The morning after.  Believe it or not, I did not have a hangover anywhere near as badly as I should have.  Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for Poppy.  I went downstairs to make out with myself, then went back up to shower and then pack since we had a noon checkout.  Once we were all set, Poppy checked out of the room using the remote control and got stuck on some stupid screen trying to enter her e-mail address with numbers only.  It’s moments like that when you miss the simple things… like a keyboard.

Once we cleared things up with the front desk, we went down into the depths of the parking garage and dropped off the baggage.  Then we returned to the lobby to wait for Avitable, Britt, Hilly, and Hellohahanarf to come down to checkout as well.  Apparently it was quite a bit to handle, because as they walked through the lobby I noticed they had brought in Shiny for some baggage back-up.  Once they got done downstairs we all went into The Terrace Restaurant for breakfast/brunch/lunch.

When we got into the restaurant Karl, Jan, and Christine were already there finishing up their own breakfast.  So we all slid into the tables next to them and perused the menu.  The waiter, who reminded me of Mr. Magoo, came over and told us the breakfast buffet was still open so we could have that instead of ordering lunch.  While we were perusing the menu, Avitable filled Poppy and I in on the details about Karl‘s after party.  Most people may have lost their appetite thinking about squishing carpet… but instead we all decided to do the buffet where I proceeded to consume around two pounds of bacon.

This meal however, was different.  Besides Hilly holding her head in her hands for most of it, the addition of Shiny, and Britt‘s unusual quietness… there was almost no twittering.  Literally… it was as if their thumbs had finally given out under the strain.  It was a meal that remained MOSTLY untwittered.  Mr. Magoo was really cool, and he only charged the 7 of us for 2 buffets.  I guess they wanted to get rid of that bacon… which I was more than happy to assist them with.

After breakfast/brunch/lunch we all piled into our respective cars and headed over to the Philadelphia Museum of Art… also known as the home of Rocky Balboa’s Steps.  The drive over was pleasant enough… although while turning into to parking lot someone must have misread my license plate and didn’t realize I was from New York.  I was going to ram them… but Hellohahanarf was kind enough to let me into the other lane.  Now the Museum sits ontop of a hill overlooking the river on one side and the city on the other.  The odd thing about it was that to park, you literally drove up the hill into the back of the museum, and then drove around it… including across the top of the steps at the front of the museum.  Needless to say… it made for a very interesting parking spot.

Once parked at the top of the museum, well we actually had to go down the steps to see the statue of Rocky.  Apparently there had been some sort of argument by artists and their fans that the Rocky statue didn’t belong at the top.  Of course, the Rocky fans said it did.  In the end, off the the northern side of the staircase at the bottom is the Rocky statue.

Now there are two important things to note about these photos above.  See, Hilly and Shiny got separated from us… so originally they went to a different statue.  Apparently, in the versions of Rocky they saw, Rocky rode a horse and wore a big floppy hat… so they missed the group photo.  Also absent from the group photo with Rocky is Avitable.  The reason why is because apparently Rocky has his own photographer.  There was a guy at the Rocky statue who would take your picture with your camera… and of course he accepted tips.  Apparently not everyone comes as prepared as I am with a tripod… and so Avitable decided to stand guard should Rocky‘s photographer have an emergency and needed to run… but forgot to give back the camera.  Yes… we bloggers are trusting… but that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re completely naive… or at least Avitable isn’t.

After that we gathered around the bottom of the stairs to cheer Hilly and Britt as they ran to the top of the stairs a’la Rocky style.  They both not only made it to the top running, but Britt did it in heels.  More impressive is that I was also able to walk to the top without the aid of either oxygen or an external defibrillator.  Once up there, we admired the view of the city… and at this point… we parted ways to each go back to whence we came.

TequilaCon had officially ended for us.

Of course, one cannot visit the city of Philadelphia without partaking off their contribution to Americana in the form of a Philly Cheesesteak.  So Poppy and I, before leaving the city, went over to Geno’s Steaks.  There we got 5 Cheesesteaks with onions and American cheese… and I have to tell you… they were DAMN good.  We briefly considered going across the street to Pat’s so we could have a cheesesteak competition… but Geno’s just happened to be decorated in the right colors.  So, by default, Geno’s wins. 

Yes folks… orange is the new pink… and tequila is the new coffee.

Get used to it.

Pictures are reportedly worth a thousand words.  Well I think the photos from my Flickr set and the TequilaCon Flickr Group are worth a little more… but you can be the judge.  Photos for this post were culled from Poppy’s Flickr Set.