Our first destination was the Philadelphia Museum of Art which was a little over a mile to walk. Philly has some beautiful walking/riding paths in main parts of the city, unlike Toronto. I really like how they mark the bike paths.
Philly is divided into zones which is a great help to tourists. Each zone has a colour and there are maps in many locations so that you can see where you are and where you want to go. Toronto could learn from this too.
And, of course, here's Rocky! He's somewhat taller than in real life.
So, you didn't think I could go to the Rocky steps without running up them did you? And, no, I didn't trip and fall!
I noticed other people running up and doing what they called the Rocky Pose at the top. So...
This is looking back towards downtown from the steps along the Ben Franklin Parkway.
We walked back to the hotel and picked up the car for a drive through the city to the land of cheesesteaks. The two famous places, Geno's and Pat's are across the street from each other in an older neighbourhood that was pretty far removed from our hotel. Due to the very narrow streets and lots of cars, parking is not easy in Philly. We didn't even see many parking lots. Anyway, we finally found a spot but it was beside a bush and Marilyn had a bit of a tight squeeze getting out. Should have let her out before I pulled in!
Here are the two cheesesteak emporiums! They look a lot bigger on the tv shows!
We were in a bit of a quandry because we wanted to try both cheesesteaks. But, my cousin Gord had recommended another place called Jim's Steaks on South Street. And we didn't want to be stuffed because we had reservations at Morimoto. So, we (really I) made the executive decision to only eat at one place and I chose Pat's because it's supposed to be the original. The one is ordered as Cheesesteak wit/ cheeze whiz. Wit means "with onions". You have to follow the rules to order. I know, Food Nerd.
Another item checked off my Food List.
With some luck, we repositioned the car near South Street and decided to just leave it there for our tour of South Street and the Historic District which was nearby. Jim's Steaks was a pretty cool place too. It was kind of Art Deco and had much more to look at as you ate. You line up and can watch the guys cooking as you wait your turn which was pretty interesting. They didn't seem to be quite so fussy with the ordering rules! This time we tried the cheesesteak with provalone. We thought the meat was really good on this one but liked the Pat's version more. Could it be the cheez whiz?
Now we needed to walk so we explored South Street. There were tons of places to eat and drink and shop. It was quite an eclectic street. I was impressed to learn that Philly was the birth place of Larry Fine of the Three Stooges. They even had a mural for him!
We found a number of these mosiaic murals around South Street. Apparently, a local artist made one in a vacant lot near his home and then started doing them in other places.
We wandered around the historic district and found many fascinating buildings related to the quest for independence from England. This was an 18th century garden near one of the buildings.
There were also some narrow streets where original cobblestones were still in place.
We found this small cemetery where people who helped fight or worked for independence in some fashion were buried. It was interesting because they were buried up to 3 coffins deep in most areas and it was estimated that there were upwards of 4000 people here.
At this point, we figured a bit of down time was in order so we headed back to the hotel. Our next culinary adventure was dinner at Morimoto. We've always liked him as an Iron Chef and had wanted to try out one of his places. This was his first restaurant in the US.
When we arrived, we were impressed by the decor of the place. They had lights in some of the walls that would cycle through different colours, which changed the feel of the room.
Oh, and the food was incredible too! We started off with a tempura dish that had me smacking my forehead. We've never thought of doing the tempura on sticks like this but it makes so much sense. Can't wait to try it out at home. On the skewers we had white fish, mushroom, shrimp, cauliflower, zuchinni and bacon wrapped mozzarella!!! The three dipping sauces were red pepper, soy and gorgonzola cheese. I love how going to new restaurants gives you ideas for new things to try at home.
Our second shared dish was a sashimi tasting. Can't remember everything but there were two kinds of tuna, red trout, salmon and another one with salmon roe on it. Amazing flavours and textures!
Marilyn's main course was grilled Chilean Sea Bass in a miso based sauce.
I had a dish that was highly recommended in reviews. It was called Duck, Duck, Duck and consisted of grilled duck breast, duck egg and duck confit rice. There were amazing flavours in every component.
We don't usually have dessert, but when we do, it has Japanese ingredients that we've not had in desserts before! This was miso honey cake with shiso vanilla ice cream and a sugar halo.
This post would not upload last night in Philly. So, I'll just add the ending stuff and we're done for this trip! Our trip home took about 11 hours because we stopped in a few places like an Outlet Mall, a liquor outlet place and Home Depot. There were also a few coffee stops!
We didn't bring home too much stuff this time but I'm not sure what this collection says about us! Chocolate, Twizzlers and alcohol?
The ending stats were:
2000 km driven and 73 km walked.
We really enjoyed Philadelphia! It was a great walking city and it has impressive architecture and history. And, of course, we loved the food and beer. Atlantic City was fun too but you pretty much had to stay on the boardwalk or the beach. We wandered off the strip area a couple times and you get into less than nice areas almost immediately. I think we'd both go back to Philly but would only go back to Atlantic City if we got a free suite in one of the fancy hotels!
Next trip: Tennessee and Kentucky in the fall.
Thanks for reading!
