{"id":331,"date":"2004-12-20T07:41:13","date_gmt":"2004-12-20T11:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/?p=331"},"modified":"2009-04-12T19:06:43","modified_gmt":"2009-04-12T23:06:43","slug":"vacation-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2004\/12\/20\/vacation-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Vacation Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

Better than a slide show, here’s some pictures of my vacation!!<\/p>\n

First, though – the details:<\/p>\n

Amanda had a work conference down in NJ (near Parsippany). Two days of meetings, team bonding exercises, etc., followed by a holiday party in the home of the company’s owner. We arrived at 11:30am Thursday morning with enough time for Amanda to shower & get to her first meeting. I spent the time watching TV and resting – I had been up late that night for work-related things (product training down on the cape) and since we had to get up at 5am when we left, and I had driven for 5 hours, I was kind of tired.<\/p>\n

I’ve said enough about that hotel\/conference center already, so let’s skip ahead a day. Friday, Amanda had meetings almost all day, so I was left to fend for myself. I found some parks in the area and snapped this neat picture of a swan:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It was kind of cool, but by and large I was dissapointed with New Jersey. It’s just … boring! Luckily I found a bookstore and the hotel had a hot tub, so I spent much of my time in there, reading (by myself, because as I said, this place was primarily a conference center and during the day people are in meetings!). <\/p>\n

I should note that Amanda’s company’s owner is rich, rich, RICH. His house was huge, very colonial (built in the early 1800s I believe) and very, very ornate on the inside. We’re talking solid marble staircases, ornate woodwork ceilings, polished wood floors, big (BIG) curved single-pane glass windows… the works. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately the party (this would be Friday night) was wayyyyy too much for Amanda and I. I’m no social bug, and of course I knew no one there (and had nothing in common with them) so we left after about an hour and a half. (Amanda’s feet were hurting too, damn those dress shoes – now you know why I prefer sneakers!) <\/p>\n

Sunday morning we left early and headed down to Philladelphia, Pennsylvania. This was a bit more exciting than NJ, although it had it’s downsides, as we shall see. Here’s some pictures! (Click the picture for larger versions.)<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Here we are in downtown Philladelphia!<\/p>\n

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I thought this picture was somehow… appropriate.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

All that money… *sigh*<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

There were people in the markets wearing these kinds of hats. Must be an Amish thing?<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The Constitution center had a very rousing display of the Constitution – and I’m talking about the paper document here, not the ship. I highly recommend it, if you’re ever in the area. Very informative.<\/p>\n

On the way back home, we stopped at an IKEA store … these stores are HUGE. It’s just plain WEIRD. They have a cafeteria on the 2nd floor where you can get a really CHEAP breakfast (like, $0.99!). We had a quick breakfast and a long look around. The stuff is great, and it IS cheap… so we’ll be going back again, probably when we move. It’ll be nice to have something other than Wal-Mart furnature in the house! Fortunately for me and my car, there’s an IKEA in Connecticut, so we don’t have to make quite as long of a drive. <\/p>\n

Besides the fire alarm going off in the hotal just as we were about to check out, the rest of the trip was nice. We had a good time, and it was good to get away & all. Round trip milage was 777 miles – an odd number, don’t you think?<\/p>\n

Now, before I go, let me leave you with this final impression of Philladelphia:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Don’t you just love alleteration? <\/p>\n

Ta-ta for now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Better than a slide show, here’s some pictures of my vacation!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-pictures","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-5l","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":471,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/04\/16\/the-bunny-crisis\/","url_meta":{"origin":331,"position":0},"title":"The Bunny Crisis","author":"Keith Survell","date":"April 16, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"So, I'm back. It's good to back on the 'net, though being unplugged for 7 days (and bathing myself constantly in hot bubbly water) does wonders for the mind. But now there's a crisis to be dealt with - a BUNNY crisis.","rel":"","context":"In "pets"","block_context":{"text":"pets","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/pets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":473,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/04\/08\/vacation\/","url_meta":{"origin":331,"position":1},"title":"Vacation","author":"Keith Survell","date":"April 8, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm going away this week - I'm going to be on vacation in Sanbornton, NH. I'm going to be pampering myself with hot spas, golf, more hot spas, spas, sleep, games, movies, still more spas (did I mention spas?) and some other stuff, probably involving food and\/or alcohol. Probably more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "personal"","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":736,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2006\/05\/01\/motivational-picture\/","url_meta":{"origin":331,"position":2},"title":"Motivational Picture","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 1, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Amanda found a site that lets you make your own motivational posters from your own pictures... and this was the result.","rel":"","context":"In "pets"","block_context":{"text":"pets","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/pets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":575,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/07\/18\/canoing-take-ii\/","url_meta":{"origin":331,"position":3},"title":"Canoeing, take II","author":"Keith Survell","date":"July 18, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the weekend we went canoeing again. We were going to go in the Nashua, but it turned out to be too shallow, so we went to a lake in Leominster State Forest, on Route 31. Here's some pics!","rel":"","context":"In "My Life"","block_context":{"text":"My Life","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":485,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/05\/23\/bunny-pics\/","url_meta":{"origin":331,"position":4},"title":"Bunny Pics","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 23, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Amanda bought Gus a cardboard house called a \"cottontail cottage.\" It took him a little while to get used to going up & down the ramps, but he seems to like it.","rel":"","context":"In "pets"","block_context":{"text":"pets","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/pets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":583,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/07\/30\/new-coffee-maker\/","url_meta":{"origin":331,"position":5},"title":"New Coffee Maker","author":"Keith Survell","date":"July 30, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I finally get a pod-based coffee machine of my own. And I love it.","rel":"","context":"In "personal"","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}