Weekend in Maryland and Philadelphia

[Posted 2 at once, so look for previous post on Halloween.]

So I had to walk to the subway, then take the subway, then walk again - took longer than I thought. And I went to some random street corner in Chinatown to catch my cheap bus. These ladies were standing there going "You want bus - hurry get on now." Literally just a bus on a corner - I gave them $20 to go to Baltimore, and they ushered me on the bus and told me it was leaving soon. Instead it was pretty full already and it left 15 minutes before I thought it was scheduled to leave. I was really hoping it'd actually stop in Baltimore because it was the bus to DC. So I wrote emails, wrote blog, read a paper, and slept my 3.5 hours away, and suddenly we were in Baltimore and they just dropped us at a random street corner there too! How strange. I waited in a McDonalds for Christine (we were early), and then she was there! It was great talking and catching up with her. We are best friends, and she just KNOWS me and there's so much comfort in that. And as she said "Jenn, we are the same." Twins separated at birth, I said :-). Except her curly hair is dark... Anyway, it was fun to talk. We went home and waiting for her husband Jeff to come home, then went to dinner in very cute downtown Annapolis at Buddy's Ribs and Crabs. Yum - Maryland crab cakes :-). Then on Christine's behest we baked a triple chocolate fudge cake for the following day. We never could figure out the 3rd chocolate (it had chips in it). It was fun :-). Felt very domestic. Then we watched a movie - I took forever to look through their movie collection and pick, but we watched "The Sum of All Fears" which was really good. Christine fell asleep, but I made it :-).

We had a late night that night, and then I had to check on work stuff at the end, so I slept in until 11:30 on Saturday morning. :-). It was great sleep though! Something about suburbia and darkness, and a comfortable spacious room, and warmth, no noise = good sleep. Was nice to do that, although I felt a little bad that it limited what we did for the day. But I finally got ready and we left to get a very delicious Lebanese lunch (which Christine and I love but Jeff doesn't). I got lamb fatteh which has lamb chunks, chick peas, pine nuts, and pita chips all in a yogurt sauce - tasty. And they made their own fresh wheat pitas which were awesome. I enjoyed our chat about Harry Potter and the failures of the 1-3 Star Wars movies. Then we had a great conversation about the perils of grad school on the way to Christine's football game. So Jeff and I watched her play touch football which was really fun! Just hanging out - it was slightly chilly, but the sun was out. We cheered them on, and Christine scored 3 out of their 4 touchdowns! Rock! Fun to encourage the team, and because I had my camera it was requested that I take the group picture too :-). They played well - fun times. And btw, they have some beautiful fall colors on trees around here too! Then we went back to Christine's house to meet up with friends for dinner. Amy and Ryan who had come up to NYC for Wicked came, and Amy's husband. We went out for a nice dinner at "Four Seasons Grill". They had a really good menu where I wanted to try many things. We got this shrimp appetizer with spicy sauce over zucchini which was good. Then I got scallop ginger risotto (almost got veal scallopini instead). It was very tasty, although I've had better risotto. But it was fun to hang out with everybody. It strikes me that I was not in New York. For one, a lot of conversation is about the government and politics and campaigns (Amy's husband does campaigning down here). For another, we drive everywhere - everything is spread out and there's more suburbia and lots of large strip malls. It's what I grew up in, and it is slightly soothing. I think a lot of the way New York is is based on the limited space there, and the premium for space. Things are closer together, shops are smaller, you can walk more places, etc. Different. But anyway - we had a nice dinner, then went back to Christine's and hung out and had cake. Did I mention I ate too many sweets at Christine's? It was too tempting - she had a bag of leftover Halloween candy too :-). But the cake was delicious - I actually liked the white cream cheese frosting better than the chocolate. Christine had frosted it in a checker pattern :-). Fun. Then the friends left. They are really nice people. I kept thinking that I felt really comfortable there - like these are "my kind of people". That's a nice feeling; comforting. I told Christine maybe I should move close to her because it'd be fun. I want to encourage her to do a triathlon and that would be easier if we could train together! But yeah, good times. So we watched another movie - put in Star Trek #6. But this time I quickly fell asleep :-). Christine fell asleep too, though!

So we got an extra hour of sleep - yay! And I actually had to pay attention to daylight savings because I had to catch a 8:48am train to Philadelphia! So I was sad to leave - short visit with Christine, but still a quality one. Always fun. Good friends :-). I wanted her to come to Philly with me, but she had homework to do. So now - off to Philly!

