#swalife

Can someone say epic weekend? I sure can. And Southwest made it all possible.

Theme of the trip? #swalife

Laura, Shana, Danelle, and I met up on Friday afternoon and rode down to Houston with Louise, who was so gracious to take us. I know it's weird to hear that we drove to Houston to catch a flight, but it was our only way to guarantee we could make it out of Dallas and on our way East. After some stressful work and travel related delays, we were on our way.

We stopped for some gas and Frosties. The three in the back (Laura, Shana, and I) all fell asleep for a good part of the ride. We knew we had a long weekend ahead! Danelle is used to no sleep so she was fine. ;)

We made it to the airport in plenty of time (thanks, Louise!) and had a bite of dinner before boarding our plane. Lucky for us, it was not a full flight and we each got our own row..except Laura who got stuck sitting by a man who wanted to give us a ride home and a place to stay...can someone say creepy? Unfortunately we were not able to get the sleep we had planned on getting because there was a 2-year-old child crying..for at least 2 hours of our 3 hour flight. There were definitely some not-so-nice things going through my head. But a funny flight attendant lightened the mood. It's amazing how a flight attendant can totally make my day! (Well, night in this case)

But I was so excited because..

We ended up in PHILLY! Wooo!

Our flight landed around 12:30 am.

Danelle went to school in Philly so she had the hook-ups and was our amazing tour guide. 

thing-i-learned #1: In Philly, you can park as close as you want to people and no one cares. You can also bump people's cars as you get out of a parallel parking spot and it's totally normal. What? Yeah, I don't think I could handle that.

After spending the night at some of Danelle's friends' house and sleeping for a few hours, we were up and on our way. Bad news? It was pouring rain. So glad I brought a jacket! The best way to travel is with people who are really familiar with the area because then you get to go to all of the best-kept-secret type places.

Apple cinnamon french toast, blueberry pancakes, breakfast sandwich, and apple dumpling. The Amish definitely know how to make breakfast!

Freshly squeezed orange juice was a great finish. And I usually don't even like orange juice that much. 

I went back and forth debating whether or not I was going to bring my jacket. So grateful I did! It ended up raining all morning in Philadelphia and it saved my hair a little.

We had to do the obvious tourist stuff. Independence Hall, Liberty Bell..it was so cool to see everything live! I was definitely quoting National Treasure lines in my head during a lot of it.

Funny story behind this very lovely photo-bombed picture. We wanted a picture with our tickets for Independence Hall so took it ourselves. Later when we were in the actual line, we realized we were standing in front of a man with a BYU shirt. Go Cougars! So we started talking to him about BYU and then he admitted to us that he had done the bunny ears in our picture - and we didn't even know at the time, we hadn't viewed the pic yet. And he had no idea we were Utah girls as well. Who would've thought?

Waiting in the rain. 

The stories and everything from the tour were so cool. I love hearing American Revolution stories. Our tour guide was cool - but I'm pretty sure you could hear him and understand every word perfectly from a mile away.

Because Danelle and Emilee had already seen all of this a million times, they went to find some nail polish remover. We had some picture fun while we waited.

Yes, we are this cool. 

Peace!

 American Flag in the back..lovely picture taken by the one and only Laura!

We ate lunch at a Jewish Deli. No, we didn't do the Philly Cheesestake thing..they aren't my favorite. This was definitely the best choice.

Homemade pickles and "health salad" 

 Famous Chicken Soup! Apparently it was on the Food Network..

 Biggest sandwich I have ever seen in my life.

 Famous 4th Street! Yummy food.

After our lunch we headed off to New York. We are so grateful for the buddy passes that brought Shana and Danelle with us and that we got to meet Emilee! It also helped having a driver :) You girls rock.

Stay tuned for the rest of our weekend adventure!

And a video while you wait for part 2 :)

Luv, Lindsay

Find part 2 here!