The Wide Open Road of Philly.... almost....

So, I found myself back in Philadelphia today.... After a little training and some meetings I found myself wandering about a little outside Philly proper wondering what to do. Well... if you leave a wench to wander around too much (even on in a blouse skirt and heels) she'll come across a pirate. Except this pirate didn't have a ship... Nope, Pirate Wayne had a beautiful Harley and offered a tour of the Delaware River.


Note to all women!!! Today is why you always have a pair of shorts in the car to change into. I have no doubt my blouse looked a little funny with the shorts, but at least I had a change of clothes for the ride without flashing the world! I'm also not sure the helmet went with the blouse, but I think I made it work.... you tell me....


& here was my view from the back of the bike....



Unless you're my mom looking at this blog... in which case the below view was my view as we were of course driving slowly and carefully.....



So, more things I did not realize... how much green space is JUST outside the city limits of Philly. This was beautiful country.


Not to mention lots of history. I saw where Washington crossed the Delaware.... the American Revolution Library and a LOT of hold homestead and farm museums and historic sites. And homes like this one that are even privately owned and lived in, but still the way they were hundreds of years ago.



I also went through cute New Hope, Pa, a nice little Victorian town, that I had heard about from some of the Philly radio station folks earlier in the day. It really was as adorable as they said, but my phone was dying so I only got one picture... of a dog walking a parrot.... :)



And as all great tours must have, there was even a stop for ice cream!

All I have to say is I really love the spontaneous moments in my life!

And now I have more places that I want to go back and explore!!

Always Squirrely in Philadelphia

So... part two of my trip to Philly mostly relates to after I returned home.

While I was in the city I found a street-side fruit vendor that had hazelnuts by the pound. I know. You're thinking 'Who cares?' Well, I just happen to have two adorable little girls at home who care a LOT!!

I haven't found places to buy just hazelnuts of pecans (in shells) in NY/NJ....unless I buy a huge bag of mixed nuts that has only a few of them... Not worth it. Unfortunately, I have raised at least one snob squirrel. Observe.... this is Amelia with a bowl of nuts... almonds, peanuts, and walnuts. But she will dig through the bowl until she finds the one hazelnut that is buried, even passing up some 1/2 opened almonds...



Meanwhile, Susie, my post-surgery cancer squirrel is just learning how to venture out and play more (She had been in a small cage as a breeder most of her life before I got her, so playing is new to her) Since she had surgery her 'leaping' skills aren't great so I have a couple cardboard ramps for her to use to get around. But she too was thrilled with having some hazelnuts to hide and eventually eat. (I realize this video is darker, but she doesn't deal with the light as well as Amelia does)



Both girls were very exited to have lots of hazelnuts to hide. How do I know? They were vocal.. Here's a clip of what 'alerting squirrels' sound like. They chirp. Both of them chirped non-stop for about 30 minutes as they were hiding hazelnuts all over the place...



I think that means I can go to Philly anytime I want as long as there is a bag of hazelnuts in my purse when I come home.

Well Hello Philly!

There are a lot of cities pretty darn close to NYC.. and a couple big ones too. I know, all the northerners are saying 'Duh!'. Hey! I'm a Florida girl. It used to take me 4 hours or more to get to another state! But just 2 hours from my North Jersey home sits Philadelphia and that's where Sunday took me.

The Ben Franklin Bridge was my transition bridge..... out of NJ and into Philly...



My first observation driving through town is that Philly looks like a big city, but has a lot of beautiful, old architecture... Say hello to City Hall.



I arrived a bit before my tour guide so I wandered a couple streets and found this continued to be the case.... beautiful old buildings interwoven with the new...



and in what I can only refer to as my "1776" moment, I saw this little alleyway beside a home and pictured John Adams and Ben Franklin going to Thomas Jefferson's place in the movie.




I am very fortunate in that my pirate life gives me the opportunity to know people that live everywhere. This was no different. I knew Colin, whom I have known for years as a part of Valhalla's Pirates, lived around here. So in my typical sweet way, I sort of volunteered him to give me a tour.



