Our March Trip to Philadelphia – Day 3

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Joel

Today was tour day!

Breakfast once again in the hotel, then we were off to the races. Or the Visitor Center once again to get tickets to Constitution Hall, Ride the Ducks, Big Bus Tour, and to see the Liberty Bell. We got all historical with it, if you will. We watched another film at the Visitor Center, bought our various tour tickets for the day, etc. The weather was cooperating so far, and I’m glad. Nobody wants to tour a city in the rain.

We caught the 1st tour of the day on Ride the Ducks. This is one of those bus tours around the city, capped off with an excursion into the Delaware River. While the tour was nice, the Coast Guard warned of…. low tide (?) in the river, and it wouldn’t be safe for us to go in. The alternative was to park along the river and look at the city of Camden a20160331-DSC_0573cross the way. Not exactly what we had been anticipating. After the Duck ride, we took a walk and grabbed lunch at Jones restaurant on Chestnut. Excellent food. For the first time, I actually tried fried chicken and waffles. Yes, they were good, but I did feel guilty eating them. How guilty? I let the kids eat half of my lunch. We were in and out of the restaurant fairly soon, and just in time to get back for our 1:40 PM tour of the Constitution Hall.

Now, I haven’t seen this building since, unless I’m mistaken, 1987. Our fifth grade classes took a field trip to Philadelphia that year to see all this stuff. It was an interesting tour — first you wait outside, then you get a 5 minute intro speech from someone at the Parks Department, then you take a tour of the various rooms. Good stuff all around, historically speaking.

After the tour, we jumped on the Big Bus for an abbreviated tour of many of the similar spots from the morning. To be expected, of course. We took the bus halfway, then hopped off near City Hall so that we could walk around. So yes, we walked around, got to see that part of town up close, saw a fellow dressed up like Jesus, then caught a taxi back to the hotel.

I went to work out in the gym (with Lily), and then we went to eat at Butcher and Singer, a very fancy steakhouse. The food was very good, but I had to say, it was nice surprise to learn the restaurant was only two blocks away. Walking distance! Believe it or not, this was Josh and Lily’s first time eating at a fancy steakhouse. Josh shared a large Delmonico steak with me, and Lily had the lobster mac & cheese. They liked it a lot.

Dinner at Butcher & Singer

Dinner at Butcher & Singer

After dinner, the kids went back to the pool one last time for the trip. Their Holmdel friends also showed up, so that made them happy. I was glad to get two workouts in while on vacation.

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Our March Trip to Philadelphia – Day 2

Posted on March 30, 2016 by Joel
#AdmissionFail to the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia

#AdmissionFail to the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia

Wednesday morning, we grabbed a complimentary hot breakfast down in the hotel restaurant, put all of our valuables away, and were off to the Independence Visitor Center to pick up our 3-day Philadelphia Passes. We decided that finding parking in Philadelphia on a daily basis would be a pain, so we agreed to leave the car at the hotel garage, and cab it everywhere. Yes, this would be a first for the Ipes, but we could do it.

We had wanted to at least see the Liberty Bell or Constitution Hall in the morning, but they were basically all out of timed tickets to Constitution Hall for the day, except for 4 PM. Ah well. We checked out the Visitor Center briefly, and watched a short film called “Taking Sides” about the lives of four young persons during the American Revolutionary War. Low production values, but imagine our surprise when we saw a young Kristen Bell (circa 2001) show up as a young Quaker girl. Wowzers.

Anyway, we took a $28 cab ride to the Please Touch Museum near Fairmount Park, the first real stop on our 3-day Philadelphia Pass. Imagine our surprise to find out they don’t participate in the Philadelphia Pass. I don’t know if we missed it somehow, misread it, who knows, but they wouldn’t honor it. We didn’t want to pay extra admission, so we asked them to call us a cab. We decided to head over to the Franklin Institute instead. $20 later, we were inside the Franklin Institute and enjoying it. We skipped any and all movies, but we did opt in and pay extra for admission to The Science of Pixar exhibit. I would highly recommend it. After $40 for lunch in the cafeteria, and walking through so many exhibits, we were awfully tired by 5 PM. We grabbed a taxicab, and went back to the hotel for brief break.

