Vacation 2010 Recap

This year's vacation took on a theme.

2010 East Coast Tour.

See, when we learned the NATA Annual Meeting and Symposium was to be held in Philadelphia we decided to use that as an opportunity to see parts of the country never visited (at least for me) before.

So in addition to Philly, side trips to New York City and Washington, D.C. were scheduled in addition to some fun in and around the greater Philly area.

We'll approach the travelogue from a tour stop perspective:

Philadelphia - my god, what a dirty place. Sorry Philly Pholks, but it's true. Too many panhandlers. Too many aggressive panhandlers. Our first day there a guy tried his best spiel on us and when we told him "No" he began a profanity laced tirade on us. Then later that night we were with a friend (You were a godsend Solar!) who was kind enough to drive us to a grocery store. As we're getting back in her car a woman walked up and asked us for a ride. When told "No" she stormed off muttering something about "typical Americans".

We did have a good time. Stayed right downtown, literally across the street from city hall. Ate some good food - and before you even ask in the comments, no, I did not get a cheesesteak. I'm a loser. Deal. - and had a good time at the conference. AND got to do some touristy stuff: visited the Constitution Center, saw the Liberty Bell (okay, through the glass - we didn't feel like waiting in a 2 hour line) and Independence Hall. We didn't get to go in Independence Hall due to conflict in our schedule and the National Parks Service tour schedule.

I highly recommend the Constitution Center.

Jenkintown, PA - went to visit a kickrunner friend who lived north of the city. Got to participate in his hometown 5k. Brutally warm/humid and a hilly course, but had a great time.

There were some side trips in New Jersey that week, but that pretty much sums up the first week.

Pictures

The next two legs of the tour in the next few days...