Philadelphia Recap

I'm pretty great at the disappearing act, especially when it comes to blogging. My last post was a week or two before Thanksgiving which means I've missed out on quite a few things. I'd like to pretend that I've have had so many exciting things going on but that would be one big lie, and it's better to be truthful of course. So we will skip over all the boring stuff at work, the food poisoning, the fun trips for Tysabri, and focus on the exciting stuff. First up is a trip to Philadelphia, or as I'd like to rename it a gift to ourselves for surviving Thanksgiving and Christmas and not breaking up.

After Christmas (like as in the next day) we took a trip to Philadelphia. Erik's work closes for the whole week of Christmas up until the day after New Years and I was able to take a few vacation days to mimic his schedule. While we anticipated a snowstorm we were actually treated to what seemed like a monsoon. It rained almost nonstop for almost 24 hours and it was a real treat. We made the best of it though and visited quite a few places we had put on our itinerary.

First up we headed to lunch at Wedge and Fig. We both ordered some fancy grilled cheese sandwiches and overall had a pretty good meal. We were a bit disappointed when some of the additions we asked for were left off our sandwiches even though we were charged for them so I don't know if we would go back again, but their homemade mini cheesecake definitely was noteworthy.

Next up was the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I had been wanting to visit this museum ever since me and my mom spent the weekend in Philadelphia my junior year of high school, but since we were on tight schedule we never made it inside. Luckily Erik happily obliged with my needing to see it. Plus it gave me the opportunity to finally show off some of my art history knowledge from college (I took two courses so obviously I'm a professional). If I could offer one suggestion though, it would be to take advantage of the fact that your ticket gets you in for two days because trying to see everything in one day will be overwhelming.

Our best attempt at a picture for the day.

Before dinner we made a few pit stops at some local record stores. We are both into Vinyl records and Erik bought me a very awesome record player for Christmas, so we wanted to pick up some new music. We visited Repo Records which I totally judged it based on it's appearance and I may have refused to get out of the car at first because it looked sketchy. Of course it turned out to be a great local shop with a super knowledgeable staff. Plus they had a basement full of dollar records and I picked out some horribly awful 80's pop just because I liked the album covers. We also stopped at AKA Music which we weren't super impressed with, but I did leave with a random indie record (again picked by cover) which definitely is strange...but hilarious.

We had planned on making reservations for dinner but had minor issues with places being closed (I'm assuming some places closed for the holidays?) but we finally settled on Vedge. Vedge is a vegetarian/vegan restaurant and it was honestly one of the best meals I've ever eaten as a vegetarian/vegan/carnivore. (I've been a pescitarian for over a year so it's always nice to go to a restaurant where I can eat everything on the menu!) The restaurant was about .2 miles away from our loft but the downpour made it a bit more difficult to find than anticipated. Luckily a very nice bellhop outside a boutique hotel offered to look it up on the computer at the front desk so we were able to duck out of the rain for a moment while we figured out where we were going (which turned up to be right across the street!). Of course the last table was swept up about 10 seconds before we got inside and we had to eat at the bar, but it was probably for the best since we were both so wet.

We stayed in a loft in a cute, quite,  neighborhood in central Philadelphia. My only complaint is that right next door was a coffee shop and so I craved coffee every time we went in or out of the loft (fun fact - I've never even had coffee before!). We used Airbnb which was a interesting experience but I would definitely recommend trying it out. It definitely was easy to use and it saved us some money! Our "host" was out of town so we met up with one of his friends for the keys to the apartment and then the next day met back up to return the keys. It was a little bit weird spending the night in someone else's apartment but for the price it definitely beat a hotel.

The next day we visited the Milkcrate Cafe, which if you are in Philly and like records YOU NEED TO GO. Their menu was simple but oh so tasty and as a music fend I loved the fact that they had random records playing in the background. Downstairs we were able to sift through records and I ended up buying quite a few. We both agreed that it was one of our favorite cafes ever.

We had tickets to the Eastern State Penitentiary for a winter "adventure" tour and we suited up in our warmest clothes after returning the keys to the loft. I only wish I had put on my winter boats because it was just so cold. It was hovering in the 30's and the whole tour is unheated except for one room. The architecture was pretty awesome, even though the majority is in ruins but it was cool to hear about the history behind the nations first penitentiary.

Our best attempt at not looking cold before the tour.

Before leaving the city we made a quick stop at the Reading Terminal Market. I did some research ahead of time and we got pretzels at Miller's Twist which were killer. The last pretzel I had was in NYC and I barely made it through a few bites because it was so disgusting, so I've been a mission ever since to find a better pretzel. We also made a stop at Flying Monkey Bakery for a lemon bar and a piece of butter cake. I know, it sounds kinda gross but trust me in the fact that it was amazing. We originally were going to share but we both had issues even trading bites because they were so good. I'm pretty sure our major mistake from this trip was not stocking up on pretzels and baked goods for the drive home because even a month later I'm still craving that lemon bar.

After stuffing our stomachs full of amazing food we made our way back north for the 4 hour drive back to Erik's house. 

Next up...the adventure tour at Howe Caverns.