At least he doesn't look totally miserable... but this is also BEFORE 8 hours of walking :) Check out the tour-guide hat. Yep, he turned into the official tour guide for the day, although I question how much of the 'historical' tour was real and how much was stories he created on the fly. Thankfully I don't have to take a factual Philly test.

I did not take a lot of pictures... there was a lot of talking and listening going on as we walked and I kept forgetting to snap many. And before someone else takes the shot....Yes, I even did a little of that listening :P

Here's Independence Hall...where I was able to stop for a few moments and imagine my dear sweet John Adams walking about as he worked on the Declaration... Sigh.....



And being a good pirate..Colin pointed out the reference in the Declaration draft. It was later removed.


The lower box reads "He has incited treasonable insurrections of our fellow-citizens, with the allurements of forfeiture & confiscation of our property. He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of INFIDEL powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he also obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed against the LIBERTIES of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the LIVES of another."

We also walked through the City Tavern which was just adorable... and you'll have to trust me since I didn't take any pictures or you can go here and check it out.

I found something that reminded me of home... as in Florida and the Conch Republic. Yep, this was actually attached to a street sign on a residential neighborhood in Philadelphia!!!



And then there was lunch..... I figured if I'm in Philly, I'm going to do a Philly Cheesesteak. The decision was between Pat's & Geno's. They're literally across the street from one another.



The thought was that Pat's has the better cheesesteaks (which I was also about to learn allows them to be meaner...) I read the sign about how to order....



and then watched people being rushed through the line and yelled at if they weren't fast enough. I looked at Colin and told him he was ordering. I was not about to get yelled at to order lunch.

He pretty much got barked at for not shoving the person in front of him so he could get to the window faster... then ordered "two wit whiz" and we moved on...

There was an addition of ketchup (because almost everything is better with ketchup) and we grabbed a table. I forgot to take a picture before I started eating. I was hungry. So I nabbed a shot about 1/3 of the way through.



The sandwich was very yummy but I knew I would not be going back to Pat's. I just can't be yelled at when I order lunch. So Colin suggested we check out Geno's to see if the service was the same. Thankfully it wasn't. There was a sweet older guy at the counter taking orders. It was almost like Santa Claus was dishing up cheesesteaks!! Whew! At least I know where I can go now and I hear they have great cheese fries!

I also saw this sign as we were walking down the sidewalk between the two cheesesteak joints.



Lucky for me I won't be facing any fines any time soon!

And we were back to walking... for hours... No really, hours! There were refueling stops with ice cream and soda... but generally we were on the move most of the day. In hindsight sandals were not the right footwear, so say the blisters on my feet today.

And I could regale you with stories about the cute parks that mark four corners of the old city (and how you're walking on bodies.... if you read the history you'll find out... lots and lots of bodies buried under those parks... great ghost walk material!) , about everything on the waterfront, memorials, the curiosity shop that I needed to dash out of because they had stuffed baby ducks, cobble stones vs. belgian block, the theater district, art district and oh so much more, but at that point you really should just go for yourself!

Suffice it to say, Philly to me was a smaller NYC without as much neon and glitz, but still a little bit of everything and a LOT of history, which I really want to go back and spend more time delving into!

They also have one thing NYC is missing, independently owned coffee shops!!! Those are very hard to find in New York, but Philly has them all over. Small indie coffee shops! I think I'll need a cup of joe next time I go!

For those of you that haven't spent a day with me just wandering around 'playing', if you will, imagine watching a child with no behavioral boundaries in a toy store right after they got jacked up on sugar at the candy store. That's pretty much me with new places and experiences. Add in some caffeine and well.... thank you Colin for putting up with me - stopping me from stepping out in traffic as I was looking at things, gently nudging me forward when I would stop moving for no particular reason, humoring my 'soundtrack of life', patting me on the head as you had that 'Yeah.... you're freaking nuts' look, and catching on pretty quickly to the 'Squirrel!' dashing off tangents of the 6-year-old me.