Ay Caramba! Delicious Mexican dinner at El Azteca Uno Mexican restaurant on Chestnut St.

Ay Caramba! Delicious Mexican dinner at El Azteca Uno Mexican restaurant on Chestnut St.

The kids and I hit the fitness center, and then we all got ready for dinner at El Azteca Uno Mexican restaurant. Now the website looks really nice, but it’s a hole-in-the-wall type restaurant. Decor-wise, kitschy and no big deal. Good food, though. After dinner, we got back to the hotel to decompress, then I took the kids to the hotel pool. Yes it was late, but there were plenty of other kids hanging out in the pool. Josh and Lily spent a good hour playing Marco Polo and hanging out with some kids visiting from Holmdel NJ.

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Been using the Samsung Pay service (app?) and I think it’s pretty cool

Posted on March 30, 2016 by Joel

With my new Galaxy S7 in hand (and in Philadelphia), I took the opportunity to try out the newish Samsung Pay mobile payment app/service. Normally I wouldn’t be all that interested, but Samsung was running a promotion through 3/31. If you registered and used it once, you earn a $30 gift card to these five specific retailers, e.g. Best Buy, Nike, Whole Foods, etc. I was most interested in the $30 Best Buy gift card.

It was easy enough. I registered through the app, took a picture of one of my supported credit cards, and set up a PIN (and my fingerprint.) On our very next taxicab ride, I selected ‘Credit’ as my payment option, selected the percentage for tip, swiped my finger on the fingerprint scanner / Home button, and pressed my phone against the key pad / NFC reader.

In a blink of an eye, it was done. Not bad. I usually have my wallet with me everywhere I go, but I guess if you have your phone in hand, you could skip pulling out your wallet.

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Our March Trip to Philadelphia – Day 1

Posted on March 29, 2016 by Joel

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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Happy Easter!

Posted on March 27, 2016 by Joel
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Joel’s review of Meet the Patels (2014)

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Joel

Color me pleasantly surprised to find the documentary Meet the Patels (2014) on Netflix this weekend. This is a documentary starring Ravi Patel, and was directed by both Ravi Patel and his sister Geeta Patel.

I guess you could call it a romantic comedy documentary? I’ve seen Ravi Patel in a number of acting gigs, but most epically in Aziz Ansari’s Master of None series on Netflix. In Meet the Patels, he is himself, an unmarried Indian-American actor in his 30s. The film is about his attempts to find love and hopefully marriage after breaking up with his non-Indian girlfriend Audrey. We witness the various interactions and dynamics as his parents try to introduce him to multiple Indian women over the course of a year. The film also captures the discussions between the family and his sister Geeta, who is not only the camera operator and director, but also the loving sister who is also unmarried, whose single status is also a point of concern and consternation for the Patel parents.

I enjoyed this documentary a lot — there’s a lot of heart in this film, including a look at Indian culture, the perspective of the Patel parents, and the thoughts of both brother and sister. It covers modern romance and cultural assimilation. It’s both thought-provoking and entertaining.

Meet the Patels (2014)

Meet the Patels (2014)

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Joshua’s 11th Birthday Party

Posted on March 8, 2016 by Joel

20160306-DSC_0376For Josh’s 11th birthday, we decided to change it up a bit. Instead of inviting 30 kids to some facility for jumping, pizza and cake, we opted to do something focused more on quality than quantity. Josh invited just three of his friends for a “Sunday Mystery Matinee” live performance of a Star Wars parody. Namita had been down to Peddler’s Village once before with some friends, and they put on a lunch and show aimed at kids. The food is decent, and the floor show is good. To keep Lily company, she brought her friend Sarah along.

Once all of the guests arrived at our house, we took two cars down to Lahaska, Pennsylvania to Peddler’s Village. It’s a nice, quaint little shopping village that appears to attract lots of area folks. Once we parked and checked in at the Cock N’ Bull restaurant, we had a good 45 minutes to kill before the show started. We walked around a bit, and took the kids to a nearby toy shop to play and purchase some small toys.

