Motownphilly back again...

Hello! I just got back from a long weekend in Philly with my BFF from Bayport: Kim, Dona, and Val. We shipped Val up there, well technically to Delaware, about 1 year ago, so we got to check in on her and her doggies and experience as much of Philly as possible in 2 days. Kim is originally from South Philly (think: Rocky’s neighborhood) so we got the local flavor tour as well. Here’s my best effort at a synopsis.

Continental serves strange foods courtesy of SkyChef (which I think is owned by Lufthansa so I am blaming the Germans!). Our “meal” consisted of a small pizza topped with ranch dressing, chopped steak, and goopy cheese. Why does this food item even exist? Also, we watched “Music and Lyrics” on the plane, which I was just SURE I would love, even though Maria and Casey gave it 2 thumbs down (I mean come on, I love Drew and Hugh and the 80’s and pop music!). But they were right after all, as the movie was exhausting and sort of soul-less. Kim pointed out that it made the plane ride seem even longer. Blah.

Friday we headed to Philly to do all the tourist-y stuff. We ate DELICIOUS pizza at this place called Grotto’s, which apparently is a popular chain serving “boardwalk/beach” pizza. Northerners and Midwesterners are sort of weird about their pizza and its geographical origins, but “beach pizza” gets my seal of approval. This was simply the first of many many “Meals Consisting of Meat, Cheese, and Saturated Fats.”

Here’s the Liberty Bell. Apparently it had a casting flaw which was “repaired” at some point, then when they tried to use it again the “repair” cracked even worse and left it non-operational. I dunno why I thought it would be HUGE because it was sort of little. Here’s me and Dona taking our turn at a snapshot:

Also Ben Franklin is a big Philly celeb, so we saw his grave, and the place where his house was (the only part of it still intact is the privy…eww), and his post office. I love Ben. You should read his autobiography. He’s sort of a wack-a-doo.

Then the girls let me drag them to University City, where all the colleges are, so we could stop by the World Cafe HQ. World Cafe is significant to me and the brown boy and played an integral part in the story of our lub, so I was excited. Lots of hipsters were there enjoying happy hour, and a DJ played some tunes. Sadly, no shows that day. Here I am making my delighted muppet face:

So then we were off to enjoy Meal Consisting of Meat, Cheese, and Saturated Fats #2 at this place called Tony Luke’s. It was sort of situated under the highway, adding to its off-the-beaten-path appeal. I ordered my cheesesteak with American Cheese and Onions and it was pretty good. Yes, I ate the whole thing. We then had to walk off the cheesesteaks so we wandered around Penn’s Landing and saw some sights. We also saw what appeared to be the equivalent of Midtown, i.e. yuppies galore, but it was somewhat charming. We headed back to South Philly for the best Philly treat ever: WATER ICE. I have always made fun of Kim and her insistence that water ice is somehow different/better than snow cones, slurpees, shaved ice, etc. But she was RIGHT. It can only be described as ICE that is like WATER, or WATER ICE. Apparently it is a secret scientific phenomenon that creates water ice, and only certain places know how it is done. Here at Italiano’s I opted for the Gelati, which was water ice layered with vanilla ice cream. Oh water ice, how I love thee:Okay, also there is this other strange northern phenomenon called Wawa. Really, it’s just a convenience store without gas pumps. But EVERYONE goes there. They have dozens of flavors of coffee and they sell tons of packaged cakes and little sandwiches. I honestly don’t understand the love for Wawa but I appreciate it nonetheless. Here I am with Kim selecting a Tastykake:

Northerners also love their Dunkin Donuts, as there is one about every few blocks, probably more than Starbucks. I tried a couple, but nothing can ever ever top Nelson’s Donuts in Lake Charles. Between the donuts and tastykake, I managed to keep my saturated fat equilibrium constant until lunchtime. Check out Frankie Avalon and Fabian in this mural!So we headed to the Italian Market, where there are lots of butcher shops and produce stands and smelly fish and whatnot. We spent a while in a cutie kitchenware store and Val bought us some fresh pasta to cook for dinner. While there we of course had to hit Cheesesteak Valhalla, i.e. Pat’s King of Steaks and Geno’s. We wanted to compare/contrast, so we got 2 of each and split them amongst the 4 of us. I was complimented by a local on my ability to utter the words, “Whiz Wit” with a straight face and therefore properly order my sandwich. Cheese whiz, although seemingly a terrible idea, was actually delicious on the sandwich! I can’t really say which place was better, although Geno’s tasted less fat-tastic, but it may just be the lack of Whiz on my sandwich from there. It was very confusing, but I give Meal Consisting of Meat, Cheese, and Saturated Fats #3 the edge over Tony Luke’s, I think because the sandwich bread at these 2 places was delicious. Also grease ran down my arm and that’s FINE.

