Showing posts with label Ballet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ballet. Show all posts

Weekend Getaway!

F.B. & I decided to have a little "staycation" getaway. Saturday into Sunday we checked into the Hyatt at the Bellevue in Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square section. The hotel was just two blocks down from the Academy of Music. I found a nice rate on our room on Agoda.com

Check in was at 3pm on Saturday. We took the train down to Suburban Station. We got downtown around 2pm, so we decided to walk around a little bit. We checked out The Shops at Liberty Place. It's a small mall right near City Hall.

Glass dome roof inside Liberty Place

City Hall
Our Hotel


There was a Starbucks downstairs inside the hotel! They also had a Tiffany & Co, Williams & Sonoma and some other shops downstairs.

Our room!
We headed to dinner after checking in. We ate at Ruby Tuesday at Liberty Place. Then walked around a little after dinner. And I got some Starbucks when we got back to the hotel, hehe.


Sirloin steak, broccoli & mashed cauliflower
Top shelf long island iced tea
Mojito
F.B. with our chocolate lava cake for dessert. 


Art school across the street from the hotel. We could see ballerina's practicing in the studio from the sidewalk. :)
Academy of Music was 2 blocks from the hotel.
Light outside the Academy of Music.
Starbucks & Chocolate back at the hotel!

Courtyard out our hotel window

 Check out was at 12pm. I forgot to take pictures of us when we came back to the hotel after dinner, I was tired. lol. So that's why my hair is wet here.


We checked out shops on Chestnut Street & Walnut Street after checking out. Walnut Street has a bunch of high end shops. The one I really wanted to stop at was L'Occitane!

My loot from L'Occitane! Almond soap, Verbena soap, Almond oil body wash, Verbena hand lotion, Almond lotion, Rose solid perfume.

We decided to head to 30th Street Station to take the train back home. It was sunny, but very cold and windy out! We walked from Broad St all the way to 30th Street Station.

Comcast Center
Church on 17th Street, I liked the red door.

Bridge near Schuylkill Ave.
Oh hi work... see you Tuesday...
30th Street Station, Amtrack building in the back.
Bridge near Schuylkill Ave.
30th Street Station
I got a cute Philadelphia tote bag for work and a metal city souvenir from the book shop inside 30th Street Station. Yeah... playing tourist in my own city again, lol. Ever since my office moved downtown back in December 2010 and I've been riding the trains. I've definitely been checking out more of downtown Philadelphia than ever before.

F.B. tired on the train home.
Me waiting in the car, while F.B. get Wendy's for dinner!
We had a really nice weekend. But boy with all that walking, we are exhausted!

P.S. This was the note F.B. left on my coffee cup and I found when I got to work Thursday morning. (I make my coffee at home in the morning and my travel tumbler goes into my work bag until I get to work).


Other Philadelphia Adventures:
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The Nutcracker & A Holiday Giveaway!

My cousin Jessica & I went to see The Nutcracker at the Philadelphia Academy of Music today!

We woke up quite early and hit Starbuck's before our train downtown. Finally tried the Gingerbread Latte. (Still love the Peppermint Mocha though!) Our train stopped at Suburban Station.

We had an idea of how to get to the Academy and there was a "map" on our printable tickets so we set off down 16th street. After we walked about 2 blocks we thought it might be better to stop in a nearby hotel and make sure we were going the right way. The security guard pointed us in the direction we wanted to go. After a little while we were still a bit confused we weren't running into the street we needed. We stopped in the The Art Institute of Philadelphia to ask at the front desk. The lady there gave us much better directions! We were only about 3 blocks away from Broad street! It was freezing out today too! Only around 36F! (2.22C).

The ballet was great! It was 2 hours long with an intermission. Everything was beautiful- photography wasn't allowed during the show but I got some pictures of the theater during intermission. The chandelier was gorgeous! It would actually raise up into the ceiling during the show and lower during intermission.

Philadelphia Academy of Music:


 




After the show we headed back to Suburban Station to catch the 1:35pm train because my other cousin Chrissy, Jessica's sister was visiting from Georgia with her husband and we wanted to meet them for an early dinner.

On the way back- City Hall in the distance:


Oooh we saw Tiffany & Co. on Walnut Street, but we didn't have time to go in and browse. I sooo want something from Tiffany's someday from their $100 & under section online, hehe.



We also saw Love Park across from Suburban Station but didn't get to visit this time around.


After we got back on the train we headed up to see my cousin & her husband. We went out to Chili's for dinner. Had a really long but nice day! And fun getting to play tourist in my own city again, lol!

Our work campus finally made the big downtown move. We are near 30th Street Station now. (Patty- all your NYC tourist stories- I have one! We were walking along & some guy was telling his wife or female friend, "Yeah they got rid of 30th Street Station years ago!" What the?! Obviously he hasn't been to Philadelphia in years because I've been through there every day this week for work!)

I am not liking commuting so far but I don't really have a choice. Driving home in Center City Philadelphia traffic would probably take longer than the hour I'm on the train. My biggest peeve is the train being late to or from work. Or switching tracks at the last minute. I guess eventually I'll get used to it. It's just I've been spoiled. I've been driving since I was 16, I've never really taken public transportation. My commute to work for the past 8 years was only a 10-15min drive! So having to commute an hour each way every day is something that's going to take awhile to get used to.

In other news- my back is so much better! The 1 week of bed rest and steroid's made everything heal up quickly. I'm still a bit stiff in the mornings and at night but I'm pretty back to my old self. And all the walking with commuting now has definitely healed & strengthened my back. I'm just happy to not be in pain anymore. I'm stubborn about going to doctors and I usually wait much longer than I should before I will go.

And because it's my 1 year anniversary tomorrow and Christmas is next week! I wanted to do a Holiday Giveaway for all my blog readers!

I will be giving away 2 Bath & Body Works products. Twisted Peppermint Handibac lotion and Winter Candy Apple Pocketbac Gel, 1 sample sized package of Starbuck's ground Christmas Blend coffee (I am in LOVE with this coffee people, it is so bold & rich!) and also a cute Christmasy pen!


This giveaway is open internationally & also to family & friends. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment telling me:

What is your favorite Christmas food, candy or drink?

For extra entries:

-Follow my blog on Google Friend Connect. (You can find the 'Followers' link under 'Contents' on the right hand sidebar. If you follow already you automatically get an extra entry if you answer the mandatory question). 

-Follow me on Twitter: @tunaynamahal82 (Include your user name in the comments. If you follow me already you automatically get an extra entry if you answer the mandatory question).

-Tweet about this giveaway (Include your link in the comments).

Giveaway Ends: December 31st, 2010.12AM EST.

And yes, I am pushing the Twitter thing. Why? Because if it helped me win a giveaway it might help you too. ;-)

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