John F Kennedy Plaza

We packed up all our stuff and took the metro to Union Station so that we could catch our Amtrak train to Philadelphia. The Amtrak boarding was probably the most chaotic scene I’ve seen in awhile. No real line, just random milling about and then a lot of shoving and jostling. Nonetheless we got our seats and stored our bags and sat back for the almost 2 hour train ride.

On our ride, we stopped in Baltimore, MD and Wilmington, DE - two more states to add to our list! Although we only got to see these cities through the train windows, it was still neat to be able to see them at all.

We arrived in Philly just after 1 and walked to our apartment, which is in the Rittenhouse neighbourhood. I’m not sure how old the neighbourhood is, but it’s obviously a historic part of your city. Beautiful old trees and brownstones line the streets and there are these great neighbourhood restaurants and stores all around.

We got ourselves settled and then went to the Reading Market for lunch (yes, just like a Reading Railroad). This place was packed even at 2:30 pm! There were so many places to eat at that it was hard to choose. Brad and Evan decided to get huge sandwiches at Dinic’s and I had the Melter Skelter at Meltworks (raclette cheese, jalapeños, pickled green tomatoes, bbq chips and watercress). We then took an Uber across downtown to get to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where we saw a Van Gogh sunflower painting, a Duchamp urinal, an excellent Jasper Johns’ wing, and several rooms of armour (request by Evan).

We stayed there until closing time and then walked to Crime and Punishment brewery, which was about 15 minutes away. It was happy hour, so we tried a few of their appropriately named brews before heading back to Rittenhouse to grab some groceries. Our little corner grocery store has the biggest craft beer section I’ve ever seen in a grocery store! Liquor laws are harsh here and liquor license are expensive, so many restaurants encourage a BYOB approach.Read more