phantastic philly.

taking advantage of living in the southern-northeast, joe and i went to philly for a couple of days to visit the city of brotherly love. after paying about 10 dollars in tolls, we got there saturday afternoon and went straight to the corner of cheese-steak heaven... pat's and geno's. we waited in line at each for about 20 minutes and tried both. i liked geno's better (but joe highly disagrees.) although i have to say... the philly sandwich shoppe around the corner from my apartment makes just as good a sandwich.

the cheese-steak tower.

we spent saturday taking a walking tour(with the best weather ever!) throughout old city and immersed ourself in history (sort of.)

outside betsy's house.

i have to say... philly is a very very dirty city, but there are parts that are quite wonderful. our fave stop of the day was the old city tavern where we tried a couple of original ales and recipes from georgewashington and thomasjefferson themselves. even marthawashington had an ale after her. the brewing company that supplies these is called "yards brewing company." i highly recommend them for any future visits.

the sampler of ales.

joe and i got a couple of 6-packs for take-away which is a nice "grown-up"souvenir. another cool stop we made was at a cigar bar called "mahogany on walnut." it was a great find on walnut street (hence the name)... very chill and old school. apparently, cigar officiando rates it pretty high.
sunday morning we went to an amazing diner called "the continental" which is a great space and had some great "fancy" breakfast foods. as rachel-ray would say "yum-o!" (gah she annoys me.)

the continental.

caw-phee.

the rest of the day was spent in the non-crowded touristy/historical part of philly. let me tell you... if you are going to visit philly... the best time to be a tourist is on sunday morning. everything is open but no one is there. it was amazing. joe and i got a lesson in colonial printing one on one with the print-master. it was fab.

but now we are back and i can enjoy the rest of my labor day weekend just sitting and being lazy. i will close with some more pictures...

the colonial soldier.

joe at genos.

independence hall.

texture of philly.

the guide.

the liberty bell.

joe and anna.