Philly: Red eye

I’m getting too old to do red eye flights.  That’s what I decided after this weekend.  I thought it would be like working night shift, but it’s not.  The combo of the time change and being confined to a middle seat – yikes.  Not for me.

So as you can imagine, we didn’t exactly hit the ground running.  My parents’ flight arrived before ours, so they were waiting for us when we finally touched down at 6 am.

We cabbed it over to the hotel to drop off our bags, but since it was way too early to check in I (reluctantly) changed from my comfy airplane attire to real clothes in the lobby bathroom. 

 

And then we set off to find breakfast.  I don’t know where Cosi originated, but I think it may have been Philadelphia because they are all over the city.  Maybe even more than Starbucks (okay, that may be a stretch).  I went to this chain often when I lived in Philly, but haven’t been in several years.  The menu has changed, but the insanely delicious aroma of fresh bread still knocks you out as soon as you walk in.

 

I wasn’t hungry, so I was just going to get coffee, until I saw a row of squagels begging my taste buds to give them a shot. 

They all looked amazing.

 

I got the cinnamon raisin* (above), my mom got the cranberry orange (below left), and my dad got the cinnamon streusel (below right).

 

*I felt like ass after eating this.  It was a rather immediate reminder that just because I’m on vacation doesn’t mean my GI tract is on vacation too.  It was way too much wheat (and dairy I presume) in one serving, so my poor little gut was reckoning with quite the FODMAPs load.  Bad Elise.  Pay attention!

Kyle went the savory route and got a veggie quiche and a banana.  He’s on a quiche kick.

 

We quickly realized that if we stayed sedentary any longer we’d all doze off, so soon thereafter we headed off on foot.  Destination: Museum of Art.

 

My ascent up the steps was the anti-Rocky.  I huffed and puffed, stopping for photos along the way.

My parents had pre-purchased tickets for us all to see the Van Gogh exhibit.  May 6th was the last day it was open, so we made it just in time. 

I love Van Gogh, so I definitely geeked out with the audio-headset for an hour or so.  I’d say the rest of the museum was 10% cool, 30% bizarre, and 60% boring.  Tapestries?  No thanks.  Modern installation art?  Um.  Huh?

Needless to say, we fulfilled our culture requirement for the day week and moved on.