Memorial Day Weekend in Philadelphia

I'm in Philly this weekend, the first time I have been here in over 3 years. I used to conduct a ton of business in Philadelphia back when I was consulting and moderating focus groups, but haven't had the pleasure to return all that much since.

When I had the opportunity to move out of Central NJ in 2001, it was the other city that I considered besides Boston, obviously (and smartly) losing out. I had spent enough time in the area to know that while Philadelphia has some interesting neighborhoods, it was no Boston.

We are staying at the Marriott in Center City, a very nice hotel in the perfect location right on Market Street. I believe this is my only time actually staying in Center City, as most of my overnights here have been in Bala Cynwyd or West Conshohocken. I used to go to the Hilton on City Line Avenue in Bala Cynwyd so frequently, that I knew many of the hotel staff members by their first names, and they would recognize me instantaneously. It was a bit scary.

This weekend, I'm playing in a softball tournament. Today, we played 4 games, and won 2 of them - losing the other 2 games to the same team. Unfortunately, our second loss put us into an 8am game tomorrow, where we must continue to win otherwise we'll be eliminated. I'm told that we could play upwards of 5 games tomorrow to win the tournament...if we keep winning.

I'm starting to hit my stride and regain my confidence in softball, which is a good thing and something I was hoping would happen here. I hit the ball hard a few times and managed a few cheap hits in between the good knocks. I think I was on base 9 or 10 times out of 14 plate appearances.

Two more nights here in the City of Brotherly Love. I'll try to get some good photos.