In 2019 we had the chance to see Queen in concert in Philadelphia, PA. Adam Lambert took the place of the deceased Freddy Mercury and it was literally one of the best concerts I have ever seen. The range that man can sing is amazing! I’m including the writing of our son in this post because he received top props for this in his writing class:
It was a nice and sunny day in the city of Philadelphia with the smell of cheesesteaks and gasoline filling the air. At the ripe time of seven o’clock I was up and started my day. I took a warm shower in my cozy hotel room at the Hilton, dressed, and started down the stairs. As I inched closer to the free breakfast the hotel was offering the corridors were filled with the smell of potatoes and bacon. I stared over the tables at tables of breakfast foods and utensils. I carefully chose my breakfast. I came out with potatoes, bacon, toast, cinnamon buns and frosted flakes. I boxed up my food and left the lounge, as quick as I possibly could. I ran up the stairs and through the corridors trying to beat the feeling of hunger that was growing in my stomach. Finally, I made it to my hotel room. I cracked the door open trying not to wake my parents up but to my surprise they were already awake. With my stomach crying for food I sat on the coal colored recliner and gazed out the window at the city that surrounded me. I gobbled up my breakfast in seconds. I turned to the mini fridge and pulled open the door. There was a dragon fruit Vitamin Water calling my name. I quickly popped off the cap and washed the taste of overcooked potatoes out of my mouth. In a flash it was already 9 o’clock. In the morning I paced around the room trying to find the navy-blue Adidas shoes I wear every day.
“Where are they, where are they?”
I exclaimed. Finally, a thought popped into my head,
“Gavin, did you check under the bed”.
I peered through the endless black shadow under the bed and there they were.
“Found ’em!”
I yelled. I reached under the bed and grabbed my shoes. I jumped onto the bed and started to lace them up. My mom grabbed her purse and led us down to the lobby. We were headed to the Franklin Institute. The world suddenly went up ten volume levels. Everywhere we went there were pedestrians yelling and car horns honking. We navigated through the crowded streets of Main Street Philly. As I gazed through the streets there were tons of Eagles fans.
“Good thing I didn’t wear my Tom Brady Jersey!” I told myself.
As we were walking down the streets all I could think about is the concert. I imagined screaming fans almost being louder than the band. A car horn woke me up from my daydreaming and to my surprise we were already a quarter into our journey. I gazed upon the beautiful buildings surrounding the streets. My bones started to feel brittle like I was going to collapse. As we inched closer to the Franklin Institute the columns started to become larger and larger until finally, I was faced to face with them. I entered the building and gazed around looking at the beautifully sculpted Ben Franklin statue and the giant heart play place. As we navigated through the crowded halls of the building looking for the Marvel exhibit finally, we found it. There were banners and statues everywhere, giftshops filled with Spider Man and Captain America plushes and action figures. We walked up to the line to get in and it was nearly the size of the whole building! There were only ten minutes until the doors opened so I waited…. I waited…. waited even more…….. and then the doors opened! People were running in, trying to be first and when we made it in there it was every Marvel fans dream. There were movies, tv shows, and comics filling up the walls. There were statues of major Marvel characters like the Thing, Spider Man, and Iron Man. Each superhero had its own exhibit. There was Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Stanley Lieber (Stan Lee) but it was just a statue. I walked around and gazed at the beautifully crafted Mark Suits and Tesseract recreations. But, no one cared about those they cared about… THE ENDGAME EXHIBIT! Everyone poured into the room gazing at the infinity stones and Thanoses armor. Before you knew it, the exhibit was over. It felt like it was just a little taste into all the Marvel lore, but I loved it! And even better there was a huge gift shop to waste my money in. I looked around and there were candy, Funko Pops, statues, Legos, lunchboxes, and stuffed animals and they all looked so cool, but I knew I had to be wise. I thought I want something that has my favorite superhero, Wolverine. I thought it was odd but there was really nothing Wolverine except for a Pez dispenser so, I bought it! As the lines died down an employee escorted us to the exit. We all wondered what now, we still have hours until the concert. Then it hit us, LUNCH! It seemed everyone else had the same idea to. Tons of people had already piled into the huge cafeteria to abolish their craving of food and water. We jumped in line and patiently waited for food. As every minute passed the lined seemed to grow ten people. Finally, it was our turn. The grills were filled with chicken served with a side of fries and burgers, but it all looked so good. I dipped the fork into the chicken bin and carefully grabbed the perfect piece of chicken. We made our way to the cashier and paid our fee,
“$30 for chicken and a cheeseburger, ABSURD”
my mom exclaimed. We made our way to our tables and gorged ourselves with food. “Burp” my stomach was satisfied. We piled our greasy trays on to the rubbish bin and left the Franklin Institute satisfied with our experience. We walked out of the building and our legs were aching in pain.
