Travel to Philadelphia from Jersey City and back

 

Note: To see some scanned items from 2021 Porchfest, see the file called 2021 Porchest on G drive.

Yesterday, June 5, 2021, we traveled to West Philly for the Porchfest festival. Here are some key points about the day.

1. The website for Porchfest is https://westphillyporchfest.com/
2. If you go to that website on your phone, you see an interactive map 
3. Also at locations where they are selling t-shirts, they are also giving away free hard copy maps
4. The hard copy maps were a little easier to read and understand, while the phone app had a little more information about each porch's music
5. We left the house at 10:20 to meet the 10:42 PATH train at Grove Street 
6. The PATH train was so delayed that we made it to Newark Penn with just three minutes to get on the Amtrak train
7. The reason we took Amtrak was because Amtrak had been offering deep discounts. So deep that our trip would be cheaper than taking NJ Transit and changing trains at Trenton to get on the Septa. The tix were $17 a piece. The downside of Amtrak, which we were reminded of, is that they don't run often, and the tix are for a specific departure time. Anyway, we did get on the Amtrak train
8. The train had dining cars with tables. It was nice to sit at a table for the entire trip. The three of us had plenty of room. They have a car that sells food and water, but Mike reports that the food isn't very good, and anyway, we had food with us.
9. Upon arrival at the 30th street station, we had to figure out how to get a Septa trolley ticket for Dwight. That's because, unlike Mike and me, Dwight does not have a Septa card. 
10. We bought day trip tickets for Dwight at the kiosk at the 33rd street station. Two dollars and fifty cents each. So we bought two for a total of five. The machine takes cash, even coins, or a credit card.
11. Amtrak is fast, so we got there in a little over an hour. Arrived around 12:35. Took the trolley to Maddie's house. Google Maps did me dirty and sent us to the wrong place because it dropped Maddie's house number from their Kingsessing address. But we managed to meet up with Maddie.
12. We spent a few hours checking out the bands, and then walked to a Mexican restaurant called Copabanana where Maddie had made reservations for 5:15 for outdoor seating. The food was great and the service excellent.
13. We spent about two hours, and then parted ways. Maddie took the trolley home. Mike, Dwight, and I walked to the 30th street station, only to find that the next Septa train wasn't until 9:30, yet it was only 8 pm. So we Ubered home for $170. We took a loss on the Septa/NJ Transit tickets.
14. The next day I looked up whether Megabus would have worked for our return trip, but it too had a big gap between 7 pm and 9 pm. And when I tried Bolt Bus, the website seemed to not be working
15. Maddie suggested that next year, they could make the reservations, which is what they ended up doing this year, after I screwed them up. They recognize that they're the ones with the food restrictions. Just be sure it's not sushi or vegetarian because I don't like those.