Parade!
My friend and I drove to Philadelphia to see the parade - we've been watching the Phils all year and waiting a long time for this. Anyway, this promises to be a bit long, and with pictures.
We got to the train station around 8 AM, and it was filled with people in Phillies gear and a few suits who were nervously phoning their bosses to say that they might be late. Several trains blew past us, not stopping because they were already filled past capacity. Finally one did stop, and we got on and stood for the 45 minute ride to Suburban Station in Center City.
We emerged from the station to find the city pretty packed already with people. Here are the streets around 9:30:
We met up with John's high school friend and a few others at city hall, and hung out there for a while. Here are John and I at Love Park:
As it got close to noon we headed down a street parallel to Broad St to look for a good spot to view the parade. We ended up across from the Kimmel Center, and managed to maneuver so that we were only about 6-7 people deep. Very quickly we were stuck there, since the side street we got in from was packed. Behind us people were standing on cars - it was crazy.
Eventually the parade caught up to us.
Manuel and the trophy:
World Series & NLCS MVP Cole Hamels (the rest of a picture was of someone else's camera)
Shane Victorina (aka the Flyin' Hawaiian)
Once the parade passed, we escaped from the Broad Street throngs and got onto 13th street and walked down (4 miles) to the stadium. Here's the scene outside CBP:
We started out the day underneath the Comcast Building (rectangular, tallest one in the skyline) so we walked pretty far:
And we went to the Linc to hear some speeches and see the players again. It's fun to see the Eagles stadium packed with Phillies fans. Cole Hamels and Pat Burrell are the only players I can pick out, because they both have the long gray/black coats and shades
The city encouraged public transportation but then the trains were completely overwhelmed. If we hadn' t gone to a less popular destination and had people pick us up farther away from home, it could have been a 4+ hour wait for the train.
We got to the train station around 8 AM, and it was filled with people in Phillies gear and a few suits who were nervously phoning their bosses to say that they might be late. Several trains blew past us, not stopping because they were already filled past capacity. Finally one did stop, and we got on and stood for the 45 minute ride to Suburban Station in Center City.
We emerged from the station to find the city pretty packed already with people. Here are the streets around 9:30:
We met up with John's high school friend and a few others at city hall, and hung out there for a while. Here are John and I at Love Park:
As it got close to noon we headed down a street parallel to Broad St to look for a good spot to view the parade. We ended up across from the Kimmel Center, and managed to maneuver so that we were only about 6-7 people deep. Very quickly we were stuck there, since the side street we got in from was packed. Behind us people were standing on cars - it was crazy.
Eventually the parade caught up to us.
Manuel and the trophy:
World Series & NLCS MVP Cole Hamels (the rest of a picture was of someone else's camera)
Shane Victorina (aka the Flyin' Hawaiian)
Once the parade passed, we escaped from the Broad Street throngs and got onto 13th street and walked down (4 miles) to the stadium. Here's the scene outside CBP:
We started out the day underneath the Comcast Building (rectangular, tallest one in the skyline) so we walked pretty far:
And we went to the Linc to hear some speeches and see the players again. It's fun to see the Eagles stadium packed with Phillies fans. Cole Hamels and Pat Burrell are the only players I can pick out, because they both have the long gray/black coats and shades
The city encouraged public transportation but then the trains were completely overwhelmed. If we hadn' t gone to a less popular destination and had people pick us up farther away from home, it could have been a 4+ hour wait for the train.