Well, I finally made it to Philadelphia! Technically, it was a business trip but I made a whole thing of it because I’d never been before.
There are no direct flights from COS to PHL, so I flew out of the Springs and went to Chicago for the first time. I wasn’t worried about my 1-hour layover. Sadly flying into Chicago from the west, there was no view of the city. I’ve read many books over the years about Chicago’s architecture scene and my dad used to frequently visit for his job. I did, however, began to worry about my layover when we landed early and they proceeded to tell us our gate wasn’t available yet. The guys next to me were also squirming in their seats, we all had connecting flights and in row 21, we obviously wouldn’t be the first ones off that plane. By the time we did disembark, I walked 2 gates down and boarded my next flight immediately. Not the layover, I had in mind.
On the plus side, when flying out of Chicago for Philadelphia I had a fantastic view of the city. For this trip, I tried something new, audiobooks. Or audiobook, I should say. I only tried one. Haley recommended a book for me MONTHS ago and although I had gotten the physical copy from the library the 400 pages was a bit daunting so I found the audio version, also from the library ready to borrow. It was the perfect way to escape the plane rides. And I didn’t have to carry the book around. #winwin
Upon arriving in Philadelphia, I traveled across town, like a seasoned pro thanks to my many travels with family domestically & abroad. Although I easily get turned around in subway stations, there were plenty of people to point me in the right direction.
I started my first morning in Philadelphia walking Independence Mall, seeing the Liberty Bell, and Independence Hall. I began my trek toward the western side of Central City not long after that and took a short refuge in a Starbucks to rest my legs, and myself from the nearly 80% humidity. This Colorado girl forgot what 80% felt like!
But, as I said this was a business trip, I was meeting the girls from wearwell for the first time! After working for and with them for almost 10 months, I was finally meeting them face to face and getting to work alongside them. Monday started our two days of working together, with some included time to just hang out and get to know each other. I won’t bore you with our conversations #confidentiality but it was a pleasure to see the entire process in person, brainstorm together, and see all our inventory! I returned to Colorado with so many encouraging words, friendships, and work relationships like never before. My greatest sadness from this trip was not getting a picture of the team together, but there is always next time. 😉
Overall, this is truly my first solo trip and my first business trip. It felt really brave to fly to a city I’d never been to, spend an entire day walking and seeing it and working with people I used to only know online. Outside of working, which was fantastic, my favorite part of the trip was simply sitting in Rittenhouse Square on Sunday afternoon watching all the people. My creative juices were overflowing with styling ideas because the people in Philadelphia and possibly the east coast in general, dress very differently than those of us in Colorado or even in California or Texas!
Stylishly Shelby 