Once we got back to the restaurant, we all took turns to grab food from the buffet line, and the actors came around in character to hand out stickers and make jokes. The show itself was fairly entertaining, primarily because it was most improvisational. They would grab various kids from the audience to help out with stuff, and ad-libbed a lot of the jokes. It was funny.

After the show, we got a group photo with the cast, then made the drive back home for cake, and to allow the kids time to horse around before their parents came to pick them up.

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Dinner with Doug & Kathy after watching Zootopia

Posted on March 6, 2016 by Joel
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Hibachi dinner with Doug & Kathy

After watching Zootopia Saturday evening with Doug & Kathy, we all went out for hibachi to celebrate Doug’s birthday at Mahzu. Good food and conversation, and no one caught on fire from our proximity to the grill. Always a win-win.

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Joel’s review of Zootopia (2016)

Posted on March 6, 2016 by Joel

Man, it was tough to get decent tickets to Zootopia (2016) on opening weekend. Our friends Doug & Kathy were driving down to our neck of the woods to meet us for the movie, and for dinner out to celebrate Doug’s birthday. Zootopia is the latest film from Walt Disney Animation. Here’s a brief summary:

In a city of anthropomorphic animals, a fugitive con artist fox and a rookie bunny cop must work together to uncover a conspiracy.

The film has a pretty nice cast list:

  • Ginnifer Goodwin – Judy Hopps (voice)
  • Jason Bateman – Nick Wilde (voice)
  • Idris Elba – Chief Bogo (voice)
  • Jenny Slate – Bellwether (voice)
  • Nate Torrence – Clawhauser (voice)
  • Bonnie Hunt – Bonnie Hopps (voice)
  • Tommy Chong – Yax (voice)
  • J.K. Simmons – Mayor Lionheart (voice)
  • Octavia Spencer – Mrs. Otterton (voice)
  • Alan Tudyk – Duke Weaselton (voice)
  • Shakira – Gazelle (voice)

The film was certainly entertaining. Zootopia is a major metropolis where all sorts of animals live and thrive. When Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) becomes the first bunny rabbit to join the police force, she quickly learns how tough it is to fit in. Determined to prove herself, Judy jumps at an opportunity to solve a case of a missing…. otter. However, she has to solve the case in only 48 hours. In order to solve the crime, she enlists the help of Nick Wilde, that fox you see in all of the trailers, commercials, and other ads (voiced by Jason Bateman.)  While the plot follows your basic Disney animated film (hey it’s children), the voice acting, the animation, and the little jokes sprinkled around for the adults are pretty good.  At our local theater, it’s been impossible to catch a showing unless you booked it way in advance. Go see it!

Zootopia (2016)

Zootopia (2016)

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Josh at the NJSFWC state spelling bee

Posted on March 5, 2016 by Joel

We were back in New Brunswick with a lot of other folks for the NJSFWC state spelling bee. Lots of smart kids. We were of course here two weeks ago for the regional competition where Josh placed second.

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Josh has returned to spell!

After Lily went with some friends in the morning to her dance class, we drove up to New Brunswick. The competition eventually started and yes, it was still nerve-wracking. Josh said his goal was to make it to 1st this year, but it was not to be. The word that tripped him up?

“Sponsor.”

Oh well. Surprising, but what can you do. Spelling bees are tough. I had to ask him what happened, because he should have known that word. He said he was feeling hot and lightheaded up there, and he got mixed up. Such is life.

Once the competition was over and prizes were awarded, we drove off in search of lunch. After two failed attempts to eat some Japanese cuisine (one restaurant was closed early, the other was a packed-to-the-gills hole in the wall), we ended up eating at a nearby Boston Market.

So that’s it for spelling bees for the near future. Josh had a good run there, got some minor accolades, an article in the local newspaper, and some prize money. He is rightfully happy to be done memerizing words on endless sheets of paper!

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