Friday Running Diary

Got to the airport 2 hours early like we were instructed.

Waited in long, stupid line full of people who were absolutely terrified to use the kiosks to check in, but would get visibly upset at those who were not deterred by the shiny touch screens.

Make our way to the incredible long, ridiculous securtiy line. Kel and I shuffle our bags back and forth as we try to comply with the instructions. Take out the laptop, stuff everything metallic in our already over-stuffed carry-on bag, remove our shoes, stand in line.

I get hassled because my North Carolina issued driver’s license hasn’t held up so well to the repeated baths its taken in our washing machine, but they decide that I’m not a threat to national security and let me pass.

We make the 4 mile walk to our gate. Why is it that whenever you take a flight from any airport in the world TO any airport in the world, you always end up waiting at the last gate of the farthest terminal?

As we’re waiting, some random guy with a new digital camera takes roughly 8000 pictures of complete strangers walking through the airport. He then pulls out some miniature tripod, sets the camera up on the floor and walks across the terminal with the remote to take pictures of himself walking towards the camera. Yeah, it was weird and it freaked me out a . Oh well.

We board at 5 minutes to 6pm and are told we’ll have a quick flight thanks to a strong tailwind. Looking out the window, its pretty spectacular looking down on Raleigh and seeing people’s christmas lights from the air. I-40 is backed up, looks like a few wrecks down there by the flashing lights. Hope no one is hurt, and thankful I’m not in that traffic.

We land, disembark, head to baggage claim and our bags are the first off the plane. We walk across the street and wait the 5 mins for the train. Conductor comes on, takes our money and punches our ticket. I’m sorely disappointed that he didn’t spell out any words like ‘believe’ like in the Polar Express, but I guess I can’t ask for too much.

Get to our stop, walk to City Hall exit. Pop up and out and we’re in the courtyard of City Hall and its gorgeous. I’m just struck by how much bigger Philly is than I expected. Everything is lit up and there’s a statue on every corner. Takes a few minutes for us to get our bearings, but we find the Ritz and check in.

The Ritz is by far the fanciest place I’ve ever been. A 3000 foot tall tree is in the rotunda and a gingerbread house about the size of our place in Raleigh is in the lobby. There’s a sushi bar in the lobby. Why? ‘Cause they can, that’s why.

Get up to our room and we have a hoss flat screen Tv with a fake fireplace. Thats just cool. Embroidered bath robes, towels, Bulgari soap, etc. Two iPod docking alarm clocks. Down pillows, comforters, awesome mattress, the room is huge.

We’re starving so we pull up google maps and start looking for a restaurant thats close. There’s a seafood restaurant we saw on the way in, but I’m not all that excited about it. Growing up on the coast, I’m pretty darn picky about seafood. We see this place called Fogo De Chao and read some reviews that say its an incredible dining experience, so we hoof it a block and a half to the restaurant.

Holy crap in a pita was it phenomenal. If you ever go to Philly, you absolutely have to check it out. I’ll just say this - its all you can eat and its the best meat you’ve ever had in your life served by magic oompa loompa meat leprechauns. They give you these discs with a green side and a red side. Green side means "give me more"; red side means "i'm about to burst". When its on the green side, the magic oompa loompa meat leprechauns appear out of nowhere, announce what kind of meat they have, wait for your approval, and slice a hefty portion on to your plate. They said there were 16 or 18 different cuts of meat, I honestly can't remember them all - but this is what I do recall: Top sirloin, bottom sirloin, center cut sirloin, ribeye, filet, bacon-wrapped filet, garlic marinated filet, rubbed pork ribs, spicy pork sausages, bacon-wrapped chicken breasts, chicken legs, leg of lamb and lamb chops. There's also a salad bar there to appease any guilt you have about eating pounds and pounds of meat.

We were going to hit Mcgillan’s Pub afterwards, but we were just too full after Fogo. We came back to the hotel and took a shower, lounged around feeling fancy in our bathrobes and went to bed.