I just got back from my conference in the Philadelphia area, and I wanted to post a trip report of the week. I've never posted a trip report before, so I apologize if it's not up to par! And I apologize for it being so long, but we saw/did a lot while we were there.

We arrived Monday evening (after a very long car ride with a 2 month old) in Norristown where we were staying. We expected a long trip, but we were very proud of our little guy. I had booked reservations at the Hyatt Summerfield Suites in Norristown (about 2 miles from the Plymouth Meeting Mall). We made our reservation through Hotwire at $99/night ($150 through regular websites). We arrived and thought we had a 1 BR suite to find out we were in a smaller studio suite (queen bed instead of king bed; all one room, not separate bedroom).

I realize that with Hotwire that you get what you get, but I thought I would ask. I called the front desk and asked them if they could find anything bigger for us. After a couple of minutes, they called up and said they had a 1 BR suite across the hall that we could have instead. We really appreciated it, and the room was great. Just some info about this hotel/room - bed was great; bathroom - clean; sink area is in the bedroom, so that was kind of annoying for my wife in the mornings as I got ready for my conference; full refrigerator; 2-top stove. The pool is nice and hot tub is a good size and depth. Breakfast is a little lacking, although the food was good. They struggled keeping everything stocked, and it wasn't overly crowded. One morning they ran out of white bread, and I was told that someone ran to the store (one block away) to get it. 30 minutes later as we left the breakfast area - still no bread. They have different signs for the room doors - refresh, full service, etc - so you can get just what you want from the housekeepers. They don't pay any attention to what your door card says. Each morning we just requested the "refresh" - new towels and empty trash only. They would do everything, even wash dishes - including things we would not want anyone else to wash (bottles/nipples, breast pump equipment, etc). I know - we could've hidden that stuff, but you would think the door card would cover it all - since they do provide it. Overall, a really nice hotel and the desk workers are great and very helpful. Just a little quirky on some things around the property.

This proved to be a great location for what our plans were. It was a short 15-20 minute drive over to Wayne, PA where my conference was being held. I would leave each morning around 8:15 for my 8:45 opening session and be back at the hotel by 4:15 each day. Now on to the activities of the week.

MONDAY NIGHT - picked up a few groceries at the local store so my wife could just fix lunch at the hotel.

TUESDAY - when I returned from the conference, we headed out to King of Prussia to the mall (about 10-15 minutes). Wow - so huge! We had a great time walking around, and our son loved looking at everything and all the bright lights. It was an enjoyable evening, and a place my wife would've loved to spend the day without a 2 month old so she could've done some serious shopping. We decided on the Cheesecake Factory at the mall for dinner - one of our favorite chains that is nowhere near our home.

WEDNESDAY - We decided to head out to the Chestnut Hill area. After driving from the hotel (which sits on Germantown Pike) for about 20 minutes, we realized we were going the wrong way. With a screaming baby in the car (he hates his carseat), we didn't notice going the wrong way as quickly as one normally would. Oh well...we finally got to Chestnut Hill just as most of the shops were closing at 5:00. If they would just stay open until 6:00!!! We did find a few shops that were open a little later and focused on those. We spent some time walking a few of the blocks - browsed through the cheese shop, a toy store, a garden shop with gorgeous flowers and plants, and took note of a great looking little bakery that we wanted to visit for dessert (open til 9:00). Upon recommendation from a sales clerk, we had dinner at Fiesta - a pizza/sub place. It was great and actually what we thought were cheap prices. We had a stromboli and a cheese steak and split them to try both. Food was excellent and service was great! Several families were there, and we enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere. We found our way back to the bakery for a wonderful dessert pastry. Mmmm...what we miss by living in a boring town!

THURSDAY - We planned to visit Longwood Gardens on this day. I went back to the hotel at lunchtime to get my wife and son and they relaxed under a shade tree on the grounds where the conference was held for the afternoon. We headed out to Longwood Gardens and arrived in the area around 3:30. We decided to walk around Kinnett Square (spelling?) and grab early dinner there before heading to Longwood. We didn't find too much to look at around the street shops (although we enjoyed just walking around and the atmosphere), so we decided on an early dinner at Newton's on State St. at 4:30. With a baby, it's nice to find a nice atmosphere restaurant with no customers - less pressure to keep a baby quiet! We had dinner while our little guy slept and it was wonderful - great food and great service!

