Catching Up

I have recently been catching up with some old friends on Facebook (I never thought I would join that, but after Melissa joined, I figured why not). As I have become reacquainted with some old friends, I realized nearly everyone has a blog. Even though I technically had a blog, I was never updating it. So, here goes. . . I am going to try and keep this updated with the history of the GMCK Fowler Family.

So, this post will be long and will hopefully catch up for the past few years - with some of the highlights.

In March, Melissa and I went to Philadelphia for a little vacation. I had a conference for two days for work and then we played the rest of the time. In anticipation of our trip, we watched National Treasure the night before we left so we could get in the historical mood. Below is recap of our trip:

Tuesday
We got up early and went to the airport. While waiting for our flight, the airline needed one person to take a later flight and receive a $400 voucher for later travel. We had a trip to Florida coming up this summer, so we really wanted to get the vouchers, but, at the same time, we didn't want to be split up for our flight. When they asked again for volunteers, I went up and asked if we could both be bumped and both receive the vouchers and they agreed!! Sweet - we paid about $200 for our tickets to Philadelphia (mine was covered by work) and we came away with 2 $400 vouchers for future travel. Not a bad deal. We flew through Cincinnati and then to Philadelphia. In the evening after arriving at our hotel, we hung out in our room and attempted to plan the upcoming days.

Wednesday
I had meetings from 8 - 4, so Melissa took advantage of the time without the kids and slept in (I think she is still trying to recover from all of the lost sleep during pharmacy school). In the evening we went into downtown Philadelphia using the subway and had dinner at one of the oldest restaurants in America - it has been renovated, but it was a common gathering place for many of the founding fathers of our nation. The food was ok (expensive) but the experience was well worth it. They have their own unique drink that was common in the late 1700's - it is called 'shrub' and it is a raspberry vinegar type of drink. We ordered it with our meal and then we liked it so much we decided to buy some of the concentrate to take home to our families. We spend the rest of the evening walking around downtown Philadelphia - getting ourselves familiar with the city (and trying not to get lost - which is easy when you don't have the mountains to guide you). That nigt we also went to a play at the Walnut Street Theatre - the oldest theatre in America. The play was "The Odd Couple" and it was hilarious. The actors did a great job and we had pretty good seats. A few lines made both me and Melissa laugh out loud - and then afterwards we couldn't remember the lines - how frustrating.

Thursday
I was supposed to have meetings until 4 again, but after attending the first part of the meetings, I realized that most of the material being covered was a review, so I left early and we headed downtown again. We signed up for the 24 hour carriage bus tour today, so we enjoyed a guided tour of some of the major parts of the downtown area. This was very relaxing and informative. Our guide was really funny and had comments for every situation. After the tour we checked out some of the local sights and even found an old fashioned ice cream parlor - complete with a soda jerk.

Friday
We got up early and headed downtown in order to get tickets see Independance Hall and the Liberty Bell (which is across the street from Independence Hall). We had seen the line into both attractions, so we wanted to see those sights early before the lines got bad. We timed it perfectly - we got to see the Liberty Bell right as it opened and we actually got to spend some time in front of the Liberty Bell with no distractions (all by ourselves), which was a pretty big deal considering how crowded it usually is. We then went through Independence Hall (in our group was a class of 7th graders from Long Island - this made it interesting). This was a pretty neat experience - thinking about what transpired in these buildings and what these early leaders had to go through in order for all of us to enjoy the freedoms we do today. They were truly inspired men to do what they did. We also went through the Federal Reserve Building, the US Mint, Betsy Ross' house and Benjamin Franklin's grave (it is rumored that if you toss a coin on his grave and it lands heads, then you will have good luck for one year - mine landed heads and Melissa's landed tails - too bad for her :).

Saturday
This was our relaxation day. Our flight was in the afternoon, so we hung out during the day in our hotel room. We were both pretty tired from walking all over downtown, so this was a nice change. When we got home we were very excited to see our kids again - and they were even excited to see us (at this age, you never know).

That was our trip in a quick overview - I am sure Melissa will want to add/change parts of my account, so stay tuned.