Philadephia 2007

Well, Katrina and I took off for our trip to Philadelphia today and it has already been an adventure.

Our flight was leaving Denver at 6:30 AM and had one connection in Chicago before landing in Philly.  Now, for those of you that don't know Katrina had knee surgery 3 weeks ago and it required micro fracturing (which is basically allowing someone to remove all the cartilage from your knee and then pull a Kathy Bates and fracture all the bones to "promote new cartridge growth").   We decided it would be a good idea to use a wheel chair well actually, I told her I would kill her if we didn't use a wheel chair so needless to say we were able to navigate the security check points very easily and had someone waiting for us at each stop, and it was awesome.

We landed in Chicago around 9:45 and went straight to Gold Coast Chicago Dogs to get a Chicago Dog in Chicago ... I know I am geek but it was fun! We had about 2 ½ hours to hang out so we played a little cribbage, you will be happy to know that there was no physical violence during this game… if you don’t know, a bad game of cribbage lead to Katrina tackling me and injuring her leg in the first place last year.

Upon landing in Philadelphia , we got our luggage and wheeled our way to the awaiting taxi cabs.  $26.50 later we arrived at the B&B we found in Society Hill. It is a very pretty neighborhood and only about 4 blocks from EVERYTHING you want to see in Philly so we were pleased.

Pretty much everything Historical closes at 5 so we had tried to put things on the agenda that we could do after 5. We ended up on the 3rd floor of our B&B so Katrina will get her work out trying to navigate up and down stairs all week.  The proprietors Harry and Marilyn are really friendly and extremely knowledgeable about the area. 

Kat and I decided after unpacking that we would go look around. We left Spruce Street and headed to Washington Park . The city blocks are very pretty and this area of Society Hall was revamped in the 60's Harry had told us.  The only complaint is the side walks which are lined with gorgeous cobblestones are a TOTAL pain in the a$$ to try to push a wheel chair on. I thought I was going to lose Katrina a few times and just for the record, at least once I thought I would fall with her. The good news is that with all the wheel chair maneuvering I decided that I didn't have to watch my diet as closely because I would be working it off!!

So, back to Washington Square , it is a pretty, peaceful park that would be great to have lunch or just hang out in, lots of trees. In the middle of the park, Marilyn had told us that there was a fountain that had a lily pad in it that was used in the movie Independence Day. Apparently the Movie makers didn't think the fountain shot high enough so they replaced the fountain portion and left it after filming (thanks Mr. Movie). It was really pretty. In the south portion of the park is a statue for the Revolutionary War Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It has George Washington standing with the Unknown Grave and an eternal flame. It was very well done.

We left Washington Square and headed up Market to City Tavern.... OH MY GOSH! It was so awesome. I highly recommend it, the food was fantastic and the building was really pretty. We tried the Beer Sampler and Katrina gave them all 2 thumbs up, especially the Washington Porter. We started with Crab Cakes and they were mostly Crab and very little cake.  :) For dinner, Kat had the Lobster Pie (one of the Tavern's specialties) and swears that she would give up her kids for another bite... It has HUGE chunks of lobster in it and a creamy sauce. I had the Herb Encrusted Chilean Sea Bass and I also would give up my kids for another bite, good thing I don't have any kids! Everyone was dressed in period clothing and the building is really charming. We are going to try to hit it again for lunch this week.

We decided to take a cab home (Thank goodness) and asked him to drive down South Street on the way home. South Street reminds me a lot of New Orleans . It has a lot of hip bars and little shops etc and I got as close as I wanted to get to it from the inside of the cab! There was this funny little bicyclist that kept trying to pass the cab and at one point he literally fell over on the cab…. So I took a picture… HAHA.  Enjoy, I am off to finish some cribbage and then sleep a little.

See you later! Kj