Springtime Greetings from SHS,
This is Chas Langelan on behalf of Surveyors Historical Society. Our volunteer team is busy organizing Surveyors Rendezvous 2013, which will take place later this summer in and around Historic Philadelphia. Festivities begin on the afternoon of Wednesday August 28, 2013, and end on the afternoon of Saturday August 31, 2013. Please save the dates and join us.
Rendezvous 2013 is an important event you won’t want to miss. It features no less than three historic dedications . . . all of genuine significance to the entire surveying profession. We’re actually adding history ourselves. First, we’ll mark the real spot of Mason & Dixon’s 1764 Astronomical Observatory, near Stargazer’s Stone in rural Chester County. Then we’ll unveil a new Pennsylvania "blue & gold" historical marker at South Street, near the ‘official’ Southernmost Point of Philadelphia in the 1760s. And finally we’ll honor colonial surveyor-astronomer Charles Mason with a truly appropriate Memorial Stone — at the ancient cemetery two-blocks from Independence Hall where he lies in an unmarked grave. Charles Mason’s monument will be an authentic 1766 Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary stone from the Mason-Dixon Line itself.
Our program and Rendezvous registration package will be available soon. Below is information about the hotel, airport, rental cars, etc. Plus there is important ‘entertainment’ news, just announced, which will affect Philadelphia hotel room availability for our Rendezvous. You’ll want to make room reservations immediately.
HOTEL INFO —
Our Rendezvous 2013 hotel is . . .
HYATT REGENCY PENN’S LANDING
201 South Columbus Boulevard
Philadelphia PA 19106
Local Telephone: 215-928-1234 (Not for reservations)
Our Rendezvous room rate is $129 a night, which is greatly reduced from normal summer ‘tourist season’ prices ($199 to $249) for this and other area hotels.
(Hyatt also offers a $145 a night package which includes Wi-Fi Internet service in your room, plus free breakfasts each morning. These items otherwise cost $10 daily for Wi-Fi and $25 for breakfast.)
To make room reservations and receive our group rate, call Hyatt’s Reservation Line at 888-421-1442 and mention Surveyors Historical Society. Hyatt also has a special "PassKey" reservation website set up for our Rendezvous. You can make room reservations on-line at https://resweb.passkey.com/go/surveyorshist.
PLEASE NOTE — We have a ‘block’ of rooms, for which SHS must pay if not used, so please make reservations only at the Hyatt and nowhere else. We selected this hotel because its room rate was the best obtainable. Our block of rooms will be released July 28, 2013 — 30-days before the Rendezvous begins — and the hotel’s regular higher prices will apply thereafter. Don’t wait.
IMPORTANT . . . Here is the late-breaking news: Philadelphia just announced that a major rock concert, "Jay-Z’s Made in America Festival" will hit town August 31. (How major is it? Seventeen acts a day on three different stages for two days, closing off a large area of the city about 2-miles from us.) Last year’s concert attracted 80,000 and filled every hotel room in Philly. We urge you to make room reservations now.
AIRPORT, TRAIN and RENTAL CARS —
For those flying in, Philadelphia International Airport is closest. No Philadelphia hotel offers courtesy shuttle vans. It’s a $30 ‘flat-rate’ cab ride from the airport to our hotel, but that’s still cheaper than renting a car. You should not need a car at all during this Rendezvous, but if you do need one, both Avis and Budget rental cars are available at our hotel, for about one-third the cost of renting one at the airport. Therefore, do not rent a car upon arrival. Take a cab, and rent a car at the hotel only if you need one.
For those arriving by train, Amtrak’s 30th Street Station is a $12-15 cab ride from the hotel.
You may want to consider flying in for this Rendezvous, or coming by train, because overnight parking is $19 to $30 a night, depending on which nearby lot or garage is used. You won’t need your car during the Rendezvous. There’s no free parking in Philly. We have a discounted daily rate at the hotel’s garage but it still costs.
PLEASE TELL OTHERS —
Kindly take the liberty of forwarding this information to anyone you feel may be interested. (They’re probably not on our email list.) Every SHS member who renewed dues this year will receive a mailed, printed Rendezvous brochure as always in the past, but email and Internet will also be used extensively, for the first time, to send news about this Rendezvous.
Registration packets will be coming soon. This message gives info about hotel and travel.
Godspeed on your journey, and we hope to see everyone at historic Philadelphia this coming August, for Rendezvous 2013,
With highest professional regards,
Chas Langelan, SHS vice-chair
Cell 240-394-0825
clangelan@comcast.net