“Let’s call a taxi” my mom said.
“Good idea let’s go!”
“Taxi, taxi we yelled. Finally, a taxi appeared.
We said, “The Hilton please.”
You got it the taxi driver exclaimed. In a flash we were back at the hotel and in the comforts of our hotel room. There was nothing to do for the next five hours. 1:00 watching tv, 2:00 going to the pool, 3:00 watching more tv, 4:00 decided to watch a movie and then it was time, time for the concert! I jumped out of bed and into the shower. I brushed my hair and put on my Queen shirt; I was ready. I left the lobby ecstatic. We walked around the streets and into the subway station and navigated through the different stations until we found our port. We waited patiently for our subway to arrive. Finally, it had arrived, and we ran in. As people started to pour in the subway started to leave its stop. As the subway moved swiftly around the tracks all I could think about was the concert. Finally, the train stopped and let us out. I ran out of subway system and gazed around at my surroundings, I saw statues, stadiums, cars, and trucks. We walked up to the stadium hosting the concert and were almost in.
The line started to expand and expand until finally they were letting us in. We got to the stadium when an employee stopped us in our tracks.
” Ma’am, you can’t take a backpack in with you.”
In a back and forth argument the guard had won. My mom walked around the whole stadium to get to the lockers while me and my other mom went into the stadium.
We walked around the stadium looking for our seats. “There they are” my mom said. We walked into our row and sat down.
We looked at the stage where the band would be preforming in awe. Minutes before the concert started my mom had finally made it back. Then BOOM, BOOM, CHICK, BOOM, BOOM, CHICK, the concert had started. The stage lit up and fireworks appeared and then the band.
Queen had been my favorite band for over a year and I still remember how excited I was when I got the tickets on Christmas eve. I practically knew every song and could repeat it whenever the band played it, so I did. I sang from the beginning of the concert with Inuendo to the end of the concert with Bohemian Rhapsody.
As the band finished preforming waves of claps started to go around the stadium and the it was finished. I loved it! Every single second of it was amazing.
As we walked out of the stadium, we started to the subway station. We hopped on the train and started our journey. We talked to other pedestrians on the subway until we got to our stop. We left the stop and walked around to find where we were. “Um were at the wrong place” my mom said.
” Oh no”
my other mom exclaimed. We panicked as we looked around to find help, but we were too far away. We were trapped underground and there were no exits. “I’m going to have a panic attack if we can’t get out of here.” My mom said. Just as she had said that we spotted an elevator.
“There, THERE!” I exclaimed.
We managed to get into the elevator to bring us outside, but there was one problem, it was 12:00 am in the heart of Philly and you know how dangerous that can be. We quickly navigated through the streets until finally we saw the huge lighted sign. It was our hotel, the Hilton. We all let out a sigh of relief. Finally, we were at home base a place where we could relax. We fell right asleep on our comfy sheets and mattress knowing no matter how bad things can get, you can always enjoy them.
Well said son, well said.
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