Going to Malvern, PA
 

The corporation I work for was was recently aquired by a much larger multi-national corporation (Siemens) and our computer networks will be changed. I'll be travelling to Malvern, PA next week or the week after to get ready for our huge rollout of Siemens stuff.

It's my first time to PA and I know a bunch of you live in the area.

What's fun to do? How long is the drive to Philadephia?

I'll probably only be there for a few days. Maybe I can meetup with one or two of you to toss back a few brews.

-Paul

Malvern is probably about 1/2 hour outside of Philadelphia. I'm not sure because I've never driven in from there.

I would love to meet, but will either be mired in work or in caring for my mother.

Rassen-Frassen, etc.

I'd say more than 1/2 hr, depending on exactly where in Philadelphia you're going, but not much more. Malvern is an "exurb" or "edge city" kind of place.

Time into the city depends completely on rush hour. It's half-hour at midnight, but can be up to 1:30 during rush.

If you enjoy gambling you can make the 2hr trek to Atlantic City one night. If you go to a shore casino, you can also see the Atlantic Ocean for a token 5 minutes.

Top class comedy downtown at the Helium Comedy Club and they have Wednesday and Thursday shows.

If you are staying at the Holiday Inn Express, the bar at the Desmond, down rt 29, is much better. If you are staying at the Sheraton, I don't know. There used to be a large happy hour scene at the Boathouse, don't know any longer.

paul, mcenzie's brew pub is just west of malvern on rte 30. get a cobb salad for lunch. good sushi at a place that starts with a y on the right in the same direction. you're only 10 - 15 minutes from king of prussia....good mall, and better restaurants. ruth's chris for steaks, there's a cheescake factory in the mall, sullivans for fine dining (steaks are wicked).

if you want to go to philly, i'd recommend Morimoto. big$$, but he WAS the Iron Chef.

South street down by penn's landing is probably still fun on the weekend, too.

send me a pm when you know for sure when you'll be coming. i'm off wednesdays, and only live 1/2 hour away.

Send me a pm when you get in town and we can probably hook up - My office is in Folsom and I am now living in Chadds Ford. Neither is too far away ans it would be great to meet. Just expect a lot of eagles talk since they won a big game.

I work in Exton which is about a 10 minute drive from Malvern. I'll PM you my contact info. Exton Mall is 10 minutes from Malvern. There are 4 Indian restaurants with decent lunch buffets as well as numerous chain restaurants. The Longhorn at Rtes 30 & 100 is a decent chain restuarant for a steak.

Malvern is at least a 45 minute drive from Center City Philadelphia, worse during rush hour.

It looks like I won't be able to go until Sunday, October 22nd. Siemens is pissed, but they are asking me to bring something we don't have yet, so I'm creating it. They should have had this years before I got here, but nobody did it, so now it's up to me.

They want a list of every application the company uses (including at least a dozen home developed applications with extremely complicated install procedures), a list of which departments use each application, why they use it, where the files are located, what the install procedures are, and who to contact if we run into problems with it.

Besides compiling and organizing all this information, I also need to put everything on a removable drive to take with me over there.

Then I need to test all of our software with their computer images, and build custom desktop images for each department, and then come home and deploy everything.

I have to have the information extremely detailed so I can answer anything they ask without going "Duh....I don't know".

I'll be the representative for the whole IT & IS Departments and the worst part is I don't actually use any of this software so even if I get it all installed correctly, I can't test it without calling someone in California, and having them walk me through it.

This is going to screw things up for me with the election too because I'm expecting some signs to be delivered, and I want to put them all up before election day, and hopefully be able to finish everything in time to get home before election day so I can vote for myself.

Absentee ballot, dude. You may still be able to apply in person.

Luckily and unluckily the trip got moved up to this Monday, which means I'll fly Sunday night. Luckily so I can probably finish in time to get back before the election, and unluckily because I'm not even close to being ready for the trip.

Things to do
 

People's Light and Theatre Company is right in Malvern. It's a very nice theatre.

Cedar Hollow Inn a nice restaurant for the price. Plus it's a late night bar with upscale munchies. I've had some good dinners there.

Maddies I've been there a few times for work functions. A bit of a yuppie crowd. I've heard they have decent bands.

The first few choices are 5-10 minutes from Malvern.

The Ship Inn - About 15 minutes from Malvern. This is the other moderately priced upscale restaurant. I've only had lunch there, so I'm not going to judge.

Duling Kurtz - About 20 minutes away. Absolutely the best place to eat if someone else is buying. One of our salespeople treated the tech staff (including me) to a lunch there once. If your hosts make the mistake of giving you the choice of anywhere you want for dinner one night, this would be the place to make up for that 3 hour tech support call back to California you made for something that turned out to be a user error.:greenface F**k the Dilworthtown Inn, which is way overrated.

Longwood Gardens - 45 minutes from Malvern. This is the place I hang out at with Jeffrey and Marci. Very nice formal garden. As a bonus there is a 3 or 4 star restaurant in the middle of the garden. Since most people are visiting the garden, dress is casual.

