a few more notes on philly

Our trip to Philadelphia didn't start off so hot.  Our gps navigated us through the questionable neighborhoods of South Philadelphia to get to our hotel and our first stop in the city was a huge let down... the [what I once thought was] giant "love" statue.

For some reason I had this picture of something the size of, I don't know, at least as big as the president statues in williamburg!  This was the size of Teddy Roosevelt's glasses -- maybe.  Not impressed.

Then, we walked across town to check out the Ben Franklin Institute science museum. Seeing as Yoni carries a periodic table in his wallet, it's no surprise that we've been to enough science museums to be able to bring you this review: the Ben Franklin Institute is NOT worth your time.  1/3 exhibits were broken, and the place desperately needed a facelift.  To be fair, we had just come from some of the best, FREE, museums in the country (the Smithsonian museums), but it was still a disappointment. 

But things started looking better as soon as we found Maoz. From the moment the cashier told Yoni that his name too was Yonatan, we were in love.  We ate there not once, not twice, but THREE times while we were in Philadelphia.  (Don't worry, we tried other places - this was more of a midnight snack type of food).  Apparently, it's such a cult favorite that it has an entire group of photots on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/330399@N25/

Ultimately, we decided we liked Philadelphia.  We spent the next afternoon split up - me shopping on trendy Walnut St while Yoni read the new David Sedaris book in Rittenhouse Square.  We found a place for an early dinner that was part of something called Center City Sips -- a citywide happy hour with half price appetizers. (The apps didn't quite fill us up so we had to make our third trip to the falafel place).

 

1. us at Joe Pesce's , one of the bars in center city sips, 2. the view from our room, 3. the Alexander Inn

This morning, to bring our visit to a complete circle, we left through the questionable Neighborhoods of North Philadelphia for Yoni's genetic testing.  Then it was off to Pennsylvania Dutch country...

-Daci