This post is almost a year late. I kept meaning to come back to and tell you all about our trip to Philadelphia last year, but, you know, work and stuff got in the way. I’m going to go with “better late than never” on this one because I have things to share.
Evan and I spent the end of last year (2018) in Philadelphia. I have no idea why we picked Philly last year but I have to tell you it was one of the most amazing trips we have ever done. First of all, the weather was amazing … well, except for the first day, but I will get into that in a second.
We stayed in downtown Philly at The Bellevue Hotel. It was such a beautiful, historic hotel and it really was in the heart of the city. We found Philly so incredibly walkable and so that’s how it started … when we decided to walk from the hotel to see the Independence Hall & The Liberty Bell. Now this was around the time the government shut down was taking place so we were not quite sure what would be open. When we started our little walk, it was drizzling and by the time we got there it was a pretty steady stream of rain. The thing is, the line to get into Independence Hall is all outside and wraps around the building so we enjoyed another hour long wait in the rain. We looked like drowned rats, but we were still in a good mood.
After the first day, the weather was pretty amazing. And there was a lot more walking to do. We saw everything we possibly could, and ate everything we possibly could as well. I had no idea how super yummy food was in Philly and, of course, we did an official Philly cheese steak at Jim’s Steaks. Before our trip, I had watched Anthony Bourdain’s Philadelphia episode of “The Layover with Anthony Bourdain” on a flight between LA and Dallas and had jotted down some notes. As I’m sure you know, the man was a culinary genius and we found some heavenly food at the Isreali restaurant, Zahav, which was awarded the James Beard Award this year and Han Dynasty, a Chinese restaurant where you MUST ORDER the Dan Dan.
We were also able to visit Eastern State Penitentiary, home to infamous Al Capone and other notorious miscreants.
New Year’s Eve was spent in New York City. We took a bus from Philly to NYC. We have been to NYC so many times together and it just never gets old. We explored all of our favorite places like Central Park and … the Nintendo Store.
On New Year’s Day we dined on French food at Parc and enjoyed the Mummers Parade. Now if you read that sentence and wondered “what the hell are Mummers?” Don’t worry, we asked the same questions. Somehow, people outside of Pennsylvania don’t really know about Mummers. But they indeed do have a parade on New Year’s Eve and the Google machine will tell you that it is believed to be the oldest folk festival in the United States. It’s beautiful, creative, and messy.
