Time to share the cell phone pictures from Day 3 of my work trip to Philadelphia. This was the first day I had to work as they finally started to get our booth put together enough for us to start setting up. This meant I didn’t really eat lunch and breakfast was a free bagel from the Computer Mine training session. But supper. Supper would end up being epic. As we had the greatest server in history, had the restaurants resident toker sent to our table to talk to us about dispensaries, and were introduced to turtle pornography. Or as the rest of the world calls it, nature films.
As I started Day 3 this is what was left in the per diem fund:
$458.89
Here are the pictures, not very many this time:
Preach!
Look at this micro-sculpture! Pathetic. Get on Des Moines’ level Philadelphia!
As it turns out, I didn’t know this was referencing turtle porn.
Free breakfast at the training session that mercifully I got to skip this year.
I didn’t know that Philadelphia was known for bagels, but even this hotel bagel was lit. And I put Philadelphia Cream Cheese on it in Philadelphia!
The view from the training room was quite a bit better than from my hotel room.
After setup, I stopped and got a smoothie inside the Reading Terminal. They were out of “mango”, and it also wasn’t very good.
Cathie frequently organizes these great group meals on these trips. I can’t stress enough that she ORGANIZES these meals.
We took an Uber into New Jersey. Like 30 miles into New Jersey to a Melting Pot. Not gonna lie, my expectations for this meal weren’t set real high.
I was mostly just along for the ride.
Reaction shot to watching a turtle make sweet, sweet love to a Croc. The shoe. Not the animal.
My observations:
- It really was a great bagel for breakfast.
- Breakfast was free!
- I ate Philadelphia Cream Cheese in Philadelphia. Cross it off the list. Like eating a hamburger in Hamburg or a Frankfurter in Frankfurt. Oooh… or a Boston Cream Pie in Boston!
- Whatever smoothie shop I went to in the Reading Terminal. Avoid like the plague if you ever go there.
- It was called Four Seasons Juice.
- That terrible smoothie cost me $8.34.
- Although I had low expectations for The Melting Pot, it was one of the best (maybe not taste-wise) meals on the trip. I was definitely glad I went. It was one of the most memorable nights on the trip.
- If you have never been, there are 3 courses of fondue at The Melting Pot. Cheese. Broth. Chocolate. There is also a salad.
- I was expecting this meal to run over $100, but it came to $65. I’m not sure what the math was on this and I didn’t get involved. I just paid what I was told.
- Marijuana isn’t legal in Pennsylvania, but it is in New Jersey. So they sent the restaurant’s resident pothead to talk to us about area dispensaries. But at the end of the day, we were there until after 9:30. The dispensaries closed at 8. No joy in Mudville. Or whatever town we were in. Although I do have to question his stoner cred a little bit. He failed the question of “What is your favorite band?” He answered the Foo Fighters. But he was a nice enough guy, so we let it slide.
- Our server was amazing and not just because she told us about how her favorite professor watches turtle pornography to wind down at the end of a busy day. She even sat down with us for a bit and conversed with us. She answered all of our questions. Even though most of our questions were not remotely restaurant related. We learned about many of her tats. We learned that middle age starts at 40. She claims the Earth isn’t flat, but we all know the science on that isn’t complete. Also, she was really good at her job.
- If you ever try to send somebody money in Venmo, the transaction will fail if you include the word “pornography”. Pro tip for you I learned during my time in New Jersey.
After Day 3, the following was left in the Per Diem Fund:
$385.25
Would that last for the 4 remaining days of the trip? The adventure will continue next Sunday!