Monday, July 06, 2015

It's Not Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Coming back from a 4 day weekend is tough, but today was a good Monday, mainly due to 3 things:

1. A vendor took me to Maloney and Porcelli for a fat steak lunch

2. The MTA refunded my broken Metrocard...














Not only that, but they did it in less than a month. For every 300 things they do wrong they get something right. I don't even care that they called me Mr!















3. My Zumba instructor resurrected "Your Love is a Killer" after something like an 8 month hiatus. I remembered the entire dance BECAUSE ITS THE BEST! Also, Fuse ODG played the 10 pm slot on Friday night in Sonic at Glastonbury this year - more like Fuse OMG, am I right?!

I'm breaking up my Peru posts with this special 4th of July blog on our weekend trip to Philadelphia. I'd been there twice before - once when I worked at ICSC and helped out at our conference, and once when I worked as a side job for my boss helping out with on-site things at her son's wedding. The bride and groom actually forgot their wedding license in their hotel room, and the rabbi insisted upon having it before signing them as legally married, so I had to race back to central Philly during the ceremony (the wedding was at a museum about 20 minutes away), go up to their suite in the Ritz Carlton, search for the license in their luggage, and run it back to the museum before the rabbi had to leave for another engagement. After that, I stayed as a guest and just helped pack gifts into the car at the end, so all in all, it was a fabulous side job.

Back to my point - I've never actually toured Philadelphia, and Dave has never been, and this was an easy and quick getaway that we planned literally on July 1st. We took the Megabus there - aside from the slight chaos of the lines (where I took in a view of L'Oreal's new & very unfinished building at Hudson Yards), we left a cool 20 minutes late, but made it to PA in under 2 hours.

Our hotel was located right next to Reading Terminal Market which has every type of food imaginable. We found ourselves amazed by one of the chocolate shops where they sold multiple types of chocolate covered bacon for an insane dollar amount.

We walked to the old city, saw Independence Hall, and toured the US Mint (which was very interesting by the way)... 

We said hi to Ben...

...stopped by Betsy's house (though she had retired for the day) 

...and took George's advice:

We walked down Elfreth's Alley, the oldest residential street in the US...

Dave was being all "British," and this guy was all "What are you doing here acting all British?" 

After dinner, that was a wrap on day 1, we were pooped from walking everywhere.

On July 4th, we took getting our Independence Day on to a whole new level. And by that I mean, starting with the Liberty Bell...

Dave took a photo of this random couple to show how the founding fathers fought for our right to use selfie sticks...

There were reenactments, live music, and games all over the old city to celebrate the holiday (plus free hats and flags courtesy of Wawa!) Seeing some of these women in old colonial costumes in the restrooms of various places was pretty hilarious.



Ladies preparing for the parade to start...

After that, we headed to the National Constitution Center (which had free admission on 7/4.) I liked the way they displayed the history of the US (though they did skip some important things, like there's a great deal of info on the Great Depression, and then all of a sudden World War II was over.) This is me acting like a Supreme Court Justice (except I'm robeless and kind of look naked...)


We eavesdropped on some very important conversations with the founding fathers...

He wanted to fight for the right to party but I wasn't having it...


















Have some independence:

Next, we went to Betsy Ross' house. Did you know that George Washington and two other important guys just rolled up to her place and were just like, can you make us a flag, in secret?

After that, we walked over to the South Street area, a cute bunch of blocks with restaurants and food, and ate at the birthplace of Larry Fine, which is the curly-haired one of the Three Stooges. So, that was an important piece of history.

For the record, every time we entertained the idea of getting a cheesesteak, we got turned off fairly quickly. Will I be kicking myself later for this?

We stopped by the Magic Gardens and took some "mirror selfies"...




Then we walked back up music row and reflected on some of Philadelphia's finest musicians...


We went to the LOVE park next. I didn't realize this was a Philadelphia thing since we have one in NY. The logo is nice either way, but Philly's is small, and you can maneuver your way around New York's.
Philly love:

New York LOVE (shout out to Ana!):

LA LOVE (just because):

Then we found this park with giant sized game pieces. I was super excited, but in retrospect, I probably shouldn't have touched anything as I'm pretty sure I've contracted some form of Hepatitis.

Not sure why that guy was carrying something when there was a wheelbarrow right there...

The saddest chess game...

Take me down like I'm a domino...

SORRY! More like sorry that I touched this...

We stopped by Mac's Tavern, which is owned by 2 of the actors from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Though we didn't spot Danny DeVito, we did get to watch the Nathan's hot dog eating contest. Side note: my friend Mike has a podcast on competitive eating, check it out here: Fink Beats the Stomach.

In the evening, we went to the Parkway area where The Roots were doing a free show with Miguel and Jennifer Nettles from Sugarland, plus surprise guest Cee-Lo. It was good but I was tired and just wanted to see the fireworks already. The best part of the show was when the Mayor joined The Roots on stage and performed 'Rapper's Delight.'

After the two and a half hour show (really, I should have been happy, it was free), the fireworks finally went off above the Museum of Art...

The best part of the fireworks display was that they didn't play "Firework" by Katy Perry! That was amazing - thanks Philadelphia!

The next morning we went back to the market to stare at the chocolate covered bacon again, and have some breakfast...

There was another chocolate shop that sold candies in the shapes of human body parts...

Oops! I thought you said a dozen NOSES!

You make my liver quiver...

If you were a kidney, I'd be your stone...

We went to the Eastern State Penitentiary next. I was so excited for this, being that my favorite show is Locked Up Abroad. Creep factor was fulfilled...


Here's a cell...

And here's a recreation of Al Capone's cell...

Dave during a recreational break...

We finished the day by going to the Rocky steps (aka the Philadelphia Museum of Art.) Here I am doing my own pose while all those suckers queued up to stand in front of the statue...

Here's Dave at the top...

People just kept running up the steps (old and young, big and small) which I found to be completely hilarious. I was surprised to see a queue for the museum at the top - who actually goes there for the art?

Bye bye Philadelphia!

Current Music: CHVRCHES - Recover

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