To celebrate our friend Jon's birthday, we hopped an early morning flight to Philadelphia. Jon is also trying to visit all the baseball team ball parks in the US so we were excited to check Philadelphia off both our lists.
We met up for a breakfast beer at Reading Terminal Market.
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| A blurry Reading Terminal Market |
The market is fantastic! One of the better ones I have visited. Definitely worth a stop. Then we headed off for the Philly cheese steak challenge at Genos and Pat's.
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| Geno's on the left, Pat's on the right |
Geno's was the winner for the most part. Though, most of us liked the bread and onion better at Pat's.
We decided to head to the stadium. We had a couple beers at the bar directly across the street. They had a good beer list and a chatty bartender. We headed to the stadium.
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| Glenn and Angie at Citizen Bank Field |
Our seats were along the third base side which meant a little shade as the game progressed. The stadium is really nice. Good views, local food and beer options and you can get really close to the opposing teams' bullpen.
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| Visitors' Bull Pen |
Based on a tip from Glenn's co-worker we arranged for a Phillies staff person to come and lead the crowd in Happy Birthday for Jon and then throw confetti on him.
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| Happy Birthday Jon! |
It was really fun. The game was really hot and it started to pour rain in the 8th inning so we ran into outside and grabbed a cab. We got soaked. Not usually a problem, but we had packed very light so we didn't have any clothes to change into. We rallied and started a progressive dinner around our hotel.
First stop: Smokin' Betty's.
This hipster barbecue spot was pretty good. We tried the wings, beet salad, ribs, coleslaw and potatoes. Everything needed a little more pizzazz. The sauce was labelled spicy, but it barely qualified as mild on the spice-o-meter. Overall, it was a good stop.
We headed up the street in search of a second stop. One place looked pretty cool, but after waiting for 15 minutes without anyone speaking to us. We decided it wasn't our kind of place so we moved on.
Second stop: Locust Bar.
A hard working, locals bar. I would call it a dive bar but I am afraid that conveys a trendy vibe. Bartender told us his life story and several dirty jokes. Overall, very fun.
Third stop: Farmer's Cabinet. This is currently tied with Naked for Satan as my favorite bar in the world. It has an old timey prohibition vibe complete with a band.
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| A banjo! A tuba! |
The band includes a tuba and a warbly singer. A TUBA! The cocktails were smashing and the beer list was very good. We had the charcuterie and cheese platter. It was a good selection but the real star was the housemade pickles. I love this bar. LOVE!
We called it a night since our 430 am wake up call was catching up with us. In the morning, Glenn and I took a walk around the city. We paid our respects to the Liberty Bell.
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| Liberty Bell |
Then we all headed to the train station to catch the Amtrak to Baltimore. What a great way to travel! We took a taxi to Jon and Jackie's hotel and dropped off their bags. Then we meandered around the inner harbor looking for a good spot for lunch. We spotted the crab deck at Phillps. Glenn said it was on his bucket list to have a crab feast where they lay it all out on the table so we had to choose there. It was so good! The waitress showed us how to break down the whole crab and we went to town.
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| Before |
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| After |
Crab bits were flying everywhere. It was awesome. They have a sink outside on the deck. Good thing. It was really a great meal. We headed to the game. Jon had gotten amazing seats behind the visitor dugout.
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| Can you tell there was a hat giveaway? |
We were able to stay until the 8th inning before we had to head to the airport. Overall, a terrific weekend.
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