The Fourth & Philly

This past week has been a blast for me. On Tuesday night, one of my best friends Travis came to visit me from school. We had such a fun week! I figured I would share some highlights with you guys!

On the the fourth, we started our day with some tennis in the killer heat. Let’s not talk about how he beat me 12 games to 0. Obviously I’m a tennis pro. Oh and Travis totally made friends with the park geese (aka his fans). He decided to repay them by chasing them. Naturally. After enjoying a wonderful steak dinner cooked by my papa, we met up with my friend Julie to watch some fireworks, and even found a giant jalapeño to take pictures with!
On Thursday, we hopped on a train and ventured into Philly for the day. We explored the historical district, went to the Franklin Institute, wandered through Chinatown, ate way too much in the Reading Terminal Market, and got lost took an adventure through Philly on a bus. Confused about that last one? Well let’s just say taking a random bus in hopes it is going to take you toward the zoo was not my brightest idea, although we definitely got to see a lot of the city! Thankfully Travis could navigate us, because I was on the verge of stressing about that one :)

Chinatown was so cool. We found an indoor market called the Chinese Bazaar with tons of interesting and hilarious stuff, browsed some bakeries, and even bought a barbeque quail…bet you can’t say that everyday!


We also checked out some tourist classics like the historical district (but the lines were too long to see anything…yay day after July 4th!), Love Park, drove past Pat’s and Geno’s Steaks, and my personal favorite place to see when I go into the city: the Franklin Institute. Let me tell you, that museum is the bomb! We had fun running through the giant heart, checking out some exhibits, and even seeing a planetarium show that Travis may or may not have dozed off in. But hey, it was a long hot day outside :p

Now for our favorite part of the day: Reading Terminal Market (aka the most wonderful place on earth…sorry Disney). To say we had food comas is an understatement. What, you’ve never been there? I am so sorry. The colors, the smells, the variety. It is a food overload!! I mean, you name the cuisine—they got it. We ended up having breakfast, dinner, and dessert there because there were just so many choices! I honestly could go into the city and just stay there the whole time so I could attempt to sample all of the vendors foods. Ready for the mouth-watering details? For breakfast I had freshly squeezed strawberry-kiwi-mango juice and a HUGE bacon, egg, & cheese croissant. For dinner I had a Mediterranean chicken, avocado, cucumber, spinach sandwich with pear chutney, washed down with “Victory Juice'” (aka apple juice, orange juice, and strawberry lemonade…it may sound gross but it was hea-ven!). And for dessert I had a s’mores cupcake, which the vendor partially warmed up for me because he said it’s the only true way to do it. Let’s just say this cupcake may have ruined any other chocolate cupcakes for me….and the buttercream—melt. in. your. mouth. I also brought my parents home some cinnamon-raison-walnut cookies. And no, I did not try the chocolate-covered onion pictured about…but it was featured on “Bizarre Foods”!
Well, we were pretty wiped after our Philly travels. On Friday Travis had his first Rita’s water ice and Philly cheesesteak and we lounged at my friend’s pool to beat the heat. Having him visit me was so fun, and I loved showing a New Yorker my stomping grounds. I am truly blessed with the friends God has placed in my life :)

P.S. sorry for this lengthy post…this week was just jammed-packed with fun stuff to share!!