Streets of Philadelphia

Yes, it's the City of Brotherly Love. Which is why it was fitting that Cory and I met up with so many friends when we were there one recent weekend. While technically in town for a wedding, we managed to fit in plenty of other friend time, as well as a fair amount of sightseeing.

We stayed at Club Quarters. Nothing too much to report about the hotel, except that its location on Chestnut Street was great. The hotel did have these nifty water machines on each floor, though. There were stacks of new, empty plastic bottles that you could insert into the machine to fill with water. The weather outside was HOT, and these came in very handy.


Friday afternoon before the wedding we shot over to McGillin's, the oldest Irish pub in Philly. Then it was time to go back to the hotel and get pretty for the wedding. I'll let you imagine lots of images here of a Catholic ceremony followed by lovely reception at The Ben ballroom. Mazel tov to Mark and Merydith!

Saturday Cory and I toured Philadelphia. We'd both been there before so we didn't feel pressure to sight see like crazy, which is my usual attitude when travelling. I just realized I spelled travelling the British way. I mean traveling.


We visited City Tavern, which was the tavern folks like G Wash and T Jeff used to hang out at. We got to sample brews made from original recipes of our founding fathers. It felt pretty historic. I was pleased that City Tavern served water in pewter goblets. This photo is titled "Erica Morris and the Goblet of Water." Anyone?

Also, check out Cory's Rocky impression below. Yes, we were those people.

Saturday evening we met up with Becky and Sarah, aka the Forand sisters. You may remember the three of us took an ill-fated trip to Barcelona and Italy in 2009 (read more about that here and here). Sarah's been living in Hong Kong for the past two years and was home for just a few weeks to visit, so I felt pretty lucky to get a moment with her. And Becky of course!

The blurry shot of a man hunched over a stove is our trip to Jim's for a cheese steak. My Dad went to medical school in Philly and assured us this was the place to go.




We spent Sunday with our friends Ben and Kacey, who recently moved from NYC to Philly (first posted about here). We took the pair to Elfreth Alley, the last spot on my list of things I wanted to see that weekend (okay, perhaps I did feel the touring pressure). It's the oldest residential street in the US and was very quaint. I think the others liked it as well. As Ben put it: "This is great. Just think of all the money we're saving by not having a good time."

Fine. We began having a good time. We conducted a thorough inspection of Old City's bars, stopping for some games of darts and shuffle board. Yes, shuffle board. It's not just for seniors anymore.



Check out John Kerry refereeing our game of skee ball.

Now, for your viewing pleasure, here is a video of Cory, Becky, Sarah and I waiting for our cheese steaks at the very normal hour of 2 am. Jim's on South Street makes a tasty steak.

Also, here is a look at Cory taking on the Rocky steps. Note: That is not me humming the Rocky music at the beginning, that is a stranger. Plus, the video cut out on its own at 55 seconds. If it had been up to me, this video would have been even longer.

PS: Please know the camera lens has recently been cleaned and subsequent photos should be much less blurry. Should be.