Our March Trip to Philadelphia – Day 1

Tuesday morning was a rather hectic day. This was Spring Break for the kids here in NJ, so looked at what to do while the kids had a week off. I was obviously free as a jaybird, so we decided to go to Philadelphia. You know, we’ve been there numerous times, but we had never stayed there and seen the sights.

Readington Terminal Market

Readington Terminal Market

We were leaving for Philadelphia on Tuesday morning, but we had a number of errands to run. This list of errands included dropping off my train station quarterly payment, dropping off keys to my Dad so he could  watch the cats, go to the dry cleaners, etc. In the midst of packing and charging our devices, my phone (while still charging) somehow toppled off the nightstand and landed on the carpeted master bedroom floor. Now, this should not have been an issue, but somehow I damaged the phone. Maybe the digitizer cable inside the phone was unplugged or damaged, but the screen didn’t work. Nothing. Nada. Just a few green pixels was it. Leaving on a trip, waiting for interview requests (or job offers!) to come in, and I’d have no phone. Egads.

I strongly considered buying a new phone on AT&T, but the cost…. the cost! After a quick family meeting, we decided I would migrate to Verizon Wireless by joining her account and we would share a line. This may be cheaper in both the short and long term. However, we didn’t have time to hit the Verizon store before leaving, as we were supposed to meet my brother-in-law Robbie for lunch at Readington Terminal Market in Philadelphia. We packed up the car as fast as we could, ran the most high priority errands, and got on the road to Philly.

We found some parking near the market, found Robbie, and walked around indoors within this gargantuan structure. Lots of food and places to shop. We got some food, but the best “seating” we could find was two tall standing tables in a far corner of the market. No matter, we made due. Afterwards, we took a walk around the area, including a Macy’s to buy me a belt.

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We have matching Galaxy S7 phones now

Eventually, Robbie went back to the office, and we made our way to the nearest Verizon Wireless store. The gods were kind — turns out we would save a good $80 a month if I dropped AT&T and shared a plan with my wife. Furthermore, Samsung was running a promotion where if you purchase one S7 or S7 Edge, you get a 2nd one for free. (You apply for a credit, and they provide the credit to you, but still same idea as getting a new phone.)

So there we were, standing around the Verizon store for a few hours while I got my phone number ported over, and Namita got her data transferred over. Yes, hours. You can bet your sweet bippy that I opted for the phone insurance, a sweet case, and a screen protector. I had been considering the S7 Edge, but they were completely sold out for 100 miles around (for at least a week), so I said hey, whatever, S7 is fine. It’s been less than two years since I replaced my broken S4 and bought the S5, so I would still be on the hook to cover the remaining payments. Argh.

20160330_205202By the time we finished all this, it had been 3 hours. Yes, seriously. I went with the kids to pick up the car from the parking garage, came back to pick up Nums, and then we drove to the Doubletree Hotel in Center City. By this time, we were all fairly exhausted, and no one had any energy to go out for dinner. Well, I did, but I was overruled. We ended up ordering some delicious Korean food from BonChon Chicken via Seamless (first time!), chilling out in the hotel, and watching tv.

Our plans for the rest of the week would be more exciting. We purchased a 3-day Philadelphia Pass, and we planned to hit a few of the museums and bus tours around town.

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1 Response to Our March Trip to Philadelphia – Day 1

  1. Pingback: Everyone gets a new phone! We purchased two new Galaxy S9+ this week | Tales From The Ipe!

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