Lest anyone think it was all transcendental self awareness and getting crushes on magical Canadians during the conference in Philly, let me assure you I also had a great time exploring the city. I was so looking forward to this getaway, getting into the city a day early and leaving a day later so I had time to check it out. It was my first trip to Philly. There are some standard sites to visit: Rocky steps, LOVE statue, Liberty Bell.
Philadelphia City Hall
I didn’t know they also had a beautiful City Hall! It was such a gorgeous building and the clock tower made me think Peter Pan would be flying by any minute. The hotel I stayed in was a block away from this building. After checking in and freshening up I had time for a walk around the city before getting to my fancy night out dinner. I snapped a few pictures of City Hall here and then walked another block to the LOVE statue.
Friends. Once upon a five years ago, I went to see Plymouth Rock. Another New England treasure. It was one of the most disappointing things I’ve ever seen. It was so small. I’m sad to say I had the exact same reaction upon seeing the LOVE statue. Hmmm. That’s smaller than I thought it would be. I thought it stood on the ground and would be taller than me. In reality, it is on a stand. The picture isn’t great, it was dark. But, proof that I saw it.
I mean, it’s nice…just not what I was expecting.
Then I went to dinner at Russet. I always Yelp Farm to Table restaurants when heading to a new town and it always works and turns out delicious. This was no exception. What’s interesting about Philly is there are a lot of BYOB restaurants. Russet was one of them. I didn’t realize this until I checked in. Conveniently, a wine shop was close by and they needed a few minutes to get my table ready. I grabbed a decent bottle of Chardonnay and told myself I wouldn’t drink the whole bottle. This turned out to be a lie. This restaurant had multiple food terms I’ve never seen. This doesn’t happen a lot. Sformato. Pincianelle. Soubise. It was fun. After a few glasses and some delicious food, I thought about putting my drunk texting skills to work for me. (Remember the change in habit stuff – trigger, behavior, reward. I just changed the behavior!) I started texting all the friends I’m so grateful to have. At least 10 people heard from me and why I love them that night. It was nice to not feel regret for the drunk texting the next morning. Yay for putting good feelings into the world!
The conference didn’t start until Sunday at 12:30pm. Originally, I planned to get up and run the Rocky steps Sunday morning. If you recall the bottle of wine from the night before, plans had to be amended. Instead, I thought I would hit up the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall – each only a few blocks from me as well. As I was flipping through the Philly magazine in the room I ran across an ad for one of those Blow Dry bars popping up everywhere. This suddenly seemed like an amazing idea. Dealing with my hair in a hotel can be troublesome. When someone else straightens it, it is amazing for days. Done. They had a 9am appointment and it was on the way to the Liberty Bell. Meant to be.
This is my hair a day later – still looking good!
There’s this funny bit in Season 1 of HIMYM about Ted and Barney doing legendary things, and Barney tries to talk Ted into going to Philly so they can lick the Liberty Bell.
While I had no intention of licking the Liberty Bell, it makes me laugh.
I’m not licking it. I’m not licking it.
Me and the Bell.
Just around the corner is Independence Hall. I was pretty moved looking at this building. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were debated here. Signed here. It’s pretty awesome.
I mean, Thomas Jefferson stood where I was standing!
After buying my obligatory new city Christmas ornament from the Liberty Bell/Independence Hall gift shop (of course), I headed back to the conference. That night I had dinner with some colleagues from BGSU, another alumni and the coordinator of the grad program.
We found a good burger place around the corner. They had some delicious looking drinks, but I abstained that night. I mean, bottle of wine the night before, remember?
After conferencing allll day Monday I checked out a little place called Barbuzzo. It was a Mediterranean place and I got a flatbread pizza with some odd toppings – Brussel sprouts, garlic white sauce, fried egg – you know. The coolest thing about it was that it came with two little vials – a house made chili oil and oregano still on the sprig that you could add to your pizza to your liking. That was cool.
Not a great pic, sorry. See small vials of oregano and chili oil on the right.
The conference ended around 3pm Tuesday, and after a quick nap, I was back out on the town. I wandered around Rittenhouse Square, the Avenue of the Arts, and ended up at Village Whiskey for dinner. It was a super small place with a great whiskey list. The only thing that looked great on their food menu was the Veggie Burger. And it was okay. The Johnnie Walker Black was better.
After one I needed to call it a night because I had the Rocky steps to conquer the next morning! Finally! Philly had beautiful weather during the conference. It was a gorgeous morning to go for a run. And Philly was a pretty city. It was about a 2 mile run from my hotel to the Art Museum and you run along this boulevard with other museums and so many trees and fountains. Philly has a lot of public art. It was really great.
Everest.
I ran up them, no problem. It was so fun. There were a few other people running up them. I got to the top. Took this picture:
Then decided I wanted to do it again! Like running up the stairs was a ride. The second time I ran up them I even video taped it. But it’s a terrible video, so I shan’t be sharing that here.
I’ve never actually seen Rocky. That’s not a problem, is it?
Rocky statue at the base of the stairs.
I ran back to the hotel, cleaned up, grabbed brunch and headed back to the airport. My Philly adventure had come to an end.
