So let’s see – got here on Thursday night around 9:00 – the plane landed around 7:45 but it took kind of a while to get into the city and checked in to the room.
We’ve been spoiled by staying at boutique hotels like Kimptons. This is an Embassy Suites – huge cavernous space with a private bedroom for me & Mark, living room with pullout couch for Toni. But drafty and with a really loud heater fan – that kept the living room area a good temp, and the bedroom freezing, OR the bedroom liveable, and the rest too hot. Sigh. Breakfast nook, kitchen alcove with microwave, bar sink, mini fridge. Two TVs. Free breakfast in the attached TGI Fridays. Yum.
That first night I went down to TGI and had their spinach flatbread and a beer.
Friday morning I got up and used my free breakfast ticket on black coffee – that wasn’t very good, it was the kind tha brews by the cup, so essentially fancy instant coffee. Say what you will about Starbucks, their Via instant is the only drinkable instant coffee I’ve ever tasted. Orange juice that I took a sip of and put down, a hard orange that I still have not eaten yet, and grabbed a little strawberry yogurt. That I ate with half a scone and the better coffee at the ALISE conference where I had to present as part of a panel.
Headed over to the main conference and got registered and went to OCLC symposium – lunch provided. I had some salad and a few bites of a pistachio mousse, that seemed to be vaguely pistachio flavored whipped cream, maybe a little white chocolate in there. On everyone else’s advice I had some peach cobbler. That was good, but mainly sitting with Martin & Suzanne, my pals from the SI Libraries, was better than the food.
I went over to Reading Market and grabbed a roll, then went back to the room to eat & collapse on the couch.
Back to the convention center to cruise through the exhibit hall grand opening & pick up a bit more free food – crostini with olive tapenade & tiny dab of goat cheese piped on top, little taco cornet, roasted veggies on a stick with reduced balsamic. Sounds better than it actually tasted.
Then met my friend David, who left Madison to become the librarian at Longwood Gardens, for drinks at his much more elegant hotel, the Hyatt at Bellvue. The bar there’s called XIX, because it’s on the 19th floor, inside of one of the lunettes.
Davey went off to dinner at Vedge, and I went back to the hotel to meet up with Toni & Mark, who had arrived from Madison by then. We ended up going for wood-fired pizza, so a late dinner I was not expecting to eat, but not too heavy. One slice of rosemary & fresh mozzarella pizza, a little Caesar salad, and one slice of sausage & fennel pie.
Pizzaria Vetri pizza – that’s a discarded anchovy from the salad on the side.
Saturday started with an 8:30 meeting – we stopped at a Starbucks and I got an Oatmeal and a latte – so milk in the coffee, but not on the cereal. Had a little salad and part of a cookie at the market, so was pretty hungry by dinner time. We went to Spice 28, an Asian fusion place. Turned out to be restaurant week here in Philly, so they had a 4-course, prix-fixe, $35 menu. Which was a bit too much food, but we all decided to indulge. I had coconut soup – lots of nice veggies in a coconut broth – Indian pancake – like the pancakes you get with moo-shoo, but with a really nice curry sauce – and Drunken noodles. Some kind of frozen mango mousse for dessert. I didn’t finish anything, but I was still full in the morning.
