A Wedding Weekend in Philly in the  2016 Mazda CX-3 AWD Grand Touring

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Any reason to get away from home with your spouse, lover, significant other for a weekend alone is a welcome one. Whether it is a matter of on-the-spot spontaneity or an event planned well in advance, “we” time is always essential. In this instance, we had RSVP’d for a wedding in South Jersey. With the location of cousin Carol’s wedding minutes from Illadelphia, my husband and I already knew exactly what other points of interest nearby we needed to key into the navigation: Sabrina’s and Ishkabibble’s. And fortunately, we had the 2016 Mazda CX-3 AWD Grand Touring’s navigation and its full complement of features at our disposal for the trip.


For our lovely couple’s weekend our plan was set and simple. With a start time of 3pm Saturday afternoon and Philadelphia only two hours away we’d leave home for the wedding the same day around 10am, allowing us enough time to drop off Mini-Me with Grandma in Brooklyn and then comfortably cruise down 95. Check-in at the hotel in Philly, eat, shower, change, and again comfortably cruise to cousin Carol’s house in South Jersey for her intimate wedding in her spacious backyard. That was the plan. Here’s what actually happened.

Carol’s…

2016 Mazda CX-3 Grand Touring Philadelphia Sheraton

We didn’t leave home until after 12:30pm; about the time we had planned to arrive at the hotel. It looked and felt like all of New York had hit the road at the same time too because the traffic was treacherous. It was a constant stop-and-start-then-stop-again grind from Brooklyn to Staten Island to the Turnpike. Silver lining: the 2016 Mazda CX-3 AWD Grand Touring  comes with a Sport mode for higher revs giving this already agile crossover extra zippiness. Maneuvering like a seasoned New York City driver I was able to hit any opening the breaks in traffic gave me. What a relief because we had a lot of time to make up!

Couple in Philadlphia

We made it to Philly and checked in at the hotel only minutes before the wedding was scheduled to start according to the invitation. All things considered, that was great timing. And for that, add another check mark in the winning column for the CX-3. Once traffic had thinned out on 95 South, I let Mazda’s i-ACTIVESENSE Package do its job. Setting the Cruise Control with Close Proximity Warning to a “safe, reasonable” pace “just above” the speed limit .:wink wink:. the 2016 Mazda CX-3 AWD Grand Touring gave signals helping me to anticipate the deceleration and moves of the cars in front of me. At the hotel with not a second to waste I swiftly maneuvered into my dress just as I had been swiftly maneuvering on the highway moments ago and we set off in a hurry.

We arrived at cousin Carol’s house at 3:30pm. Sweating, literally and figuratively, from the fact that we were late, I “let” (read: insisted) my husband be the one to ring the doorbell. It only made sense. After all Carol is his cousin. The door opened and we were let in.

The house had been set up for the ceremony and guests were casually milling about. We didn’t know which point of the evening’s proceedings we had just walked in on so we tried to hide our discomfort and obvious lateness by blending in. My husband and I exchanged furtive eye contact. Had we missed it? Where are the bride and groom so we can apologize? What do you mean you never picked up a card! At this point, someone kindly told us drinks were being served on the lower level so we made our way downstairs.


Still clueless about where we were in the schedule of things we made our best attempt to go unnoticed. We sat down at the bar and let the bartender whip us up cocktails – strong ones. When embarrassed, drink. When doubly embarrassed because you think you missed your cousin’s wedding, drink doubly. We mingled with the mixture of family and friends at the bar and time began to slip by. About an hour later, another kind someone came downstairs and announced that our presence was requested upstairs…. the wedding was about to begin. Wait! What! Wipe brow and deeply sigh with relief! Whew!


Turns out cousin Carol is quite the wedding planner. A full ninety minute cocktail hour before the wedding. A full cocktail evening after the wedding. Genius! Why haven’t more couples employed this play. Whether it was the heavily poured drinks or the realization that we were actually on time (way early even!) we settled into our seats both relaxed and relieved. The bride was beautiful. The groom was emotional. The ceremony was sweet and we partied well into the night.

Sabrina’s…


The next day we took the 2016 Mazda CX-3 AWD Grand Touring back over to Philadelphia to go check our homegirl Sabrina. There on Christian Street in the Italian Market section is the mecca for brunch goers – and lovers of all around great food. Yes, Sabrina’s Cafe is the home of Stuffed Challah French Toast heavenly delightfulness! But before we could indulge we had to search for a parking spot – and search we did. But here is where you add another check mark for CX-3. Being behind the wheel of Mazda’s subcompact equipped with a rearview camera makes parking effortless – once you actually find a spot that is.

Ishkabibble’s…

Satisfied and stuffed from Sabrina’s we moved on to Ishkabibble’s, our final stop before turning north to head home. This mission was simple: grab 4 of Philly’s best cheesesteaks and keep it moving. If they didn’t make it all the way back to New York then great. If they did last the trip then great. We’d eat the leftovers the next day. I don’t know but there’s something about taking bites of a cheesesteak while driving that makes having Advanced Blind Spot Monitoring both a necessity and a blessing.


The starting price of the 2016 Mazda CX-3 AWD Grand Touring is $26,240. Read more about it here: mazdausa.com.


Tell us about your favorite past “we” time getaways with your spouse, lover, significant other. Or maybe you have something planned coming up. What is it? Go ahead and share it. Would you go road tripping in the Mazda CX-3?

Disclosure: DriveShop provided a vehicle for review consideration. All opinions are our own and are honest.