With Love, Philly (part two)

Thursday

Our second day in Philadelphia was also Ty's test day. His test was from 2:00-9:00--such an odd time. I woke up and headed to Rittenhouse Square and Ty stayed in the room relaxing and then preparing for his test.

It was a gorgeous morning. There were people out walking their dogs and small play groups taking place. It was very peaceful.

After enjoying some time in the square, I wandered the surrounding streets, window shopping and browsing through a three story Anthropologie.

We have a friend from high school that lives in the Chesapeake Bay area, in between Philly and Baltimore. She drove into the city and we all went to lunch.

Time for a Philadelphia classic, cheese steak!

Ginger and I went shopping at the biggest mall on the east coast--King of Prussia. Ty's test was actually in Conshohocken and it was on the way to King of Prussia, so we dropped him off. It worked out perfectly and he didn't have to worry about navigating the public transportation by himself and it saved him 20 minutes of travel time. Great shopping at King of Prussia, but there was also great shopping within walking distance of our hotel. I think I would rather shop on the streets of Philly, than be stuck inside at a mall. I would skip this, unless you plan to do some serious shopping.

After shopping we came back to the city and headed to Chinatown. Ginger's family comes to Philly pretty often, and they have a favorite restaurant in Chinatown.

We had duck wraps and some sort of duck dish with fresh green beans. It was delish!

After our early dinner we walked to Franklin Square. It is s very family friendly square with a carousel, a fountain, and mini golf.

With Phanatic, the baseball team mascot

Next up was Betsey Ross's house. Unfortunately, it had already closed, but it was a cute area.

Later that evening, I walked around by our hotel and got an amazing
frozen hot chocolate from Naked Chocolate Cafe.

I was hoping to get a mani/pedi that evening. I saw a place down the street from where we were staying adverstising a $25 mani and pedi. WHAT?? That is an amazing price. The place was packed the day before, so I'm assuming it was a decent place.
Unfortunately, for me they close at 5. :(

Friday we rented a car and drove to a special destination. I'll recap it tomorrow.
Goodbye Philadelphia!

With Love, Philly

As a PR/Marketing person, I must say I am uber impressed with the city of Philadelphia's tourism campaigns. I love their logo and they have a great website: visitphilly.com

We flew out to Philadelphia on Wednesday and came home late Friday night. It was a whirlwind trip, with Ty taking a seven hour test on Thursday afternoon/evening. I loved every minute of it. I must warn you that most pictures were taken with one of our iPhones. The first part of our trip I left my sd card in my computer, which was in the hotel room. Then, after retrieving it, several hours later my camera battery died. Thank goodness for those iPhones. :)

Wednesday

One of the first things we saw when we got off of the train from the airport was Philly Cupcake.
It made my day!

View from our hotel room

I used my reward points to stay at the Holiday Inn Express Midtown. Best location ever.

First up on our agenda was the historic district: Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, etc.

It was cloudy our first day, but it didn't rain on us. The temps were amazing the whole time we were there.

Gorgeous window inside Independence Hall.

After the historic district, we wandered around the streets by our hotel. We stumbled upon so many neat buildings and sites. I highly recommend staying in the same area.

city hall area

Rachel was so kind and e-mailed her friends that live in Philly for food recs for us. They recommended a place called El Vez and it happened to be right around the corner from our hotel.
We elected to sit outside and enjoy the great weather, knowing we can't do this at home until November. haha.

I had chipotle chicken tacos and Ty had the mahi mahi tacos. Mine were good; his were amazing!

I had planned to write about Thursday as well, but this got a bit lengthy. More to come...

winner

We have a winner!

Naturally Caffeinated Family

Please e-mail me your address at sweetsimplicityblog@gmail.com
and I will get it into the mail.

Philadelphia recap coming soon.