Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Food and Drinks and Art and Friends

Mark and I haven't been to Philly in a loooong time. As in years, because the last time I remember going there was before we moved to VA. It's a cool (and delicious) city, and we have friends and family that live there, so we spent a couple days last week catching up with people and hanging out in the city.

We didn't have any extra time off for the trip, and it figured that it was the one week I couldn't get an overnight shift at work because of recurrent training, but I was able to take a couple hours of leave at the end of the training session and we made it up to Philly before rush hour traffic got too bad. First stop: Kristy and Ryan's!

They live over near University City and have a really cool apartment in an older house. We had to wait a little while for Ryan to get home from work, so we ate all the snacks and tried some different whiskeys and ryes and caught up on stuff. We wandered down to a local bar for more drinks and some delicious hush puppies, then eventually went out to dinner at a restaurant down the street once Ryan got home. Everything was delicious...I ate it all too fast to take pictures!

At one point, they mentioned that there was a cool speakeasy hidden nearby, so of course we needed to check that out.

You would never know there's a bar hiding above an Ethiopian restaurant from the looks of the building! There are no signs, and when you go in the door, you walk up a staircase like you're going to someone's apartment. It's no bigger than a decent-sized bedroom, but they have a really good whiskey and beer selection, a few tables, and some very tasty drinks. We hung out for a while, then eventually made our way back to Kristy and Ryan's apartment and passed out.

Ryan had to work the next day, but Kristy had the day off so we could hang out. A busy day of exploring called for a delicious breakfast...

...of coconut coffee and breakfast tacos. With guacamole. LOTS of guacamole. It was so good.   :)

There were so many things that we could do that we had a hard time picking where to start, but we eventually decided on the art museum. A short Lyft ride later...

...hello, Philadelphia Museum of Art!

I always forget just how good this museum is. They have so many great works that I've seen in books and online (Picassos, Van Goghs, Monets, and Pissarros, among others), and they're right there in front of you here.

There was a really neat unfinished piece by Gustav Klimt (on the left)...

...and some really cool stuff by Paul Klee, among (many!) other things. They had a special exhibit on Impressionists, so we went through that, too, and checked out a bunch of the modern art before we left.

Kristy got a picture of us on the art museum steps. Mark doesn't know what to do when I'm as tall as he is.   :)

This is such a good view of the city!

We walked over to the Perelman Building to check out a few more special exhibits, then grabbed another Lyft ride over to...

...Spruce Street Harbor Park, near Penn's Landing. It's a pretty cool area on the waterfront with food trucks, games, picnic tables, and other fun outside stuff.

They even have hammocks!

We grabbed some tasty ice cream from one of the vendors, then played some giant Connect Four and skeeball. We still had a little while left before Ryan would be home from work, so we decided to grab some drinks.

Moshulu is a really cool restaurant on a tall ship right on the river. Mark and I had always meant to go there for a fancy dinner and somehow never made it. Turns out, though, they have a bar that opens early!

We grabbed some wine and hung out on the deck, watching the ships go by. I have no idea what that weird big ship is, but that's the Battleship New Jersey in the background.

After a few minutes one of the bartenders told us about a cool section of the deck further along that was where the old steering wheel (or whatever you call it) was, so we took our drinks up there. Mark tried to get a nice picture of me and Kristy, and I apparently held my wine glass up right in front of her face...this was us laughing about that.   :)

It was really cool to look up at all the rigging from the deck...

...and we had a really nice time hanging out, even if I did have a battleship in my wineglass.

The view back toward the city...

...and looking out toward the river. That's the Ben Franklin Bridge in the background.

It was pretty warm out, so we eventually finished our drinks and grabbed another Lyft back to Kristy's apartment. Bye, Moshulu...someday we'll be back for dinner!

We hung out for a little while and watched a movie until Ryan got home, then went out for dinner. Mark and I moved the car over to where we'd be staying next, then grabbed a Lyft back to Village Whiskey to meet up with Kristy and Ryan again.

The bar at Village Whiskey. Not a bad selection!  :)

They had all sorts of whiskey, bourbon, and scotch options. Mark went for a flight of three, while I had an old fashioned. Between the duck fat fries, the cheese and rib fries, and a reeeeally good burger, it was a great dinner!

After dinner we walked over to Rittenhouse Square for some people-watching, then eventually said goodbye to Kristy and Ryan. It was really nice to see them again! It would have been nice to spend more time with them, but they had to work the next day, and we had other plans, too. They grabbed a cab, we grabbed a Lyft, and soon we were at our next stop: Zach's apartment!

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