Philly

 

We had a bit of an impromptu vacation to Philly - which is nice because that's the only way vacation is possible these days. It felt very worrying and relieving to just pack up and leave with gifted tickets in hand to five lacrosse games. Julian had visited Philly before but I never had, so much of our exploring was him showing me the neat places he'd seen before. I insisted that we go get a bonafide cheesesteak, and we agreed that with Pat's (the original) and Geno's (the "best") right across the street from one another, we would just go the place with the shortest line. It was Geno's and it was delicious. 

We parked the car at the stadium early in the morning and just explored the city via foot and public transportation. This was a good decision. We got to see so much of the town aside from the touristy hubs. For a few minutes, we followed a horse and carriage tour side-by-side so we could over hear the commentary. That is how I learned about those three houses pictured: one was built in 1779, 1879, and 1979. 

There was Chinatown and the Liberty Bell, which had too long of a line to wait to go in, but I saw it through the window and was satisfied. Then the Reading Terminal Market, from whence many a gift has come from Julian's sister. The game pieces were also a hit from Julian's yesteryear adventures, so he took the opportunity to relive the Domino photo op. 

All in all, we watched 5 lacrosse games (all our teams LOST), saw 4 popular landmarks, 3 city parks, 2 national parks, and spent over 10 hours in the car over three days. Whew! What an adventure.