Simon Pearce - A bit of a tourist trap, but you do get to watch them blow glass. Near Longwood.

Baldwin's Book Barn - It's a barn full of books. Baldwin's is a very large and quirky bookstore in an old barn. They have everything from year old cookbooks to early 20th century geography books. 3/4 of the way to Longwood from Malvern up the road from Simon Pearce.

Most area maps assume Philly's suburbs end in King of Prussia. You will be another 20 or 30 minutes outside of most maps. Recommend an $8 '50 mile radius' map sold in Wawa (a 7-11 type store but cleaner) or other stores. You will be that far outside Philly meaning many maps will be skimpy on details.

Learn the lingo. Blue Route as everyone knows it will be I-476 on your map and Cross County Expressway on signs. PA side of Philly is full of these discontinuities. You will probably take the Blue Route from Philly Intern'l to the dreaded Schukyll Expressway W (I-76 on your map). Then when I-76 tries to get off and jump onto another road (PA Turnpike is also called I-76), then switch to Rt202 south (which is fortunately only known as Rt 202). In two paragraphs below, Rt 30 is cited. Well, two Rt 30s exist in parallel. PA Department of Transportation Chief Engineer had his title changed to General Manager - apparently to be consistent. Appreciate the logic.

Most of my business trips leave little time only for eating, some basic relaxing, and sleep. Doubtful that time will exist for People's Light, or Longwood Gardens, or a 1 hour one way (30 mile) trip into Philly.

Most food and drink will be south on Rt202 to Route 100 & 30 in Exton or on Rt 202 to its next exit (also Rt 30) for Downingtown. Food and drink also north on Rt 202 in King of Prussia. Exton Mall and both KoP malls are adjacent to food and about 5+ miles from your Rt 202 Great Valley exit.

Even phone books for both areas will be different. Verizon book will be vague about what area is covered. Yellow Book may be more helpful. Phone book may be labeled something cryptic line West Main Line. Phone book also will not provide the adjacent phone book's name. Somehow you are expected to know. That 50 mile radius map will be a best investment.

Make sure your rental car includes travel in NJ just in case. Include DE if necessary. Rental cars may have restrictions on what state is permitted. Easy to make a wrong turn and end up in NJ if in Philly.

Man this sucks. The Director of IT is fighting the people at Siemens. He says he can't spare me, and they'll have to wait another week. I hate getting caught in the middle of this kind of power struggle bullshit.

It might be back to the 23rd.

I'll take care of the job. FedEx me the drives. $50/hr plus lunch and travel expenses for a short drive.

Got my ticket. I leave tomorrow at 9am and get to Philadelphia at about 5:30 pm.

I don't have to work tomorrow, so maybe we toss back a few. They've got me scheduled to come back on Friday, but I'm not sure I'll be done by then.

Where are you staying? :confused:

Call me when you get to Philadelphia. If you're coming in at 5:30, don't expect to be in Malvern until 7:00 or 7:30, between baggage handling and rush hour.

I'm staying HERE

WOW, Pennsylvania is very pretty. You've got trees! And they change color! It seems like you've got Seasons!!! Nice river. Beautiful houses that look like they were built more than 20 years ago.

Very sweet.

Thank you. This is a very poor-quality fall leaf-changing season, normally it is 10 times better than this.

hey, sorry i couldn't get out tonight. the elverson halloween parade was tonight, and i couldn;t have left my driveway if i had wanted to. ....the kids had a good time, and i impressed lots of people with my Mr Incredible costume.

There's a wonderful leaf-peeper show on my way to work going up the Turnpike Extension to Allentown every morning...the best colors are still quite a bit north of here.

Every year I take a flight or two northbound to find where the best colors are. I think they'll get down here eventually after the next cold snap.

Here's a shot from over the New Jersey/New York border near High Point State Park last Sunday...

Hoping to get to Cholmondeley (no, don't even try to pronounce it - you'll be wrong) this coming weekend to see the colour changes there. Here in the UK, we're still quite green.... Autumn has been a long time coming.

Ours is definitely more than 20 years old - but I've got conflicting info (pdf, #25) on its actual age. :confused:

That would be circa 1800. :lol:

It's a shame you don't have more time, Radar....like weekend time.

It's pronouced "chumly" isn't it?

As for "old houses", ours was built in 1920.

Just had a meal with Rich Levy. He's a very nice guy. The food was great.

Thanks, I had a great time. I'm posting becaue after 2 months I finally figured out how to get my uploaded picture off of Verizon's Pix Place.

I know I'm still missing something, because I can't find a download function. Still, it's better than nothing and the copy I have fits the Cellar size limit.

Here's Radar and me at the Cedar Hollow Inn.

Thats great - I'm sorry that I couldn't have joined you guys - perhaps next time

Which is which -- and who fed Paul some real downhome Philly cheese steak sandwiches?