We had an awesome hotel room on the 20th floor of the Downtown Marriott right across the street from the Convention Center (note: the 20th floor is going to be important soon). And we could see this super cool building! Is that City Hall? I'm not entirely sure (can you tell I went to grad school in Philly just last year? HA!).
We got to our hotel at about 4:00 and I did what I always do upon arriving at a hotel: I took a nap. We just pretended that it took us four hours to get to Philadelphia and not 60 minutes. Details, I tell you!
I woke up an hour later and we went across the street to Redding Terminal Market to get treats for later that night! Then we went to the Hard Rock for dinner, which was crowded and loud but overall I still say awesome.
Then we walked back to our hotel and decided to really live on the edge and get teas at the Starbucks in the hotel lobby. Earl Grey for me, Tazo Refresh for my Mom. REBELS, I tell you!
Don't worry, those are not ALL treats! The bag on the left is mini soaps we bought at Redding Terminal. That I am just now realizing I left in Pennsylvania! UGH!
Pumpkin Whoopie Pie, Banana Creme Whoopie Pie, Pecan Bar. Friends, I really like Whoopie Pies. Are they acceptable at weddings? Opinions, puh-lease. And we watched 30 Rock...which we love (Alec Baldwin, mostly).
And even though we were trying to LIVE ON THE EDGE and make it to 11PM to watch the Daily Show, we both fell asleep at 10:30 halfway through The Mentalist. I blame a sugar coma.
BUT THEN at 2:00AM, THE FIRE ALARM WENT OFF. Did I mention we were at the 20th floor. Geeze, Downtown Marriott. Even though the alarm was going off, they told us NOT to evacuate. But we still put our clothes back on, and then sat on the bed and stared at each other. And then we heard fire truck sirens.
But still we sat, do do do waiting. Could you imagine if we had DIED the night before the Flower Show? That would have been totally tragic.
Luckily, a man came over the loudspeaker which was apparently in our room and told us not to worry and to "Resume our normal activity". Which we assumed meant go back to sleep, since it was 2:45AM at that point.
When my Mom told my grandmother this story, she said "Yeah, you'd have to go to sleep. Because even if you were in the middle of something, you wouldn't want to after you got the shit scared out of you." Thanks, Nanny.
We woke up the next morning, me in my pajamas and my Mom fully clothed in the event that we had to evacuate again. My Mom got in the shower and I went downstairs to Starbucks to get us some breakfast.
BUT as I was leaving, a MAN repelled down those ropes to clean our windows. Seriously. Thank you, Downtown Marriott (in their defense, they did warn us upon check-in, but seriously. The hotel is huge. You had to clean our windows during our morning getting ready routine?)!
Stay tuned for Part Deux!
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