Philadelphia, PA

On Saturday Pants, E, R and I took the plunge and made our first trip out of NY since starting the project. We woke up bright and early and jumped on a Mega Bus to Philly. Its a short bus ride, only two hours... I used the opportunity to catch up on some missed sleep. 

On arrival our first stop was unanimous - Lunch... and when in Philly you can't go past a Cheese Steak. The obvious choice was in South Philly where the two most famous Cheese Steak places reside - on opposite sides of the road. 

To get to South Philly was an adventure... we were warned by locals that the best Cheese Steak places are in a bad part of town. Furthermore its difficult to get in and out. This wasn't going to stop us... especially not with our resident foodie, R, and the worlds best tour guide Pants. Pant's was all over it and had us on a local bus which dropped us right where we needed to be. 

Our options were Geno's or Pat's. They looked the same. Geno's? Why not. 

The Cheese Steaks were pretty amazing - although the next day my stomach disagreed... We sat outside in the sun and ate. It was magnificent. We all agreed that evidence of the bad neighborhood could be seen in some of the stickers on Geno's walls - This is America, Speak English... and... If you can read thank a teacher, if you can read in English thank a Marine. (This is where I had to try so hard to hold back from saying 'I miss Manhattan....' and clicking my heels three times)  

No matter, to distract me from these stickers there was always more food. After gorging on Cheese steaks E summed up the meal nicely with: "So, that's what we came for...worth the two hour drive R?" Hmm YES..So, can we go now?? Not quite... only nine hours till the Mega Bus home...

We managed to catch the local bus back to the main part of town (thanks again to Pants) and decided to check out the sights.... (8.5 hours to go). Frightened by the queue for the liberty bell, we skipped it, and checked out some of the other independence stuff. We spent a while in the gift shop and I got a photo with everything that said July 4. Pant's bought a book - Rules on Civility by George Washington. George Washington wrote the book when he was only 14 and it includes points like


1st Every Action done in Company, ought to be with Some Sign of Respect, to those that are Present.

2d When in Company, put not your Hands to any Part of the Body, not usualy Discovered.

3d Shew Nothing to your Freind that may affright him. 


Brilliant! Kept us entertained for the rest of the day.

We wandered through Franklin Square park and enjoyed the warm weather and quietness of the city. I really enjoyed seeing all of the flowers in bloom! I'm really enjoying seeing Spring... the snow has melted and flowers are blooming. Daffodils and pansies and tulips. It's gorgeous.

We wanted to go and see Love Park and it's famous love sign. Best method of transport there? The Subway... We spent a while looking for the station, then R caved and asked somebody. It was exactly where we were standing. As in, "See the stairs that we are standing at? Walk down them". Oh, how embarrassing. 

We made it to the Love Sign in one piece (and now we can say we caught the Subway in Philly). The sign itself was a little disappointing... ("wow" I hear you say, "did she just criticize a world famous sight?") The thing is... and this is hard for me to admit out loud... there is a bigger better love sign in New York... argh... I'm turning into such a snob! It's just true.

I did have fun in the park though, watching skateboarders attempt tricks and kids play. With still 6 hours to go we decided to walk. And we walked and walked until we'd seen as much as we could see. 

Dinner was fantastic! R picked Tinto. The head chef is on the US Iron Chef and the food was impressive. Tapas style dinning. Loads of tasty options. For more check out R's blog. 

So that wrapped up Philly... or so we thought. Mega Bus is cheap for a reason and we ended up waiting nearly an hour in the cold. As we waited I thought I realized why Philly is known as the city of brotherly love - R was awesome enough to organize our adventure to Philly and I brotherly loved him. I soon found out that this is completely wrong. Philly is called the city of brotherly love because:

When you have been standing in the cold bus queue for one hour and R starts arguing with you about some nonsense to do with cars the only thing that can keep you from going insane is to repeatedly chant"Brotherly Love, Brotherly Love..."

When we finally got on the bus we were front row, second story... oh yeah... cruising in style (ignore the giant $1 panted on the side of the bus). In no time we were driving back into good old New York City. Thousands of Taxis, lights, traffic, noise, people... its good to be home. 

So, R, where are you taking us next??