I'm behind on my blogging. Tomorrow I leave for another trip and I'm only just now getting to last week's trip. It's true that I was in Philadelphia for a child abuse and neglect conference. It's also true that I presented on fatal maltreatment, heard some interesting discussions, and saw and spoke to one of the most influential members of the child welfare community, but who wants to hear about that, right?
I stayed at Club Quarters, which was surprisingly rewarding. My room was a little small and difficult to use, but I loved the hotel. Outside of each elevator, there was a water filling station - complete with empty water bottles...for free! I really liked this.
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| Water filling station. Those are not lights, but empty bottles for water. |
But, more than anything I loved the bottomless cup of M&Ms. I am an absolute chocolate nut, so it was a good thing that I only stayed for 2 nights, or I surely I would have gained 10 pounds while I was there.
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| Here are the M&Ms. Just turn the knob and voila!!Come back as many times as you like! |
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| Here's my work station at the hotel...complete with M&Ms! |
The hotel also had iPads for use, yoga "kits," and the like. I didn't use any of these or get pictures of the signs stating that they were available. There was one snag with my hotel room. As soon as I arrived I noticed that the flush didn't work very well on the commode. I had to hit it multiple times in order to get it to flush. Whatever, I thought. As long as eventually everything goes down! Well, it didn't take long for things to unravel. A few hours later, I hit the lever and the toilet would screech, but no water action at all. I called the front desk and they sent up a staff person who confirmed that my toilet would not flush (thank you for clarifying that!). The staff person said to me, Okay. Let's get you a new room. I protested. I just needed a bucket. I can fill a bucket and flush the toilet toilet manually. He seemed unconvinced. He left. I got a call from the front desk to see if my problem had been resolved. No, but if I can just have a bucket... I didn't want to change rooms. I was unpacked and all settled. The front desk staff didn't really believe me either. Eventually, someone arrived at my room with a bucket, with the agreement that a plumber would come by the next day and solve the problem. So much for having a productive work night at the hotel! M&Ms and toilets not flushing. What a lot of distractions!
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| Said problem toilet with the bucket. |
I'm not big on cities and I'm also not big on traveling without Neil. We have such limited time to travel together and limited funds to do so, I hate to use those resources without Neil along. But, I travel regularly to conferences and make the best of it, which usually means trips lasting about 48-56 hours in total. I love facts and figures and social history, so I usually do well with a city tour. I found out about the Big Bus tours of Philadelphia, called regarding which stop was closest to my hotel, and set off to catch a bus which would arrive in 25 minutes...unless one walks to the wrong stop and then it is actually 50 minutes. I know, I know...I did this when I was in Chicago last summer, too.
When it came around, I hopped on a bus that looked just like the one above...except the top was closed because of the rain that was predicted (and possible tornadoes). I tried to sit up top anyway so that I could see better and hear the announcer. I was immediately driven to the lower level because of the tremendous heat. So, I sat on the main level, where the doors were open to help with the heat. The bus was so noisy with the doors open that I could only hear the announcer about 75% of the time. I took the occasional photo when the opportunity presented itself. I tried not to get too grumpy about the situation, but then a mother and son boarded the bus and started to argue so loudly that I could only hear the announcer maybe 50% of the time. A couple and their young children sat right behind me and discovered that they knew someone across the isle. At this point, I was hearing the announcer only 25% of the time. Then I pretty much gave up when I saw the bus driver texting at the stoplights. At one such impending stop I saw a pedestrian waiting on a green area near where we were going to stop. He started running toward the bus, ran right up to the driver's window, and passed the driver something to eat. She was all smiles. They yelled back and forth to each other a few times, waved goodbye, and the texting resumed at the next stoplight. I was reminded of Charlie on the MTA. At this point, the bus came to stop #1 and I learned that there would be a 25 minute wait until it resumed the route. I took a look at the map and realized that I was about 10 blocks from my hotel, but only about 5 minutes from losing my remaining sanity on this damned tour bus, so I abandoned my city tour and walked back to the hotel. Here are some pictures that I snapped along the tour.
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| Philadelphia City Hall |
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| The oldest post office in the USA |
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| The original house for Congress. |
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| View of the city from the room where I gave my conference presentation, at UPenn Medical Center |
Let's hope that I do better in Las Vegas next week!
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