Mini Vacation 2020 - Philadelphia
I genuinely cannot remember the last time that Jenn and I went away for a weekend. It’s just never been our style. We have always preferred to do the big 2-3 week trips. But now that we’ve lived in New York for a little under two-years it felt almost criminal not to explore outside the confines of the island. So this past weekend we left our 700 sq ft apartment and went out in search of our first mini getaway to Philadelphia.
Jenn actually went to Philly very soon after moving to New York for a brief work trip but never got to explore. Saturday morning we left our apartment a little after 8 AM grabbed a rental car at Avis on 72nd street and dropped off Frasier on the east side of Manhattan to be boarded for the night. After the drop off we drove the two hours to Philadelphia bumping Jenn’s playlist and driving our little white Elantra all the way to the Le Meridian where we stayed for the night. Unfortunately, as we arrived at the street in front of our hotel was being worked on so we had to find nearby parking. Luckily on our third circle, we found a spot, dropped off the car, and checked in. After a brief room tour and a quick unpack we were back out in the frigid 30-degree temperatures to go out exploring.
The first stop had to be food, and we found a place on Yelp called Cafe Lift. As Yelp suggested the restaurant was quite popular and didn’t accept reservations. Luckily we only had to wait for 15-minutes before we sat down and had a scrumptious brunch/lunch. There was an item on the menu called the Jen crepe so Jenn, of course, went with that and I had a breakfast take on the cheesesteak that came with a fried egg. Both were delightful and gave us the sustenance we needed to keep going.
95% of my desire to go to Philly rested on one of my (if not my) favorite movies of all-time, Rocky. As a kid, I dreamed of the day I could run up the steps that Rocky did so many times. We took an Uber from brunch to the bottom of the steps that are now literally called “Rocky Steps”. At the base of the steps is the actual statue of Rocky from the movies. After waiting in a brief line we snapped some photos in front of the statue and then we’re off to the steps. I, of course, had to run up the stairs and its a moment in my life that I’ll never forget. Hundreds of photos later we said goodbye to the iconic location and went into the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Had you told me as a kid that I would have as much fun running up Rocky Steps as I did in an art museum I’d say you were crazy, but it was absolutely the case. Jenn and I were blown away with how beautiful and well put together the museum was. After dropping off our coats we made our way through each level which had a wide variety of displays. We started in the European section and made our way through the American, Italian, and Japanese. There were some truly magnificent recreations of rooms and locations. We were genuinely blown away.
After about two hours we left the enormous museum and walked the thirty minutes back to our hotel. What we weren’t expecting was light snow to accompany us the entire walk back. It was just light enough that it didn’t stop us from taking a couple of random turns down streets that caught our eyes. Coming from Manhattan it was striking how quiet the streets were. When we arrived back at our hotel we took a brief nap before going back out to dinner at 5:30.
After a lot of research, I landed on Royal Boucherie as our one and only dinner in Philadelphia. Its head chef is Top Chef winner Nick Elmi and almost every list of best places to eat in Philadelphia had this as one of the stops. We arrived a little after 6 PM and got a seat on the second level. We started with glasses of wine. Jenn had a Cab Franc and I had a Bordeaux. We started off with one of their charcuterie board which was stunning. We got a great array of bread and meats that we devoured. For our main course, Jenn went with pesto pasta and I had the duck frites. Both were well seasoned and beautifully composed although I think the portion sizes were a bit overwhelming. So much so that we were far to full for dessert.
It was a beautiful evening so we walked back through the city to our hotel. We landed at the hotel bar and had a quick cocktail, Jenn a vodka and cranberry juice and I had their drink called a Paragon which came in smoked glass. We laughed and talked and called it an evening.
We woke up a little after 7 AM on Sunday morning and laid around until a little after 8 AM. After showering and packing up our things we checked out, got in the car and drove the 10-minutes to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. We dropped off our car at a nearby parking garage and toured both the Liberty Bell and the outside of Independence Hall. The first stop was the Liberty Bell which we spent more time going through security (10 minutes) then we did viewing the bell which was substantially smaller then I imagined. We walked around the stunning Independence Hall where the constitution was signed (wish it was still being upheld) and some of the nearby buildings like the first bank.
From there we made our way a few blocks to our next brunch destination aptly called Fork. This was far and away the best food we had in Philly. Jenn started with a great mimosa and I had some truly remarkable coffee. Jenn had the steak and eggs that came in a beautiful sauce that she gobbled up. I had the grilled cheese, and I kid you not in may have been the best-grilled cheese I’ve ever had. The perfect blend of cheese and fresh bread makes my mouth water just thinking about it again. We left the restaurant grabbed a coffee and a cookie to go to a small shop called Menagerie and hit the road back to New York. We made it back in record time through the Lincoln Tunnel, picked up Frasier, and took him straight to the dog park.
This was a phenomenal weekend. It was quick (maybe too quick) but it relit the travel fire in both of us. I don’t know how many small trips we will take but Philly was a great one to start with.
