KatelynDecember 28, 2019 – January 4, 2020
Where We Stayed: Shannon’s House
Trip Highlights:
- Christmas Activities in Philly
- Mummers Parade
- Christmas at Longwood Gardens
- Hamilton on Broadway
Favorite Restaurants:
Christmas time in Philly! Well, actually New Years.
We spent the week following Christmas in Philadelphia to celebrate the holidays in the city. Quite a bit of time was spent at the house playing games and poker, but we had a few adventures into the city and surrounding areas as well.
Our first adventure of the trip was to Longwood Gardens to see the Christmas displays. In addition to the flower displays, they had a great light show that mimicked a fountain outside the greenhouse.
The following day we ventured into Philadelphia to check out the Christmas displays throughout the city. Our first stop was the Comcast building to watch the Christmas show in their lobby. An entire wall of the lobby was made up of screens which played a holiday show, complete with snowmen that popped up throughout the lobby and rained fake snow down on all those watching.
After lunch at Reading Terminal Market and some wandering through the city, we made our way to Franklin Square to watch their Ben Franklin themed holiday light show. The square was taken up by a massive kite and key filled with lights that danced to the holiday music. The square was packed, but we were able to grab a bench to sit and watch the light show for a while.
The final holiday show of the night was projected onto the side of City Hall. This show used projection mapping to cover the facade of City Hall with new holiday designs. It was a great way to wrap up our day of Christmas in the city.
On the morning of January 1st, 2020, we took the train into the city bright and early to catch the Mummers Parade in center city. The Mummers parade is a tradition in Philadelphia where people dress up in extravagant costumes and put on performances as part of a massive parade throughout the city.
On January 2nd, we once again headed into the city, but instead of exploring Philadelphia, we instead caught a Megabus heading toward New York City. For Christmas this year, Sam surprised Shannon with tickets to Hamilton on Broadway.
We spent a few hours before the show wandering around Times Square, getting bagels (including gluten free) and checking out the Rockefeller Center ice rink. As it was only a few days after the Times Square New Years celebration, the streets were still covered in confetti and the ball had dropped to just above a lit up 2020 sign. Hamilton on Broadway was INCREDIBLE and we had a great day exploring the city!
The rest of the trip was once again filled with lots of games and poker. While we enjoyed those few final days of relaxation, our trip home was anything but relaxing. We left Shannon’s house at 4:30 a.m. to catch a train to the airport. Our original flight was scheduled to leave around 8 a.m. and would get us back to Milwaukee around 10 a.m. While Sam’s parents made it home to Minneapolis no problem, our original flight was cancelled, leading us to re-book for another flight in the early afternoon.
However, after spending 5 hours waiting in the airport, we began to realize that the plane that was supposed to take us home in the early afternoon had never left for Philadelphia, and soon after our re-booked flight was cancelled as well. Seeing others around us begin to rush for the ticket counter, Sam and I grabbed our bags and ran through the airport to get to the ticket counter and re-book yet again for a flight to Dallas with a connection in Dallas to Milwaukee.
We finally crash-landed back at our apartment in Milwaukee at 11:30 p.m. after 19 hours of total travel time. A chaotic end to our otherwise very relaxing holiday vacation.
