#BostonOrBust - Philadelphia

Dear Philly,

You stink, literally and figuratively.

Literally: there is trash everywhere, maybe take away a few parking authority salaries and invest in trash cans.  We walked all around the city and could not find any public trash cans, apparenlty no one else can either and throw their trash all over the ground.

Figuratively: 2 tickets, $36 each and within a combined total of being parked for about 48 minutes....REALLY! The first one was our fault- I told Matt, "we have twenty minutes until it's free I think we will be fine." Wrong.  Withing eight minutes of parking we had a ticket, okay Philly lesson learned.  The next day we were taking NO CHANCES, I downloaded the parking app and made sure we paid for our spot. I paid for the maxmium of 2 hours but we came back a few minutes early because these Philly Parking Authority people don't play games. THERE WAS A TICKET ON OUR CAR, What The Ef. The reason was 'no parking kiosk card displayed'.....ummmm I paid on the app.  Now I get to contest it which apparently is a huge hassle. 

 Oh well, now let's move on to the good things about Philly!

We got into Philly around dinner time and made a bee-line for the block that houses Pat's and Geno's- the biggest rivalry in cheese steak history (or maybe just a huge tourist trap). I wouldn't say this was the nicest area, and we probably should have gone for lunch but we were hungry! We stopped at Pat's first- Pat's has been their longer, since 1930, and is the ol' faithful of the town.  We ordered a cheesesteak with onions and cheez whiz.  The bread was hearty and rough, the sandwich was full of juice, and smothered in cheez whiz. YUM.  Then we walked over to the 'new kid on the block' blazing with neon Vegas signs and ordered a cheesteak with onions and provolone.  The bread was soft, the meat was drier, and the provolone was definitely not the cheez whiz. Pat's was the winner in both of our books, but the challenge was fun!

Game Seven was on so we headed to a local brewery to grab a beer and watch the game, this was the site of our first parking ticket - __ -.  2nd Story Brewery was in the middle of a mixed residential/ commercial street which was cool since the breweries we normally venture to are in industrial spaces.  The beer was fine, nothing special. The game result left a sour taste in our mouths and we decided to call it a night.

We woke up and headed to breakfast at a spot called Green Eggs. Y'all, I might fly to Philly and take a taxi to this place to eat again,  it was that good (notice: no car = no parking ticket, I'm a little bitter). I ordered a coconut bombon and chicken and waffles Benedict, and Matt had the short rib benedict. Everything was AMAZZZIINNGGGGG.

Next up was touristy stuff, Liberty Bell, Rocky Steps. Statue, and Reading Terminal.  On the way to the Liberty Bell we saw a beer garden in the middle of downtown Philly, got distracted from our itenirary and stopped in for a beer.  It was so pretty, lots of green plants, checkerboards, and cold beer- a good place to cool down from the heat.

We checked out the Liberty Bell,

Then went and ran up the Rocky stairs.....okay maybe just the first flight.

And then went to Reading Terminal where we grabbed cookies for 4th street bakery, we wanted Amish pretzels but they don't work on Monday.

It was time to head back to Raleigh, we decided to skip DC and will go back another time.


Pause- Victory Brewing is 'kind of close.'  We decided to make a pit stop and hit one last brewery before venturing home to get our pup and get back to real life. 

 

#BostonOrBust: Baltimore

Day Two: Baltimore, MD

Yesterday I was ready to throw in the towel on this whole road trip idea. I wouldn't say I'm necessarily the ideal car partner. I may or may not try to be a back seat driver, make panicky noise when these crazy "northern" drivers try to change lanes where there is no room to merge, and get restless after the 2 hour mark....but at least I stay awake! The drive from Richmond to Baltimore blows, it took an extra hour due to traffic, no wrecks just stupid traffic...in the middle of the day, on a Thursday. We finally made it to Baltimore and got a beer at Heavy Seas which helped to calm my nerves.

Next stop was Inner Harbor and Federal Hill. Overlooking the harbor from Federal Hill was really cool- I took a "couple" pictures :). We went and walked around the Harbor before heading to Matt's friend Brendan's. (Note to self: next time I want to go on a Dragon pedal boat).

Brenden's place was SO cool, he had a roof top deck and I was IN LOVE. I kept asking people if they realized how cool this feature was...I think I was the most excited. 

Game Six of the Cavs vs Warriors was on, so we followed Brenden's lead and headed to a neighborhood bar called Das Bier Haus. It was loud, a little rowdy, and had HUGE beer steins.

My friend Stacy Uber'd across town to hang with me, so I was pretty pumped about that. She also gave me some tips about breakfast.

We hit up Blue Moon Too on the way out of town, Stacy told me that this was a new, larger location that was closer to Brenden's place. I ordered a Carmel latte and Captain Crunch French Toast (it was actually breaded in ground up Captain Crunch) and Matt ordered Sweet Baby Jesus (lump crab, fried eggs, cheese, hash browns, and hollandaise). Breakfast was AMAZING. The power went out after we got our food and we ended up getting breakfast for free- perfect way to round out Baltimore.

We're back on the road, off to Boston! Lord, give me patience to sit in the car al day! 

#BostonOrBust: Richmond

Off we go! Six days, seven states. Let's do it!!

Day one:

We dropped Folgies off at Matts parents house and headed to VA. We stopped at Pescados in Midlothian where my dad and I went after I bought the BMW, it was  just as good as I remembered! We ordered an enchilada aculpulco and voodoo shrimp with habanero mango sauce. Yum!

Here are my goals for the trip: 1- eat all the good food 2- drink al the beer (wait, who am I?) 3- check out local art 4- take pictures with as many state signs as possible 5- make memories with Matt

We're off to a good start! 

We checked out a really cool mural (and super creepy on the other side) and then headed to Stone Brewery for beers. I got a flight and wound up pretty tipsy, I want aware that the average ABV for their beers was somewhere in the high 8s! Mom- for reference bud light has like 4.5%. The building was HUGE and had no sign which several folks on the interwebs complained about, but the beer tender told us that "historically none of the Stone Breweries have a sign," so there ya go.

We were heading to the hotel with plans to change, grab dinner, and then head to the show...we saw a sign for Strangeways Brewing and made a little detour. I am SO glad that we did, they mix syrups in their beers and I had a beer with Woodruff syrup which tastes exactly like Lucky Charms marshmallows. It was AMAZING, but a funky color- oh well.

Due to this little detour we ran out of time for dinner and just grabbed Taco Beezy- we keep it classy, at least it was cheaper than a "real" dinner place.

We found our way to Innsbrook Pavillion, which must be a makeshift venue, it was in the middle of business park parking lot. We grooved to Through the Roots, Stick Figure, The Green and J. Boog, and Rebelution. Stick Figure always brings their dog, "Cocoa the Tour Dog" who I'm  obsessed with and J. Boog sings one of my favorite songs! We left a little early and retreated to our hotel where we slept in separate beds (hi mom). Bedtime by 930- were officially old, but Matt is older.

We had breakfast at The Black Sheep which was near VCU and kind of sketchy,  but the food was good and the portions were huge. We left a ton behind which we don't usually do, but we won't be eating leftovers on the road trip so it is what it is! Matt had Bayou Biscuits and Gravy and I had Gambas Bravas.

It's been real Richmond, we're off to Baltimore!