A Weekend in Another State(s)

July 28th to July 30th, 2017 I spent the weekend in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey.

On July 28th at 8:40 a.m. I left the heat and humidity of Florida to go to the slightly cooler Pennsylvania and New Jersey. My three days back in the area I called home for the first four years of my life were completely packed with visits with family and a concert of a few of my favorite artists.

The journey started at the Orlando International Airport. My dad and I left the house at five in the morning since it was summer and a Friday. Our flight itself departed from the sunshine state at 8:40 a.m. However, that’s quite a gap between leaving the house and the flight itself. Well with security and breakfast it was just the right amount. For breakfast I got some pancakes, breakfast potatoes, bacon and coffee from Starbucks. Oh how I wish there was a Dunkin inside the terminal. I like Starbucks, but I’m team Dunkin when it comes to basic coffee.

The flight began boarding at 8:15 a.m. My dad and I were in the first group and since it was Southwest we picked a window and middle seat towards the back of the plane. The ride there was quite nice, but there was some turbulence. I’m not the biggest fan of flying to be honest. I listened to Taylor Swift songs on shuffle and drew a little bit. The flight from Orlando to Philadelphia is pretty short.

Once we got off the plane, we headed to baggage claim. However, we did make a stop at the benefit cosmetics stand. While I didn’t buy anything this time around, I did take a picture with it. After that and our bags in hand, we went to find the Hertz bus. There we were taken to the Hertz Rental Car center. We picked out our car which had a Florida license plate.

After we placed the luggage in the trunk and then headed out. We drove by parts of the city before heading into New Jersey.

On the other side of the bridge was New Jersey. In New Jersey, we decided to visit places my dad lived and where I lived before we moved to Florida. The places we went first were where my dad used to live and play sports like hockey and baseball. We visited a few different places from houses and apartments and schools and playgrounds.

My dad moved around a lot as child and went to many different schools in different districts. I want to say thank you to my dad for allowing me to live in the same county and go to school with majority of the same people from kindergarten until senior year.

When in Oaklyn, New Jersey, my dad told me the stories of him playing on the hockey rink and the baseball field to the time where he had to go in the creek to retrieve a ball, but because his new outfit was damage he buried it in the yard later on. It’s nice to be able to finally connect some images to some of the places he tells me stories about or has in my nineteen years so far.

After visiting the places my dad lived, we made a stop for lunch. The restaurant we ate at was Kaminski’s Bar & Grill in Cherry Hill, NJ. I got a Philly cheesesteak with no cheese and a side of French fries. After lunch, we headed to where I first lived followed by the church I was baptized in. Since I lived in New Jersey from birth to age four, I really do not remember anything about it besides what I’ve seen on video or in pictures. It was really cool to see the place that was my first home.

After we concluded our little trip down memory lane, we made a stop to the mall as my pair of boots were now breaking at the sole and my dad forgot his running shoes for a 5k he was doing on Saturday down at the shore. I got a new pair of boots and he got a new pair of sneakers.

Now it was time to head to our cousin’s house. While in New Jersey, we were staying with family. Although most of the family we would be seeing during the weekend I hadn’t seen since I had braces, the family members that we were staying with were the ones that I had seen most recently in comparison.

At their house, we got settled in and talked for a bit before going to dinner. Dinner was at the Lamp Post Diner. I got another Philly Cheesesteak no cheese and a side of fries. This was pretty much was I ate all weekend. After dinner, we headed back to their house and waited for family to arrive. Family members that I hadn’t seen since November of 2016 to when I can’t remember came over. We all just snacked on food and talked. It was quite nice.

The next morning. On Saturday, my dad and I got up real early to meet one of family members to head down to Wildwood Crest, NJ. Wildwood is where the 5k was being held. It was also where we were meeting up with my godfather. We got up really early, but coffee and a donut from WaWa made it way better.

Once we got our breakfast, we were on the road again in the rain in the early a.m. Real fun! It gets better though. We rode in a truck down to the shore, it seemed like an hour and a half, maybe? Oh well, but the most shocking part because it was raining so much and the lack of drains the streets were flooded. It pretty much seemed like the beach of Wildwood had come to us. Luckily, we got through it and made it to the venue. Where we waited for my godfather and family.

Soon enough our family was there. It was nice to see them all again because the last time I saw them was a couple years ago when we went up for the eldest’s graduation party. A bit of time has passed since.

We talked for a bit before heading down to the beach where the 5k was being held. Only my dad, godfather and the youngest did the 5k. The three remaining of us went up on the pier to watch because the winds were so strong that the sand was blowing everywhere and it was so hard to hear any conversations spoken. Once they all came back, we headed back up to the venue to wait until awards were called. After that we said our goodbyes and headed back to where we were staying.

On the way, back we ran into WaWa to get sandwiches before the concert because we knew that we most likely would eat a late dinner after the concert. For the concert, I wore my concert jean jacket (I plan on doing a post solely about this later on), a black dress and my black boots. We left two hours before the meet and greet started since we were going to be taking the train into the city and would rather have too much time and not enough.

