OurBigAdventure

Since we were going to DC, we decided to drive up to see some friends in Philly for a day. I did some research on restaurants and one that came up as being great was Matyson. It offered a tasting menu and we never see that in Orlando. So we decided to try it!

First course - mushrooms:



Second course - scallops:



Third course - lobster:



Fourth course - filet:



And last course - banana cake:



I meant to save the descriptions and titles of what we had but I forgot. Everything was awesome! It is a BYOB restaurant which is just odd to us - we don't have that in Orlando. But it is so much cheaper to bring your own bottle of wine! I hate when you order a $15 bottle of wine at a restaurant and they charge you $45. Some restaurants in Philly charge a corkage fee, but Matyson didn't.

I felt like I was in a restaurant in NYC. I had no idea Philadelphia was such a great city - with tons of local restaurants and it has a much more relaxed feel to it than NYC.

As we headed out on the town to tour Philadelphia, we stopped at a local place called Cafe Ole. Since it was a weekday, people were mainly ordering pre-made stuff from the counter and coffee. But we were in no hurry so we ordered the french toast. I also had a mango green tea. Yum! The last time I ordered french toast with fruit in Orlando the fruit was canned fruit - the kind you use to fill a pie if you are lazy! I wish we had great corner cafes like this! And the green tea was awesome!

Since we had one day to check out the town, we decided the best way to do it was a tour. We picked the double decker bus and it was a hop-on, hop-off option that we liked. It had a few downsides - the 30 minutes between buses seemed like an eternity at times. And we just missed the first bus so we decided to do a little walking on our own.

Here we are near Independence Hall:



We went to see Ben Franklin's house:



It turns out that his grandchildren didn't want to deal with the house and tore it down to put up apartments. I guess I am not really into history because I don't see where this is a bad idea - it is a much better investment than a free tourist attraction!

Now they just put up a bunch of beams to show you where the house was. And there are spots where you can view the remains of the septic system.



Better than a self portrait - a park bench as a tripod portrait!



We were walking more and headed over to Delancey Street to view some of the oldest houses in Philly. It is amazing how small they are and the doors are small, too! I was looking and most of our furniture would NOT fit through the front door!



Fun paver road with the tracks:



It is funny - Philadelphia has a lot of houses and buildings that are only used as tourist attractions. One house we passed belonged to a Polish general. He had no relation to US history at all! Yet his house is owned by the park service. It is such a waste of good real estate - I would love to live in that house! I think if I ever move out of the US, I will have to move to Asia since I share their love for all things new and I don't get why things are saved and collected. Can you tell I am not into antiques?

On with the tour...we stopped at the Reading Terminal Market. Did I mention Orlando doesn't have anything like this? Ha! It is a huge indoor market with fresh fish, meat, flowers, fruits, veggies, etc. We stopped at the juice bar where Chris got a carrot, apple, lemon juice:



I love beets, so I had to get the carrot, parsley, beet juice:



Since we were being "tourists" we had to take some funny "tourist" shots - the ones where there is bad lighting, hands, heads, etc. Do people even remember what it was they were taking pictures of? I was reading someone else's blog the other day and they had a photo of a deer in their campsite. I had to study the photo for a few minutes until I found him - he was so dark and out of focus! Yikes!



That is the state house in the distance you see there beyond the cameras!

Another fun touristy photo from the bus:



There were fountains everywhere in Philly. Apparently they just turned them on, too. We were there just after one of the last cool spells. Another park bench as a tripod portrait:



Lots of buildings in Philly have mosaics on the outside - it is really pretty!



More to come...

Here is D (her full name is Diamond) at the house lounging. How is this comfortable?



A more flattering shot of her sweet face:



We headed down to the Italian Market for some sweet stuff. We went into Isgro Pastries and Chris asked me what I was going to get. I had already picked out three items and I was searching for more. Chris said "you aren't going to just pick one?" Hello! We are in a town where they have all this cool stuff - I have to try it all while I can! I ended up narrowing it down to a cannoli and a butter cookie. Chris got a cannoli, too. He got it for free since it was broken - I love free, broken cannolis!

Too much to choose from:





Then later that night we went to try Horizons since I read online that it was an awesome vegan restaurant. Even the people at the table next to us were saying it is one of the best in the country.

The cold cucumber soup - yum!



I got the tofu:



And Chris got the mushrooms:



It was really good and we couldn't leave without trying a bit of the vegan cheesecake. We were thinking we would just have a bite or two. But no way - this was amazing! It tasted just like real cheesecake!





We had to walk off all the fake (I call vegan and raw food fake) cheesecake so we took D for a walk all over - she loved it!



Aren't these condos great? Nice big windows!



Chris and D check out Elfreth's Alley - we want to buy a vacation home on this road to rent out:



Since everyone knows who Betsy Ross is - here is her house:



Independence Hall:



The liberty bell:



The odd thing to me about Philadelphia is they are all about preserving all things old - yet they build all this new modern stuff to house the old in. It doesn't match at all. Both the visitor center building and the liberty bell building were very new and modern looking. But I do recommend going to see all of this at night - the crowds are all in bed and you have the whole place to yourself!

On a final note - we stopped at the Whole Foods in Philly. As we walked in the door past all of the flowers - there they were - a bunch of peonies. I've been trying so hard to get these in Orlando and it has been so difficult! We even ordered a bouquet from a florist and they ended up giving me a bunch of random flowers instead. I enjoyed them for a few hours and gave them to our friends as a "thanks" for letting us stay. I also gave them two vegan cookies from Whole Foods - those things are heaven!

As we headed out of Philly, we realized we had not eaten a cheesesteak! So we stopped and got one for breakfast. I'm glad we tried it, but it really isn't all that. I don't know what the big hoopla is all about!



So many of our Florida friends complain about gas prices - "what did you pay for gas last?" and "where do you go for it?" seem to be asked a lot. I never pay attention - the thing is - I have to have it. I can't just not buy it because it is expensive. I did notice after all the talk that one place south of our house is usually a few cents more than the one we normally go to. But when it is 20 gallons and 3 cents extra per gallon, I will pay the 60 cents if I happen to be right there and I am getting low. 60 cents is less than the price of an apple - and how many people have thrown away an apple because it went bad before they ate it? Seriously people! Find another thing to bitch about!

And since all the talk - I took a picture of gas prices in the middle of nowhere south of Philly - $4.29 for the good stuff. I think I pay $3.90. I wonder if the northern folks complain more?