We arrived at the Longwood Gardens a little after 5:15 to spend the rest of the evening. How spectacular!!! We had such a great time walking the grounds, taking pictures, and just spending time together. The evening was absolutely beautiful and there was a concert at 7:30 by the West Chester Concert Band. We sat on a blanket on the lawn for 40 minutes listening to the band - a highlight for me being a full-time musician. We then headed to the conservatory around 8:15 to see the indoor exhibits while we waited for the illuminated fountain show. We didn’t have enough time to see everything that we would want to see, but it was sufficient and definitely worth the $16/person entrance fee. We stayed around for the illuminated fountain show at 9:15 and watched from the upper terrace. The weather was great – a little warm but a nice breeze. The fountain show was beautiful and very enjoyable – all set to the music of Gershwin for that night. We had a great time and loved the beautiful scenery (especially the Italian garden area). Thanks so much for the recommendation of this place – we would love to return here someday.

FRIDAY – we added an extra night at the hotel for Friday night booking through the Hyatt website and got a rate of $97 for this extra night. We planned to go to Old City to see some of the historic sites. It was very hot, and we got a later start than expected. We grabbed breakfast at the hotel and headed out to the Norristown Transportation Center to catch the SEPTA regional rail into downtown. We passed the Elm St. station and thought we missed the Trans. Center, and we then saw the Main St. station so we went ahead and stopped there and found one last parking spot. We had missed the 9:10ish train by about 10 minutes, and somehow I thought they ran every 15 minutes. So we ended up sitting at the SEPTA stop for about 40 minutes waiting on the next one. It was a 40 minute ride on the SEPTA, and we bought our tickets to City Center on the train - $5/each. We had a big travel system stroller with us, and it was very easy finding space and getting it up the steps of the passenger car. I did have to break it down, but we were able to just set it in the seats beside us. The SEPTA ride was great because we were able to hold our baby and not have to put him in a car seat to cry for an hour – would’ve paid a lot more for this benefit!

We made a quick stop at Kmart across from the Market St. station exit for a quick baby feeding (fitting rooms make perfect spots for nursing). We were then on our way to the Independence Visitor Center to pick up tickets for the Independence Hall tour. We had called in advance to reserve tickets at $1.50 each, but were told that they weren’t doing reserved tickets for that day. Actually, the national parks person at the toll free number said that nothing was open that day at all. I questioned it, and she gave me a number to the Indep. Visitor Center so I could talk to someone directly on site. They told me that there weren’t tickets available for Friday, but if we arrived before noon there wouldn’t be a problem getting tickets. We walked in at 11:00 and the worker at the entrance said they were all gone and had been since about 9:00 that morning. So disappointing – I wanted so badly to see the inside of Independence Hall. They have an open house where you can walk through without a tour guide from 4:00-6:00, but we didn’t think we’d still be around at that time due to the baby. Someone on Fodor’s had mentioned going to the entrance of Indep. Hall to see if tickets had been turned in, so we thought we’d give it a shot. We headed out to the Liberty Bell Center and joined the long line outside to see the Liberty bell. The line moved very quickly, and we were soon inside checking out the exhibit – very informative and great setup. We then moved on towards Independence Hall. There was a security person that we stopped and asked about tickets, and they said they were so crowded this week that it would be highly unlikely to be able to get into a group, but she told us to check with the ranger doing the entrance of the tour on the other side of the security checkpoint. As we went through security, we heard them calling any more people for that tour group. We walked right over there and asked if any tickets had been turned in. He said no, but to give him a minute. He walked in the little meeting room where the tour starts, walked back out and said there are 3 seats left – go on in. We were so blessed – from not having tickets to being in the first tour that we were there for. The only downside was the middle school field trip that dominated our tour group – so noisy and disrespectful. It was sad to see how dis-interested they were, standing in the rooms where the framework for our country was put together.

We continued on to see Benjamin Franklin’s grave – paid the $2 for entrance, not realizing that his grave was visible from the sidewalk through the fence. Oh well…

From there we went by the 2nd Bank of America where we saw a demonstration going on for kids – looked fun for the kids.

Stopped in at the Bourse Building and grabbed lunch at Liberty Chicken (great chicken fingers) for a quick break followed by some really good ice cream right next to Liberty Chicken.

