staff, a large room with a king bed and a pull out couch, balcony, and big bathroom and vanity area. All this, plus free parking, breakfast, free internet access and a computer in the lobby and coffee and snacks, for 89$ a night.
Went to dinner with an old college friend. It's been about 30 years since we'd seen each other. We had a wonderful time. She ahd picked a nperfect restaurant-'Georges' sort of near Bryn Mawr. Great French food and even better service; no corkage fee on Sunday nights. Plenty of people, but quiet enough to really talk. We were there for hours and never got the "eye". I'd love to go back again sometime.
Flew out on UAL this morning at 6:00 am. Teh signage at PHL leaves a little to be desired (okay, I got lost and had to circle twice!!). Turned out the deal with my return time at Alamo was going to cost me $15, but that got settled relatively fast.
All in all a fun weekend. Such great weather and I even ended up with an empty seat next to me all the way home!
got a fairly decent ticket on United -$543 HNL to Chicago and PHL. Based on comments herem I got waitlisted at the Nassau Inn in Princeton for Saturday night, and had a room at Marriot Courtyard at the Philadelphia Airport on Sunday night.
On Thursday, the Nassau Inn came through with a room. There really isn't much else in Princeton though, so I grabbed it. Reserved an Alamo compact- $52 total for two days with the Costco discount.
The flight from Honolulu was jsut brutal- Left at 5:20 pm and arrived in Chicago at 5:20 am. An ecomomy seat, no meals on an eight hour flight, and lots of kids. Luckily I had packed food, but many others didn't and seemed quite cranky.
From ORD, it was a quick wait and another 2 hour flight to PHL. UAL is trying the zone boarding again...It should work, but some passengers sneak ahead and then they -the aisle seat people who are zone 4 and should board last- end up blocking the window folks. It only works if the gate agent enforces it.
Several squabbles over checking strollers and suitcases at the door also kept the boarding slow on all my flights.
Anyway..arrived into PHL at about 9:45am. Alamo gave me an "upgrade" to midsize (they were out of compacts)then scolded me when the car I picked from the "midsize" stall was a full size; parked there by their employee by mistake, but how was I supposed to know? They all look alike...
At teh counter, the clerk put my return time as 11:58pm on Sunday. i said that since I had a two day rental, it should say 9:45 am Monday. He gave me some reason and said don't worry, monday would be fine.
I set out for Princeton on 95-N, then cut off at 206. It was a gorgeous day- the tree leaves were still pretty, and there was NO traffic! Took about 45 minutes.
Princeton was much cuter than I expected and the University much grander. I checked into the Nassau Inn. It is an historic Inn right across the street from the University and in the center of lots of interesting shops. Parking is a block away and costs $14/night. Check in was perfunctory..not particularly friendly or helpful. I was given room 504 on the top floor.
The room was very basic- a double bed, two nightstands, and an armoire with TV. No view. Bathroom had a pedestal sink, small shelf and a tub with shower head. The bed had a double sheeted blanket and two pillows. the TV had a very limited number of channels. Really a small and unimpressive room. Luckily the weather was warm, as the heater didn't work and the roll up window shade, didn't.
I really felt it was grossly overcharged at $215 plus taxes, but is was decent, and I had things to do, so I didn't complain. I did have to go back and ask for the breakfast that was included.
The Soup Nazi from Seinfeld had just opened a "soup man shop outside the Inn. There were TV reporters and lots of people, but it smelled good, so I got a lobster bisque and salad to eat in my room. It was very tasty.
A little lated, I got word my daughter's team had arrived at the boathouse. Her coach told me to just walk down, but the hotel clerks thankfully sugessted I drive (it was about a mile away!).
I was able to surprise my daughter just before they did a practice, and the coaches were really kind in filling me in on the sport and their team. After practice, I followed their bus on a drive thru of Princeton and then out to the Holiday Inn on Independence road off route One. We all had a buffet dinner and I hung out with the girls for a while, until they discovered the Harvard boys crew team down the hall, and left the action! I'll have to add that the Holiday room was much larger and more nicely equipted than my Nassau Inn. The location was really out of town though.
