Continuing on the great Philadelphia Adventure of 2008, Tim and I found my phone at the rental car place and navigated the SEPTA rail to get to the downtown area. It was like instant Boston nostalgia on the commuter rail. Hot, smelly, waiting impatiently, but yet, so miss-able! We found our hotel in the same building as the SEPTA stop, RIGHT downtown. So we went out to explore, randomly finding a free, outdoor, Boyz II Men concert before Independence Day fireworks. So we walked around some more, not needing to recreate the mid 90s boy band, but wanting to see the fireworks. Torrential downpour right before the show wasn't awesome, but we stayed planted at our on-ramp location, and saw lots of colorful explosions before walking back to the hotel for the night.
Sunday, we arose early to walk to the Franklin Institute and saw this sweet Pirate exhibit. We saw 400 year old rope that looked like it was made yesterday. We saw the leg bone of a 10 year old pirate boy. It was insane, and made me want to hunt for pirate ships! We went through the rest of the museum, and I was tuckered out by noon!
We walked back to Reading Terminal Market, which I have come to describe as Faneuil Hall on crack. At least 50 stalls of food and produce and awesomeness. And I got the beloved cheese steak I have been dreaming about for over a year.
Then we found this crazy side museum called the Mutter Museum, which is basically a museum of medical oddities. Its super small, and attached to a university, but its weird skeletons and cadavers and just creepy weird stuff. The first floor of room one alone is enough to make me NEVER want to be a doctor. After a stop at Trader Joe's (despite our hatred for it, we cant afford to eat out EVERY meal), we dropped the food off at the hotel and walked through Sketchyville to Edgar Allen Poe's residence and national site. I got a stamp in my book (see KC entry for explanation) and took a tour. The basement was RIDIC creepy.
It POURED rain as we were leaving, but it was at least a 45 minute walk, so we tried taking the bus and ended up waiting half an hour for the wrong bus, getting mildly soaked under the bus stop. We had signed up for a haunted ghost tour that night, and while the driver was smart, it wasn't really scary. It was more just historic, but still not too shabby. I just like the scary stuff, and tour drivers named Anthraxicon. All in all, a good and LONG day.
Somehow we got up the next day by 8 to head to Independence Hall. Did the tour of the big touristy place, saw the Liberty Bell, and headed to the Constitution Center.
Walking up the sidewalk, Tim completely randomly spotted my grandparents also going to the Center. We joined them in going through the Center, but then split ways so we could go to lunch at DiNardos.
We love ourselves some yummy seafood. Christ Church was next, it was a walk in, walk out, and yet, in walking out, SURPRISE! pouring rain. We said screw it and just ran awning to awning until we made it back to the hotel. Since the rain never let it up, we decided to grab a bus to the King of Prussia mall. REALLY big mall, only we didn't know that it took an hour to get there until we were on the bus. Oh well. Did some shopping, ate some Cheesecake Factory cheesecake, shopped more, and got CPK to go, holding it on our laps the whole way home. After that, we called it a day.
Tuesday was awesome. We slept until 10, did shopping at Foster's (the coolest kitchen store ever), ate at Reading Market, and basically had a lazy morning. Took a bus and walked to the Eastern State Pennitentary. This place could have an entire entry to itself. It was different than I imagined. None of it has been touched since the closure of the penn in the early 70s. Paint is chipped, metal is rusted, cells are collapsed. It is destructive beauty. Everywhere you turn is another picture of despair colliding with nature and art. Undescribable.
I highly suggest it to everyone before it gets restored for safety reasons. It also had a high creepster level. Im not one to go all ghosts and ghoulies, but this place had a vibe that gave us the chills. Especially in certain areas. It was just a place that could be felt and not just seen. After we spent several hours there, we took the bus to the infamous Rittenhouse Square. Nothing too special. It was very Newbury Street. Nice shops and such. Dinner at Reading Terminal (in case you didn't notice, we liked it a lot).
The evening was very chill. Watched Alien on my laptop, some trash tv, relaxation was the key of the night. We also had to decide about the next day. We had wanted to hit up the Philly Zoo, but it was just so hot, and we had a plane to catch, it just wasn't worth it. And somehow, we ended up watching Gang shows on CNBC until 2am. We're dorks.
Our final day was a partial day, we slept in again since we had nowhere to rush to. Checked out, and took the SEPTA to UPenn (*sigh public transportation). Our destination was the Archeology and Anthropology Museum. Tim liked it more than I did, but I have been spoiled in the past by European massive museums. We spent a little time there, not much though, and went back downtown for our last meal at our favorite place, the market. Back to the hotel for the shuttle to the airport. It was kinda sucky, Tim and I had the same flight from Philly to Minneapolis, but then we separated ways there and I flew in to Waterloo while he flew into Cedar Rapids. But we both got home before midnight!
And that is the end of my blathering on and on about anything Philadelphia. I promise :)