In the city, we walked a bit after getting off the train. I would ask my dad how much longer and he was would say a couple of blocks. I have to say this suburban girl does not understand city talk. At least my dad did know where we were going without having to look at a map because of all the time he had spent in the city.

We got to the venue probably around 3:30 p.m., which was a half hour perform the VIP soundcheck and meet and greet began. Since this was a concert out of state for us, the only person I knew going into the meet and greet was my dad. However, I had tweeted one of the acts The House On Cliff that I was coming prior since when they first announced the tour and there was no Orlando stop I had commented that. After that one of them messaged me and something along the lines about a road trip to Atlanta, but since I was working on campus this past summer that was not possible. Although I did mention there was a chance a family event would line up and luckily it did.

I want to thank my dad so much for taking me to this concert in Philly. It was awesome to check off a bucket list item which was to see a concert in another state, and see one of my favorite singers Dalton Rapattoni that I found from a boyband that no longer exists in 2013, another band The House on Cliff that I found because of that boyband and singer Lauren Carnahan that I heard of because of one of my best friends.

The VIP event included early entrance to the show, two song soundcheck and a picture with Dalton. I took one with him and then one of him, my dad and I. the second picture happened after my dad asked Dalton to sign his dress shirt. I think it’s safe to say it was the first Brooks Brothers shirt Dalton has signed.

Once the meet and greet concluded, there was still some time to kill before the concert actually started, so we went upstairs to buy some merchandise. There was something really cool though, that if you bought two pieces of merchandise from Dalton’s stuff you got a wristband to meet him again after the show, so we bought four shirts of his, then I bought a THOC shirt and a Lauren Carnahan hat. I also talked to Destiny who was doing the merch since she knows my best friend Sydney, and recognized me because of my denim jacket. It’s pretty much my staple concert piece.

After that I headed back downstairs and talked to a couple of girls. One was from another hour away, one from four hours away in Delaware and then I who was two hours away by plane. I’m normally not very social when it comes to people I don’t know, but since we were all there for the same reason I felt a little bit more comfortable to do so.

The concert began at six and started with Lauren Carnahan. She performed a good mix of covers and her own original music. The songs she performed were Greedy by Ariana Grande, Criminal which is one of her own, Catch 22 another original, Power by Little Mix, and Life of the Party which was her final song that she performed.

After Lauren was The House On Cliff. THOC is a four piece band consisted of Marc their drummer, William a.k.a Bill their Bassist, Charles their guitarist and Chad their lead singer. Some of the songs they performed were Life Goes On, Skin and Bones, and a few others that I forgot the names on.

Once The House on Cliff was done, it was Dalton’s turn to perform. Dalton had the biggest set out of them all. He performed Signs, Back From the Moon, Heaven, Somewhere in America, Puppy Love, The Way You Do, and Open Book. After Open Book, my phone died but he played three more songs which one of those was Hercules and I do not remember the other two.

Even after Dalton’s set there was still one more song, and it was a cover. Together all three acts performed Come Together. That was it for the concert, but there was still another meet and greet. Also the other acts came out, so that we could get pictures with them. I got a picture with Lauren and had her sign my jacket. I also told her Sydney said hi which she freaked out and she was like you know her? And I was like yeah she’s one of my best friends. After Lauren, I said hello to Charles and Chad since they were the only two members I could find at the moment. Once I was done talking with them, I headed back upstairs for the final meet and greet. I took my picture with him and then we were on our way.

We headed back to the train station and then to back where we got on. Since we hadn’t had dinner yet, we went to a diner that my dad apparently went to all the time when it was another name. we talked about the concert as we waited for our food to arrive. I know my dad reads my blog, so I just want to say thank you so much for everything that you do for me and I love you lots.

Sunday morning, we got dressed and headed to church with our family. Sunday was my dad’s godson’s daughter’s baptism. That was a mouthful to say. After the service and the baptism occurred, we headed back to my godmother’s house for the party.

Even though we were with family, I’m still not a very social person so I pretty much was either getting food, soda or sitting with my dad or cousins. We all just talked or most talked and the rest of us just listened.

After a couple of hours, it was time to head to the airport, we said our goodbyes and were on our way. At the airport we returned the car, hopped on the hertz bus and went through security. Once we were through we stopped at one of the shops so I could buy a Flyers shirt before we got dinner. We both got Philly Cheesesteaks (I got no cheese on mine again) and shared a basket of Crab Fries which are pretty much just seasoned crinkle fries. I even captioned my Instagram picture a Philly in Philly because why not. Once dinner was over, it was time to head to the gate. At that point, the flight was getting ready to board and once we did we were on our way home to the sunshine state.

The weekend was crammed with activities but it was extremely fun and worth it.

#newjersey #philly #trip #concert #family #dalton #thehouseoncliff #laurencarnahan #simplysamanthagrace