We had a bad day...

...and we reserve our right to complain about it!

You would think a trip to Philly would be nothing but spectacular for the Killion family. We had a lot planned for Tuesday, which is why I waited to blog because I wanted to post pictures.

Let's go back in time to Tuesday morning. We spent the night at the Sikahema's so we could make a quick and easy trip over the Ben Franklin into Philly.

We made a stop in Camden to check out Rutgers' law school...but there was no parking. Anywhere. And when we did find a visitors' parking lot, the sign said we needed a permit to park there! All right...but we decided that if Rutgers becomes an option, we will live in the Cherry Hill/Moorestown area and Chris will commute into Camden. (This wasn't a difficult decision to make, let me tell ya...let's live in a safe place or in the 3rd most dangerous city in the U.S. Hmm.)

Over the B.Frank into the city. I was the navigator (and I shouldn't be haha) so I told Chris to go one way when we were supposed to go the other way. Good job, Mary. We finally made it into Old City: Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Congress Hall, etc.

The Liberty Bell was first. And that's where our camera broke. So there are no pictures of our trip. Not one.

We saw the rest of the sites on the mall, and headed back to our car. We had an appt at Temple Law, which is in the north part of the city, so we had to get going.

Chris picks up Liz from the stroller and there's a huge wet spot where Liz was sitting. WHAT!? Needless to say, a little someone had an accident (her diaper got too full too fast). Thankfully I had an extra pair of pants for her.

We make it to Temple's campus, and once again--no parking. Anywhere! Oh but wait--we spotted a visitors' parking lot, and there were spaces. Good! We drive up to the window...and we see that it's $12 to park. Even for visitors?!

"Yes," says the attendant. "Once you're done with your appointment and visit, ask for a voucher from the front desk. Bring it back to this window and we'll reimburse you." Okay, we're fine with that.

FINALLY we find the law admissions office (which isn't in the law building, but whatever) and we get a little tour. Chris meets with the admissions director. We're ready to leave. We ask for the parking voucher from the law school admissions front desk.

"WE don't give out parking vouchers here. I don't know what you're talking about. The law school doesn't do that."

Excuse me?

We get down to the lobby of the law school and ask the front desk girl about it. "What do you want?" We repeat our question and THEN she takes the ipod speakers out of her ears. "Say that again?" Never mind, incompetent person.

We find the student building, and within the building is Parking Services. We explain our predicament, and the response is, "Sorry, nothing we can do about that."

We walk back to our car and find a different person in the booth than the one we originally met with. "Sorry you can't get your money back."

The ONLY good thing from this experience: we decided that Temple Law will NOT be getting our well-earned money because Chris decided to withdraw his application. And as soon as we stepped into our house later that night, he turned on the laptop and did exactly that.

THE BEST PART OF OUR DAY: Geno's.
An oasis in the midst of South Philly (good job, Husband, with the analogy!), the corner of 9th and Passyunk is heaven on earth. Caddy-corner from each other stand the most recognized cheesesteak homes in the world: Geno's and Pat's. While Jim's and Tony Luke's are good too, Geno's and Pat's is where it all began...
I got a "provolone wit" and Chris got a "wiz wit" from Geno's. Awesome doesn't even begin to describe the goodness that is Geno's. ("Wit" means with fried onions. If you don't want onions, you would say "witout." Yes, we don't use the letter H when we say "with.")

We got back onto 76 and made our way to University City, home to Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania. The law school forum was at Drexel.

Once again, not a place to park. We drove around for thirty minutes before we found a parking garage for Drexel, where ONCE AGAIN, we had to pay to visit the school. Goodbye, $14.

It was set up like a panel, very different from the other law school fairs we've been to. I walked around the building with Liz because I knew she would get restless in the meeting. Chris was able to talk to a few important people, thankfully.

At least there were refreshments. Pretty sure I had ten mini egg salad sandwiches, accompanied by three or four plates of fresh fruit...hey, I'm pregnant. Don't hate. Oh and since we paid $14 for this little "visit," I made sure I got our money's worth in food.

We got onto I-95 and made our way home. Liz slept the entire way, since it was her bedtime. Perfect! But once we got in the house, she was wide awake. Not perfect.

I took out my contacts because my eyes were so dry. I went back to the duffel bag to get my glasses...which were not there. So I'm without glasses for the next two weeks until we're back in NJ. Wonderful.

We had a bad day...and we reserve our right to complain about it!