A few months back I was having a conversation with a businessman from NYC.He lives half the time in NYC and half the time in AZ. He asked me if I’d been to NYC before and I said yes. He asked if I liked it and I said oh yes. Then, get this, he offered his apartment to me (and Doug) whenever we wanted to use it since he’s only there half the time. I asked if he was serious and he said yes. I asked if he was really serious because we would take him up on his offer and he said oh yes. After he left I ran over to tell Doug that not only could we stay there for free but we still had some sky miles up our sleeves so the cost to get there would be free as well. We decided to wait a week before we called and scheduled a date, to be polite. (Don’t test our politeness). When I spoke with him, he was just as kind and generous as before and we got a date set for the trip.
We decided to fly into Philly and spend a few days there first and then hop on the train to NYC. I’ve always wanted to go to Philadelphia and we just didn’t have time last year plus one of my closest friends, Chelsea, just started PA school in Philly so we weren’t going to pass that opportunity up.
One thing about booking our free flights is that you don’t always win as far as departure times go, ie: 6:00AM departures both going to Philly and flying home from NYC. I’m not much of a morning person as it is, but getting up at 3:40AM is just brutal. The worst part is you’re getting up that early so you can wait. Wait for the shuttle, wait in line at security, wait at the gate for the plane, wait on the plane until you finally take off. I hate traveling. Well, the act of traveling to your destination. I hate airports and being tired in those chairs that are all connected by the armrests so you can’t lay down and I hate plugged ears (my ears really struggle on airplanes) and I hate paying $9 for a pretzel at the airport.
One thing I love though is this new neck pillow I bought. It make look like my face is completely swollen and/or I broke my neck and this is some kind of cruel excuse for a neck brace but you know what? It was awesome. I actually slept on the airplane. I’ve always been a big subscriber to neck pillows, but I always got the big foamy squishy bead kind and now I realize how worthless those are. Plus, they can’t deflate to be perfectly flat and fit in my purse. This was a real winner. Plus, Doug loved it because he thought it was hilarious. You’ll notice he has a regular neck pillow, I got the jumbo one with extra bumps which equals extra support and extra chubby cheeks.
Disclaimer: The next few posts are going to be very populated with pictures. This is my journal too and I don’t want to leave anything out. So buckle in. Or just skip the posts all together.
We landed in Philly and made it safely to our hotel via trains/metros/feet. This is the moment I stop complaining and get really excited. I love making it to the hotel and setting everything down and just sitting for a second.
We spent the evening walking to get a true Philly Cheesesteak for dinner. I like to do my research before we go on a trip to get the nitty gritty on the area and get ideas for things to do. We don’t really like to have stringent plans though. That way we can just go with the flow and figure things out as we walk. I make little lists in my phone with info and addresses so we can stop at sites along the way. So, I did some pretty intense research on finding the best Philly Cheesesteak. I took this guy’s word for it, he gave Cosmi’s a 5 on the Clogged Artery scale- so it had to be good! The walk getting to the deli was so fun. I mean look at these streets! Are you kidding me?
Now here’s what made my very long day of traveling worth it. I’m drooling just looking at the picture. That is a true heart-attack on a freshly baked bun right there my friends. And it was delicious.
I got my fortune told. I’m going to live a long and prosperous life or something like that.
The next morning we met up with Riley and Chels for a walking tour of all the historical sites in the area. Man oh man. I wish I was more of a history buff because Philly is dripping with history. It’s all packed in pretty dense too.
I’m going to sidetrack a little here and throw out another little travel tip. I’m just full of advice right now. So skip this paragraph if you don’t care about shoes. See my shoes in that picture above? You’ve probably noticed them in just about every picture on here of us traveling. They’re my Chaco sandals and they are my feets’ best friend. I’m serious, I’ve never had a sore foot or even a blister with these bad boys. I bought them right before my trip to Meso America in ’07 and I wore them every single day on that month-long trip. For reference, most days were spent hiking through the jungle or up Mayan ruins and I never once got a blister. They’ve been my number one travel companion (besides Dougie, of course) ever since. Plus they’re still in mint condition after 5 years of strenuous wear. Doug and I spend a LOT of our time walking when we’re on vacation. It’s not unusual for us to go 4-5 miles a day. So when I see other girls in their cute shoes I get a little jealous but there’s no way I could do that and make it more than an hour of heavy walking. This trip was a little chilly so I brought along my Toms to see if they could pass the test and they were awesome. So there’s my recommendation(s) for you.
We only got to spend half a day with Chelsea and Riley before they had to go back home. We kept on walking. Here’s Elfreth’s Alley. It’s the oldest residential street in the US. People still live there today.
On our way to the train station we made a little detour to the Philly Art Museum. This was my request because I saw this as a rite of passage. The Art Museum is where Rocky Balboa runs up the steps and jumps around, we’ve all seen the movie, right? Rewind a little bit to a week before our trip. I kept telling Doug that I wanted to run up the Rocky steps and he said ok and then it came out that he’d never seen Rocky (I know). So I bought it. We popped it in, got all snuggled on the couch and I was pretty excited because I knew Doug was in for a real treat. Well it starts out and Stalone is running down the street and I’m thinking “Man, he looks kind of old… guess he just hasn’t aged since this movie came out…35 years ago…” (I haven’t seen this movie in several years so I couldn’t remember it well at all). Next scene he’s at a cemetery next to a grave that says “Adrian” and I’m like, “wait now, was his mom named Adrian too?” Next scene he’s at the airport talking to his full grown son. His son whips out his camera phone and takes a picture of Stalone. At this point Doug and I look at each other and we’re like “What is this?!” After a little research I realized I bought “Rocky Balboa” instead of “Rocky” turns out Rocky Balboa is actually the 6th in the series. Swing and a miss. But here’s the real kicker, we found out later when we got to the steps that the infamous scene is actually from Rocky II. So even if I had bought the right movie in the first place it still would’ve been the wrong one.
The Philadelphia train station was one of the coolest stations I’ve seen. It was beautiful.
Now on to the Big Apple.