Traveling Nanny-Man

(It’s not the superhero name I would have picked for myself, but hey . . .)

Two weeks ago it was “Livonia”:http://www.polytropos.org/archives/000374.html; this time it’s Philly. Suanna has a meeting here for the next couple days, and, not wanting to be away from “Ella”:http://www.polytropos.org/ella/ for even that long — entirely understandable; I’m a fan of the girl too — she asked me to come along.

We only just got in, but contrasts between this and the last nanny mission already abound. Livonia: flat, lots of wide boulevards, strip malls, lots of new construction, mostly of Walmarts. Philadelphia: an ancient city — at least by American standards — narrow, tall, bricky. The Holiday Inn in Livonia had a parking lot bigger than the place itself, but “The Latham”:http://www.lathamhotel.com/ has valet parking only, and, I suspect, must take the cars as far as Delaware in order to find a place to put them. The Latham is a “boutique hotel,” which they describe as “European,” which is to say, “cramped.” Actually, no, it’s very cozy, and a far sight nicer than a Holiday Inn. But traveling with a baby means traveling with the accompanying Infant Infrastructure, which is enough to make any hotel room feel cramped.

Finding free wi-fi won’t be a problem, because it’s available right here at the hotel: now _that’s_ what I call boutique!