The race the next day was a lot of fun, as well as the Potluck afterwards. One of my daughter's high school classmates who is attending Princeton came by, and one of my older daughters High school classmates was rowing for the GW team! It is such a small world!
I got a guided tour of Princeton by driving our Princeton student back to his dorm and then took off for Philadelphia around 2 pm.
Checked into the Marriott Courtyards just accross from PHL Airport. Very friendly hotel staff, a large room with a king bed and a pull out couch, balcony, and big bathroom and vanity area. All this, plus free parking, breakfast, free internet access and a computer in the lobby and coffee and snacks, for 89$ a night.
Went to dinner with an old college friend. It's been about 30 years since we'd seen each other. We had a wonderful time. She ahd picked a nperfect restaurant-'Georges' sort of near Bryn Mawr. Great French food and even better service; no corkage fee on Sunday nights. Plenty of people, but quiet enough to really talk. We were there for hours and never got the "eye". I'd love to go back again sometime.
Flew out on UAL this morning at 6:00 am. Teh signage at PHL leaves a little to be desired (okay, I got lost and had to circle twice!!). Turned out the deal with my return time at Alamo was going to cost me $15, but that got settled relatively fast.
All in all a fun weekend. Such great weather and I even ended up with an empty seat next to me all the way home!
Nov 15th, 2005 | 01:33 AM
#4
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 4,571
Likes: 0
What a journey--all the way from Hnl for a weekend ? Way to go, Mom!! I was in NY a few weeks ago and wanted to visit Philly and, for the first time, Princeton. But the weather was awful--miserably grey and cold (I think the one week in October it was) and we decided instead to hibernate in NY. Thanks for your report, so I could at least read about the place I missed seeing. Were there still gorgeous colored autumn leaves on the trees in Princeton?
Nov 15th, 2005 | 03:45 AM
#5
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 6,267
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Lucy, the best part is that your daughter was happy to see you. I am mom to two young teens right now and I'm not sure they'd like it if I showed up at something they weren't expecting me to be at. Maybe there's hope that they'll change when they are in college.
Nov 15th, 2005 | 01:08 PM
#7
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 12,943
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To me, the leaves looked beautiful...but to experienced East coasters, they were way past the prime! But with the fabulous weather, beautiful lake and lots of orange leaves,it was totally perfect!
Emd- I am lucky to have kids who are happy to see me. I can tell from your travel tales, that your kids will always be happy to see you.
It helped of course, to bring leis for all of her coaches and boatmates, local foods for the potluck, and special food treats (frozen Zippy's chili) for Elyse to take back to her dorm. I am not a "cool" mom, but I can do cool things and I am nice to their firiends, so my girls tolerate me!
I'm still jet lagged and half out of it here at work, but I had so much fun! DD just called and said once the word got out that she had a platter of butter mochi and Zippy's chili, Hawaii kids started arriving at her dorm room from all over! comfort food...better than a hug from mom!
Emd- I am lucky to have kids who are happy to see me. I can tell from your travel tales, that your kids will always be happy to see you.
It helped of course, to bring leis for all of her coaches and boatmates, local foods for the potluck, and special food treats (frozen Zippy's chili) for Elyse to take back to her dorm. I am not a "cool" mom, but I can do cool things and I am nice to their firiends, so my girls tolerate me!
I'm still jet lagged and half out of it here at work, but I had so much fun! DD just called and said once the word got out that she had a platter of butter mochi and Zippy's chili, Hawaii kids started arriving at her dorm room from all over! comfort food...better than a hug from mom!
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Nov 16th, 2005 | 01:18 AM
#10
Joined: Nov 2004
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Anyway..arrived into PHL at about <<9:45am. Alamo gave me an "upgrade" to midsize (they were out of compacts)then scolded me when the car I picked from the "midsize" stall was a full size; parked there by their employee by mistake, but how was I supposed to know? They all look alike...>>
Thank the Japs for introducing boxes as transportation choices to America.
Thank the Japs for introducing boxes as transportation choices to America.
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