Philly Mini 2015: Part I

It's totally crazy that it's May already.  I'm utterly confused about where April went.  But, happy May!!!  It means summer is nearly here and I hope this year is a scorcher.  I might regret that statement later. 

This weekend was epic in SO many ways.  I really feel like we crammed in a lot of fun things and it makes me feel like we are jumping feet first into a great summer.  I am going to split the recap of our mini trip into two posts.  This is Part I.

Dan and I planned a mini trip to Philadelphia for the early part of the weekend.  We took vacation days on Friday and hopped on a Mega Bus to Philly on Friday morning (round trip tickets were only $10 per person).  We stopped at Penn Station to grab some Krispy Kreme donuts for the ride.

Philly is only two hours away from NYC and the trip was really fast.  At first we were a little annoyed because the three people sitting in front of us talked (and drank) the entire time.  It ended-up not being too bad because it served as a great informational eavesdropping session for me.  I learned a heck of a lot about being a waitress and/or bartender at an upscale restaurant in the city.

Rocky Pants came with us because he desperately wanted to climb the Rocky steps and to join us on an adventure.  We obliged. 

When we arrived in Philly I was SO excited.  I "lived" in Philly for a month one summer during college when I participated in a history scholars program.  When the bus pulled into Center City next to Independence Hall it was a fantastic feeling.  The weather was warm, the sun was out, and I just love the feeling of people on vacation milling around. 

We met up with my good friend Stephanie to see her at her new job and to go to lunch.  She gave us a mini tour of the collections storage at the Chemical Heritage Foundation where she just started working as the Collections Manager.  So fun to see her as a working girl and her PhD nearly under her belt. 

After lunch, Dan and I walked over to the Independence Hall Visitor Center to get a souvenir ornament for our Christmas tree and to get some info on what to see and do.  We found a statue of Rocky and had to take a picture for Rocky Pants.  I also got a Rocky squished penny for my collection.

Then we waited in line for 20 minutes to see the Liberty Bell.  Nothing special just a bell with a heck of a lot of symbolism, apparently.

After the Liberty Bell we walked over to Washington Square Park.  It has the tomb of the unknown soldier and a monument with an eternal flame.  For me, this park is Potter's Field.  When I was doing my undergraduate honors thesis I wrote about the Yellow Fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793.  At that time, Washington Square was where they buried a lot of the people who died from the epidemic.  It's very weird to think about how many thousands of bones are below the park.   Anyways, just a tid-bit.

From the park we walked over to Redding Terminal Market which is a huge indoor farmer's market.  I LOVED this place when I stayed in Philly before.  They have so many awesome food choices and it is just so alive with energy.  Back in 2008, when I was in Philly, I was obsessed with this chocolate chip cookie covered in butterscotch chips.  I was thrilled to find it was still there in the same spot! We grabbed cookies for later and shared a scoop of ice cream at Bassett's.

We then walked through Chinatown (way smaller and less smelly compared to the NYC Chinatown) and over to Franklin Square where we enjoyed mini golf and a carousel ride.

By this point our feet were getting tired so we checked into our hotel and rested before heading out to dinner for a Philly Cheesesteak.  Yum!  So so so good. 

We lounged around and watched TV the rest of the night before falling sound asleep.  We ended up walking 10 miles on Friday and were beat but so excited for another day in Philly.