Category: Travel 
Even though the primary purpose of my recent trip to Philly was to see the King Tut exhibit, a secondary objective was to perform a taste test between the two most famous cheesesteak establishments in Philly, Pat’s and Geno’s.
To perform this test, we decided to get “one wit” from each, cut them in half, and then attack each half. For those who don’t know, “one wit” is your standard Philly Cheesesteak with steak, Cheez Whiz, and fried onions.
After eating both halves, I thought they were both very tasty and enjoyable, but I think that Pat’s wins out in the test, not for taste, but for construction. Geno’s steaks are much larger and thicker, and there’s a chance that with one bite, you could potentially pull out a large chunk of steak, thereby rendering the sandwich useless. While that did not happen to me, each bite was taken with a bit of trepidation to avoid that situation. Pat’s was enjoyed a bit more because I could just eat without worrying.
This is by no means my final decision, and I will perform this taste test again the next chance I get. I also plan on trying Jim’s at some point because it was recommended by a Philly native.
Didn’t get to try water ice and a pretzel, but will also try them during a future trip.
On Friday I went to Philadelphia and saw the King Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute Science Museum.
I thought that the exhibit was put together very nicely, especially how it started out with generic pharaonic Egyption objects and moved to his kingdom and then into his burial chamber. The museum also did a good job spacing objects apart and mounting them in ways to provide 360 degree access. They also wrote the object’s description high at the top of display cases, on all sides, so that viewers could read about the object far away, and then view the actual object up close in the limited amount of time they got to stand next to it. I also think they did a good job of putting the objects at a height that most people could enjoy, and that’s coming from someone who’s on the tall side of life. I also enjoyed how they were able to separate the exhibit from the rest of the museum, which, overrun with kids, was quite noisy, and how the lighting and music complemented the objects on display. They also did a good job providing context for each room for those who might not be familiar with the general history of pharaonic Egypt, the story of King Tut, or the story of how his tomb was found.
It was quite fascinating to be standing inches away from an object that is 3,200 years old and might have been worn or held by King Tut himself. The details on each objects were quite exquisite. In detailing, there wasn’t much difference between an object in that room and one that would be made today. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it for anyone remotely interested in Egyptian history.
My favorite part of the exhibit was not related to the objects, but rather one of the viewers. A mother with a youngish child mentioned to her that there were two more rooms to the exhibit and then asked the kid if she understood that. The kid said, “yeah, we’re going to go into another room, then into another.” The mother asked the kid where they were going after the second room, and I was expecting something like “the gift shop” or “home”, but when the kid said, “Pizza Hut!”, I had to chuckle.
I went to Chicago on Tuesday, and as I was sitting at the gate waiting for my plane to board, I noticed something that is just plain annoying. I looked out the window and couldn’t help noticing that the jetway was positioned almost right up against the window. On it, in large letters, was the logo for HSBC (sorry for the crappy cell phone photo, but I didn’t have a real camera on me at the time).
Where does the line get drawn on advertising? Are we going to have street lamps festooned with advertisements? What about mailboxes? Maybe crosswalks should have some sort of advertising on them instead of just silly white lines?
What I find interesting is that HSBC would choose that place to advertise. Obviously, it’s a good place because people are stuck sitting in the gate area and will look out the window and see their name, but it really doesn’t make sense to advertise a banking company at that point because people are about to go into a closed environment for hours and I don’t think that banking will be on most people’s minds during that time. I would think something more travel related would be appropriate, but then again, I’m not in advertising so I may not understand the subtle intricacies of how this is a brilliant place for HSBC to advertise.
Eggs come with advertising etched on them, why shouldn’t everything? (in case you couldn’t tell, I’m being sarcastic)
My recent trip to Chicago only served to remind me why I don’t like to travel on airplanes. It’s not that I’m afraid to fly. It’s not that dealing with airport security, delays, and airport food is just such an unpleasant experience. It’s not even the minuscule snack they claim to give you. It’s the simple fact that airplanes were built for people who are under six-foot-two.
Continue reading . . .
Actually, it’s not sunny. It’s raining and has been since we got here.
Business trip. Got here Monday mid-morning, leaving Tuesday afternoon.
Flight here was a bit bumpy, but nothing too bad. Just looked at the weather maps, and it looks like it will be raining in NYC for the return trip. Guess I’ll be getting home later than I thought.
My boss called my cellphone exactly as I was going through security, so it came out of the x-ray machine ringing with “Danger Zone” from Top Gun. He was still about 15 minutes away. We met at the gate.
Flight there was uneventful.
After work, we went to check in at the hotel. Sutton Place Hotel, which was sort of funny since I live near Sutton Place in NYC. Hotel was nice, not too nice, but not shabby either. More than acceptable.
We went out to dinner at Ditka’s and got seated immediately in the smoking section. We sort of looked at each other since we had heard all day about Chicago’s new restrictive smoking policy. We saw two people smoking. I had meatloaf. It was very good. Boss had ribs.
Back in hotel on the first night, I started to sleep in the bed near the window, but my feet kept hitting the desk near the foot of the bed, so I switched beds. Got an OK nights sleep, only waking up about four times, and not for more than a quick glance at the clock. I must’ve been really tired.
Continue reading . . .
Heading to Chicago for two nights.
Business trip.
Oh joy.