So let me just say - do what I say, not what I do. I don't recommend anyone actually walk around Philly for the whole day with a backpack, purse, coat, and rolly weekend bag (with laptop) to carry the whole time. It's exhausting! But I made it :-). Good adventures. So took Amtrack up to the city, then metro to get to the Independence Hall area. Went and picked up tickets for the Independence Hall tour, then walked over to see a Quaker meeting house and Ben Franklin's grave. Wow, was Ben Franklin a really influential man! I'm impressed by him. Did you know he was basically our first ambassador to France and got us a lot of money from them for the American Revolution? And he also had severe gout? And little education? Awesome :-). Anyway, went through and saw the Liberty Bell. Love it's symbolism - they used it as a symbol against slavery even. But the actual bell is smaller than I thought. Then went to my tour of the building where the Declaration of Independence was written and the Constitution was signed. Crazy that it all started in these small rooms where 13 men came to meet. Saw the tomb of the unknown soldier, saw a court house and the philosopher's house. Saw some old merchant's house and a trading house. Then found the City Tavern - ah, one of my favorites :-). I needed food, and it was a historic relic too! All the waiters were wearing colonial garb, and most of their foods were ala that time - stews and duck and all. I had a cool beer sampler with 4 beers: George Washington Tavern Porter, Thomas Jefferson's 1774 Tavern Ale, Poor Richard's Ale (my favorite - not hoppy and like molasses), and Philadelphia Pale Ale. Then I got a pepperpot soup with beef and taro and greens. And a bread plate - which I loved. The bread was awesome - one piece was made with molasses, and another were little dense circles of bread with nuts that they saw was T Jefferson's recipe for sweet bread or something. Tasty :-).

So after putting some good stuff in my tummy, I sauntered over and saw the water. Then walked up to see Elfrath's Alley where they had preserved 18th Century houses and the narrow street with cobblestones. They were all different colors and very close together and cute. They all had their own sort of symbol or crest posted on them. Quaint! Then I went through Betsy Ross's house - only thing I actually paid for. It was cute and the people were nice. Can't believe she operated in such small quarters! And in secret... Then went through Ben Franklin court where his house used to be and he owned a lot of merchant/rental houses. Then back to Independence Square where I saw the first and second banks of the US, and the Carpenter's Hall which was big back during revolutionary time. So yeah - I covered all the historical buildings pretty much :-). Then decided to head out of historical old downtown and go west. Walked along Market Street until I hit City Hall which is a massive, ornate building in the middle of the city. There was a very beautifully carved Masonic Temple on a corner there, and on another corner was Love Park. That's where - if you've heard of it - a famous sculptor did a "Love" scuplture - just with the word itself. It's famous - looks like:
LO
VE
(with the O tipped). I've seen it on stamps and stuff. So, that was neat. Then I walked over (via some shopping streets) to Rittenhouse Square which a friend had told me was a cute area. It probably would've been except with daylight savings I got there around 5:15 and it was already dark! So not a lot going on in this park, but it was nice. So I had walked basically from almost 0 (the river) to almost 19th - across the whole city! And then I wanted to go get a Philly cheesesteak from this place on 4th street, so I walked down to South Street and over back to 4th! Lots of walking - exhausting :-). But as I got closer to 4th, there were a lot of funky stores along South Street that were fun to see - restaurants and clothing stores and bars and lots of young people :-). I finally made it to my Philly cheesesteak place (Jim's) and thought I could finally rest. Well, I stood in line for like 20 minutes to get a cheesesteak! Place was crowded - locals liked it I heard. But chatted a bit with the people around me (remarkable how a Texas sweatshirt will start conversations) in line. Anyway, finally got my cheesesteak - I chose American cheese NOT Cheese Whiz. Don't know if that's cheating, but who likes Cheese Whiz? It's like plastic! And then I got onions and red peppers and mushrooms - yum :-). Decided just to take it to go and grabbed a cab (finally no walking!) to Chinatown to grab my bus. I just didn't want to wait a whole hour for the next bus to leave - wanted to catch the 7pm bus. Which I made it for, however, it was late and departure was pushed back to 7:30 so it didn't matter. But when I did finally get the bus stuff settled, I wolfed down my Philly cheesesteak and boy was it tasty! Yay :-). Food makes me quite happy. So all in all a great day in Philly! I think I experienced A TON in a small amount of time. I got here around 10:20 am and adventured until 7pm while carrying all my stuff. I'm pretty impressed with myself :-). Now I'm on the 2.5 hour bus ride back to NY and happy to be sitting. Who can beat a $10 bus ride back?!

Ok, this is really long - better sign off. Tomorrow: moving to Union Square area. I'm sad to do this because my roommate and I were becoming friends and I'll miss her, and my neighborhood. Plus moving is never fun, but it'll be my last in NYC! And after that I hope I have a lower key life for awhile! Jenn out.

P.S. I hurt the back of my knee ligament while biking last night - feels strained. Boo :-(. Walking all day didn't particularly help it...