Geno's?

Or Pat's (in the background behind me & Val)?

Then we headed to Jeweler’s Row, which is basically a couple of blocks in downtown with tons and tons of jewelry stores. We window-shopped a lot, and a quirky old man told us some long-winded yet charming stories about Philly, and I want to say he talked about how he knew Albert Einstein. Anywho, I spent an exorbitant amount of money on this necklace (it’s a black pearl done up with little diamonds and white gold meant to resemble a sea anemone). I am craaazy about it:

So freshly adorned with jewels, we decide it’s time for more WATER ICE, so we head back to Kim’s neighborhood to sample the water ice at Pop’s. This time I opted for orange dream with soft serve ice cream and it too was GLORIOUS. Post water ice we headed home, where Val made us an excellent meal consisting of fresh pasta, olive oily garlicy delicious sauce, bread, salad and wine. YUM. While she cooked, we strangely watched “Center Stage” which apparently all of my friends secretly own on DVD/VHS. So weird. We also discussed how the movie is TERRIBLE in every way yet weirdly entertaining. Kim astutely pointed out that at least it was better that “Music and Lyrics”, which was just a little sad, considering one of the co-stars is Olympic figure skater, Ilia Kulik.

Next morning we woke up at 5:30 (OMG) for the big Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Thanks to your generosity, I raised $1130 for the cause!!!! Thank you so much! I have no idea how long it took me to run the race, however. We started late because of the huge crowds at the bathrooms, and by the time we got to the start line the walkers had already started and it was just a wall of people. I tried to keep up with Val, dodging around people, but was a little timid due to wonky knee. I did my best, but still got pretty slow by mile, like, 1.5. Ha. Nonetheless, my official time was around 55 minutes, but I am guessing that my actual time was closer to 45 minutes. I was very proud indeed and don’t worry, I will make good on my promise to send you guys official Shelley training mix tapes in appreciation for your donations. You are all awesome!

We had time for (what I thought would be) our last Meal Consisting of Meat, Cheese, and Saturated Fats. We drove around a while until we found a sandwich shop that was open and we feasted on hoagies loaded with meats and cheeses and whatnot. They were actually pretty good, and I strangely adapted to the local cuisine, and felt like a champ. We then hit Rita’s for more WATER ICE. This place is the water ice chain, so slightly less authentic, but I did discover that Mango is my favorite flavor and I liked that they use frozen custard in their gelati. Oh Water Ice! Swoon!

Then it was time to head home, where airport dinner consisted of Meal Consisting of Meat, Cheese, and Saturated Fats #5, i.e. Philly style pizza. I split a slice with Dona in a futile effort to save our arteries. But I mean, we got on the plane, where they served us our final Meal Consisting of Meat, Cheese, and Saturated Fats #6, which was a strangely delicious cheeseburger wrapped in plastic. This time there was no movie, so Kim and I chatted the whole way home, which proved to be much more entertaining than Music and Lyrics anyway.

So, my trip was fun and exhausting and I love my engineer gals a lot. I am currently in water ice withdrawal, and my soft serve cone from Chick Fil A today was just NOT the same. I have, however, gone vegetarian for the rest of the week, to do a little damage control, so hope that helps.

In other non-Philly news, my Amanda is done and done with law school. I don’t understand why they make them start law review classes immediately after they are done with normal classes, but maybe that’s not much to ask considering they will be making the big bucks someday. I get to attend her graduation this Saturday and I’m sure Chad and I will be bursting with pride. I am very very excited. Stop by her blog and wish her a congratulatory comment (she loves comments).

My latest tv obsession is Veronica Mars. I love mysteries, plus I love teen drama, so it was basically made just for me! She is like Nancy Drew with spunk! Aneil convinced me to watch it so I Netflix-ed season 1. I love it. It's also not as scary as Criminal Intent, so I don’t get scared at night. Ha. Why am I a 13 year old chubby girl at heart?

In other news I can’t stop eating Raisinets and I check them off as a fruit/vegetable on my weight watchers checklist.

American Idol tonight!

Love you all!