We made a quick stop at the National Constitution Center but chose not to pay the entrance fee.

We were quite hot by this point and wanted to be careful about the heat and the baby, so we decided to call it a day. We really wanted to visit the Reading Terminal Market, but it was just too much to do with our 2 month old. We headed back and bought tickets ($4.25/each) for the return trip from the Market Street station. Had about 30 minutes to kill, so we ran in a few shops and bought some soft pretzels for a quick snack. Finding seats and room for the stroller on the return trip on the regional rail were much more difficult, but thanks to a very nice passenger, we finally found something that worked.

Went back to the hotel where we fixed a light dinner in the room and took a quick dip in the pool and the hot tub to relax for our last night.

We definitely had a great time and enjoyed everything. Things we didn’t get to do that we would’ve liked: Valley Forge National Park, the zoo, Reading Terminal Market, visiting Ikea (visible from the interstate on I-476). I must say the Chestnut Hill area is absolutely beautiful and we would’ve enjoyed spending more time there.

The traffic really wasn’t a problem, and we were able to time things well for going and returning. Thanks so much for all the suggestions and recommendations that people on this board gave to us! And a special thanks if you’ve actually read this trip report all the way to the end!

I read it and I enjoyed it

You really saw and did a lot too !
Thank you for posting ~

Yay! Glad you had a good time; I was actually thinking about y'all this week (it was sooooo hot, wasn't it?)

Great trip report; I hope you can get back to Philadelphia some time for the things that you missed, and to spend some more time in the various lovely neighborhoods like Chestnut Hill.

lakeside, thanks for updating... I thought of you last week in the excessive heat and humidity. I was hoping that it wouldn't derail plans too much.

Quite honestly, I'm amazed how much you did - wow!

thanks for the report -

Was the bakery/cafe in Chestnut Hill called Cake (on Highland just off Germantown Ave)? It's a lovely place to stop and they serve excellent La Colombe coffee (note: the new Fodors Phila/PA Dutch country guide incorrectly says Cake is on Evergreen Avenue).

It was a lot of fun. The heat was bearable and it was actually perfect on Thursday for checking out the gardens.

I'd like to post a few pics if possible. Any suggestions how to do that with this trip report?

It was actually the Bredendeck Bakery on Germantown.

We also had some great iced apricot tea at a tea bar in Chestnut Hill, too.

Ahh, them. They've been around for decades. Used to be THE place to go for ice cream on hot days. Now the emphasis is more on the baked goods.

People were all sitting around outside eating ice cream, but we were more interested in the bakery for this moment. Everything we tried was really good.

You can download your photos onto Photobucket.com and then post them here.
That is the only way I know of.. Yahoo ate all my photos

Thanks for the report, lakeside. I live about 20 minutes west of King of Prussia and work just 5 minutes from Longwood Gardens. I wish I had read the Independence Hall advice as my daughter and I visited some historical sites a couple of months ago, but I couldn't get tickets for Independence Hall and I wasn't as resourceful as you were. So glad you enjoyed everything.

I think our cute 2 month old helped us get into Independence Hall - everyone was enamored with him and worked it out for us.

SOOooo glad you made it to Longwood Gardens! Have always wanted to do the evening music and fountains... glad you did.

Hi lakeside-

Thanks for your report! The Longwood Garden visit sounded really lovely. And I'm glad you were able to get into Independence Hall despite the frustrations; esp you decided to stay an extra day for that. I can't believe the timed tickets are gone by 9am!

Also I'm happy to hear that the hotel was accomodating to your request and got you a bigger room despite a Hotwire purchase.

Here are some of the pictures from our trip. Hope this link works.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lakeside...ey=M5gIzQzT2Ag

Longwood Gardens are lovely but I liked this photo the best


http://lh6.ggpht.com/lakesidebapt/SF...JPG?imgmax=512

same here!

Great pics, lakeside. What a nice looking family you have!

Lovely photos! Thanks for sharing.

Excellent trip report, lakeside! And lovely photos!

I have to ask, were you always appreciative of our history, or did you just come to realize it when you became an adult? I ask, because my aunt had a Masters in History and I really could have cared less when I was in jr. high. But, by the time I was 16 or so, I started finding world history fairly interesting. And, of course, now that I'm "middle-aged", I am a fanatic about it. hahaha

So, curious if you were like those jr. high kids when you were a jr. high kid.