The wife and I will be in Philadelphia next month. A Dopefest has been suggested. Anyone up for it? Our timing is a little awkward though. We won’t get in until late on Saturday, April 14, four weeks from today (it’s Saturday now here). We have to leave very early on the Wednesday morning, so staying out late the night before is probably not a good idea. We may be looking at a Monday night for a fest, but I doubt that’s going to set well with people’s work schedules. Anyone want to go see the Liberty Bell with us on Sunday?
I shall be in Philly (my new bride’s hometown) from the 19 to the end of the month. In truth my schedule looks fairly full (doctor appointments mainly), but if I can I would love to see some of youse guys.
We’ve done Sunday afternoon dopefests walking around the historic district before, so that’s not out of the question. I could do dinner Monday also, esp. if it were on the earlier side.
I’m afraid we’ll be leaving Philly on the 18th for Gettysburg, then arriving in Washington on the 19th.
That sounds possible on the Sunday, the 15th, then maybe find someplace to chow down that evening. We were planning to do the historic district that Sunday. Monday’s pretty open for us. I’m sure too that someone can point us to the ultimate Philly cheesesteak. (We’re not vegetarians; the meatier and cheesier the better.)
I mentioned to the wife we’d be meeting some “Internet people” while in town. She’s a bit wary about that, wondering if maybe I really have been hitting up underage boy prostitutes after all. She’s been taking my word for it that I’m not.
Pencil me in as a maybe for Sunday. If I can get Gramma to take the sprog, I’ll be there.
Sprog? Is that one of those Amish buggies?
I’ve heard that something called the Continental Restaurant + Martini Bar in the Historic District is good. Would that be a potential meeting point come lunchtime?
That is in fact where we had lunch the last time we had a historic district dopefest – we did a fixed price thing with a variety of dishes served family style. A few people didn’t go to the restaurant because it was too expensive, but it was the only place I came up with in the area that could take a large crowd during the day. (There were about 12 of us IIRC.)
The sprog is my nine-year-old son. He sometimes likes to go to Philly, but he’s not good about sharing me with other people. So off to Gramma’s he goes!
Sounds like a good place. We’re definitely up for there, but I hate to cut anyone out. If you are able to find a more economical alternative this time around that people would feel comfortable with, that would be good too.
Ah, I see. That’s different, isn’t it?
I don’t know that we’d need to make arrangements in advance if we hit a restaurant after the main lunch rush, like around 2 or so. If we were a la carte people could buy according to their budgets.
Other possibilities that are not necessarily real crowded post lunch rush: Rotten Ralph’s at 2nd and Chestnut, or, a few doors up from there, Khyber Pass. Both sandwiches, etc., sort of places – the latter, my friends who drink tell me, has an excellent selection of beers.
I’ll leave it in your capable hands. Anything will be fine. We have no special dietary requirements.
Any of the weekday folks want to get involved?
I’m up for a Fest.
I think.
I’m out, alas; I already have something scheduled on the 15th. Probably won’t be back in the city until dinnertime.
Does Gramma want more sprogs? I’m in the same boat, if the G-rents are available then I am too.
Gramma’s perfectly happy with the one sprog. But I understand.
What’s the weather like mid-April? We don’t even own a coat anymore and had to dig a couple of sweaters out of storage just in case.
It’s been a very mild winter. Well, no, actually we had no winter at all. Projected highs this week in the 70s, which is about 20 degrees above normal.
You should be fine with sweaters.
We’re just a few days away from flying out of here now. Any updates on the location? Still a couple weeks until we hit Philadelphia.
Man, times are really changing. Two years ago, when we traveled through Vietnam, that was our first lengthy trip where we did not take along traveler’s checks. Everyone said just to use our ATM card to pull out cash in dong (the local currency). I had to get a new ATM card for that, but that’s what we did. However, if anything had gone seriously wrong, such as a lost or stolen card, we could have just hopped a plane back to Thailand and been here in an hour or so if worse came to worst and we really had to. This time we’ll be on the other side of the world, so we thought we’d keep a small stack of traveler’s checks for an emergency. But now we learn they’ve become so rare that we have to trek to certain bank branches inconveniently located just to get some. So we’ll pass on those. Luckily Bangkok Bank, one of our banks, has a branch in Manhattan, and we can rely on them in the event of a catastrophe. But what do people do in this new age if they lose their ATM card while somewhere else in the world? Traveler’s checks could always be replaced with a minimum of fuss.