We went to London. It was fun. But. Before we went to London...We went to Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. We had a layover of about 7 hours...which seems like a long time...but when you have to fly through the Philly airport and all of the lovely shenanigans associated with that....LOVELY airport...it was no time at all. The other reason I wasn't so worried about a long layover is my very favorite CamieO lives outside of Philadelphia and because I haven't seen her in 3 WHOLE YEARS...I missed her desperately and we were going to get a drink....and some sort of appetizer...and hang out. OH JOY!
Apparently if your looking for a good time in Philly its bests to leave the entire airport area. Drive far far away. The only sit down establishments to get a drink near the airport were a Marriot hotel bar....and a Ruby Tuesdays. Now...I HATE...Ruby Tuesdays. I feel bad, I shouldn't...but I've always disliked them. They really grossed me out as a teenager and I've had no interest in revisiting them. Now maybe I'm being harsh but this place has done nothing to wooooo me. Yes woooo me. So...we are all in agreement that we dislike Ruby Tuesdays but its the only place open and near by that works. We three begrudgingly (oh rhyming i like it) head to Ruby Tuesdays.
Okay at this stage in my FABULOUS story telling Dave, CamieO and the Lindso are all sitting in the restaurant (near the restrooms and an emergency exit...location location location)...we all seem rather exhausted and don't have much to talk about which is okay...we are just soaking in the scenery. The restaurant isn't full but theres a few people scattered around us. Theres a table near by with a 'young' mom and her 5 teenage children (assume what you will)...and a nice girl sitting next to us having a glass of wine and reading a book, few guys at the bar...etc etc...its a Friday at 4...not quite happy hour but we're getting there. Our waitress who I really actually truly liked felt the need to say "Sh**" a good 3 times even before she took our drink order. This was a colorful experience...I mean really...how generic can you get...But heck I figure I'm leaving the country to go on a big adventure...I can have a mellow drink and snack before I head out...this will be good for us to relax before our long flight.
Thats when the FBI showed up.
I turn to Camie and Dave and mention to them that their happens to be an FBI agent coming into the restaurant, which Dave offhandedly responds: Oh hes probably just getting a drink after work!...Me: In full riot gear? So moments later 2 mooooore FBI agents come trotting (full on running in) to the Ruby Tuesdays (my favorite restaurant) and then we notice the guys at the bar are plain clothed agents and they all start searching the restaurant. OF COURSE....the FBI agent behind us in the corner by the bathrooms starts yelling "GUYS GUYS I HAVE ONE BACK HERE NEED BACK UP BRING BACK UP ONE GUY OVER HERE!" In moments because heck thats what happens in these scenarios the entire parking lot is flooded with FBI cars, trucks, agents, and of course machine guns and they are dragging two guys (one from the bathroom...you know WHERE WE WERE SITTING) out of the restaurant.
Now...the young mother and her multiple offspring that I was talking about earlier... apparently had enough sense to get the heck out of their chairs and get out of the way. We three (I really like that phrase today) are sitting in our seats... craning our necks to SEE THE ACTION. Of course the machine guns...those must be toys...no big deal. Silliness.
Thankfully our stupidity didn't harm us and the really amazing FBI agents had the place under control the whole time. Lets be honest...the three of us were apparently going to be the first ones picked off in a fight...for not having the foresight to GET OUT OF THE WAY.
So the situations under control. The Drug Enforcement Devision of the FBI has handled the "bust." Oh now I'm using cool but fake terms for the fancy FBIness....anyway these two guys had been in the restaurant the whole time....and of course there are still gun toting, machine gun happy agents circling the building which I'm VERY okay with seeing as they knew what they were doing.
I finally turn to Dave, smack him on the shoulder and declare: This is the BEST vacation EVER! To which Camie turns in her classic "Camie can be heard over everyone" voice and says "Welcome to Philadelphia!" A waiter across the restaurant pipes in to let me know that this is NOT what Philly is like.
So the FBI is still around and business gets back to normal and the table with my young mother friend who happened to get up from the table and get out of the way with her kids during the whole commotion is now back at her table...eating...and on her cell phone screaming obscenities and creating a bit of a scene. Apparently the 2 friends of ours that just got dragged out in cuffs by the heavily armed beefy agents were at her house just two days previous. The drug lords...gang members...drug dealing....hoodlums...were at this womans house...2 DAYS AGO...and APPARENTLY she didn't recognize them in the restaurant? Now...WHY when it is clear that an ongoing investigation is happening IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE...and the machine guns in the parking lot have not been disengaged (is that what happens...I haven't shot a gun in some 23 years)....are you talking about this? Do you WANT to get questioned? AND WHYYYY are you making a scene IN the restaurant talking about being associated with these up-standing probably innocent *cough* men who just got arrested?
I'd never been to Philadelphia and I have to say this was one of the BEST first trips to a city. I TOTALLY plan on going back.......to visit Camie of course...and maybe something interesting will happen?
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