For a recap of the first day in Philadelphia, I’ve decided to let my travel companion Lindsay do a guest post. It marks the first guest post on this site. Enjoy!

I woke up this morning at 7:00 because my Uncle Erik’s dog, Max, was whining at my bedroom door. I walked down the stairs, feed him 1 inch of dry dog food, filled his water dish and made the two peanut butter/cracker sandwiches he receives every morning to secretly give him his daily pills. I put my last load of clothes in the washer and hopped in the shower. I finished cleaning up my Uncle Erik’s house (Denise and I trashed it all week long) and finished packing. I got on the road at 9:10 a.m., only 10 minutes behind schedule! Now�for anyone who knows me, that is a small miracle in itself�a definite sign for a good day.

I talked on my cell phone the whole way to Saginaw and stopped at Target (forgotten curling iron) before I went to Nick’s. I called him for some reminder directions on my way out of the store and I could hear some impatience in his voice�but it wasn�t even 11:00 a.m. yet! I arrived at Nick’s house at 11:01 a.m. and surprisingly, he didn’t even seem annoyed. That’s one of Nick’s great qualities! I can annoy the hell out of him, but he never lets me know it bothers him. At 11:20, we were off to begin our adventure.

As we arrived in Flint, with plenty of time to spare, we looked for the long term parking lot. Nick NEVER gets lost, so when we missed the turn, it was because the path was not clearly marked with blinking signs. We finally found a spot in the economy lot. Speaking of which, what is the difference between the short term/long term lots and the “economy” lots? If it was more economical to park in the economy lots, wouldn’t everyone? Why would anyone waste their time in the short/long term lots?

We made our way into the airport and Nick was nearly raped by the security check-in guy. All my things made it though the check point fine, but Nick had to empty his pockets, and eventually had to take his belt off! They said he should take off his shoes, but he refused. Come on�a man has limits!

We jumped on our pint-size plane and enjoyed our flight to Chicago. Well, Nick enjoyed it because he got to make fun of me. I forgot about the time change and made an idiot comment about how our flight would only be 15 minutes. I really only do these things for Nick�s entertainment. After the 40th joke about how we’d be there any minute, we landed. We made our way to the terminal, watched the USA Basketball team lose to Puerto Rico (how does that happen?) and wandered around to take pictures of random folk. Our flight to Philly was much better than the flight to Chicago because it didn’t remind me of a roller coaster at Cedar Point. We landed at about 6:00, got our luggage and took a taxi to the hotel. Our taxi driver was telling police, drivers and pedestrians where to go using some very colorful language. I have never heard so much swearing in my life and that is saying a lot considering I live with Jeremy Kranzo. The driver had to drive around some free concert and charged us an extra $5 because he was pissed. Did I mention he didn’t even drive us to the hotel? He dropped us off at the end of the block, claiming he couldn�t get any closer. When we walked into the parking lot, there were 2 taxis dropping off passengers. Suckers that’s what we are.

We checked into the hotel, which Nick swears smells musty or something. It looks a little scary from the outside (you’d never know from the website), but the room is nice and since there is wireless internet, it can’t get much better in Nick’s eyes. After we had our bags settled, we decided to walk out and get some grub. We started walking and honestly could not find a restaurant. We walked for at least a half hour before we even saw a restaurant. We walked by some spectacular architecture and sculptures though, so not knowing where we were going was worth it.

We ate at a place called the Marathon Grille. We got some burgers and had about 20 drinks between the two of us because we were dehydrated from our journey. The food was good but we became quickly annoyed when the waiter stopped attending to us after he gave us the bill. Nick put his credit card out for him to take but he just kept avoiding us. After waiting for 10-15 minutes for this man to pick up our payment, Nick looked at the receipt and noticed it said “Please Pay Cashier.”

Nick got us lost on the way home, but we finally made it to the hotel after my superior directional sense kicked in. We had to switch rooms to get the wireless internet and finished up the night watching the Olympics. I have a fun-filled week planned for Mr. Momrik and I am really looking forward to doing all the tourist things during the day while he’s in class.

-Lindsay Marie Lawes