Out and About Philadelphia: Back in the Saddle

Oh how I have missed blogging! It has been two weeks or better since I had both the time and motivation to write a post, but I promise to TRY to be better about keeping regular with these updates. I know Danielle recently wrote a post, but really we have both been bad lately about keeping this site current, so here's to change and a brighter future!

Last weekend we had the chance to spend some time with anothernewly-wed couple in our neighborhood and take a free walking tour of Philly! The tour, "Real Philly,"covered Chinatown, Reading Market (pronounced "redding"), Center City, South Street, the Italian Market, and Old City. Chinatown is the second or third biggest in the US, right up there with New York and LA; however, there have been voices calling for the name to change to "Asiatown" because of the influence of various Asian countries in the area. We definitely have to go back and checkout some of the Vietnamese and Burmese restaurants!

Reading Terminal Market (LINK) is a busy market absolutely FULL of local vendors. On the tour we did not have much time to explore, but Danielle and I did share a chicken caesar crepe. Good stuff. I love crepes. Anyway, the Market is right next to Chinatown, so another tour of the Market is also most definitely in our future, especially since it was Danielle's favorite part of the tour.

Next was Center City, with all of its arts, architecture, and history:

Then it was on to South Street, where the hippies live, and then the Italian Market in South Philly. The Italian market smelled mostly like fish and had more Mexican than Italian food, but it was a trip. After the Italian Market we headed back north through Old City, where we saw St. Peter's Church, an old Anglican church (first service in 1761) still in operation. George Washington worshiped there.

So that was about it. The trip was about 4.5 hours and over three miles long, and it was a great time to meet new people and get a feel for our new city. Philly has an amazing history, and is a great "City of Firsts" Check out the link!

Here is a picture of our feet on the first street to be made out of wood (needless to say, this trend didn’t last too long considering the upkeep wood needs when out in the elements):

Today Danielle and I had the opportunity to sail on the Delaware River with some fellow churchgoers at University Lutheran Church of the Incarnation. Neither of us had ever been sailing, and thankfully we weren't called upon to handle any of the important duties on the boat. We basically just sat and watched Philly and Camden from the river, and listened to some locals educate us about sailing and the area. Unfortunately it was a foggy, misty day, with little wind. So we sailed with the tide upriver, checking out the Camden Riversharks ballpark and the other Philly piers, factories, and condos. Danielle snapped some photos:

Finally, tonight we went to Mass as St. Francis de Sales parish in West Philadelphia. The parish has a beautiful church, which is sadly falling apart but is in the process of renovation. It has a cool history and a reputation for having a great choir at the 10:15am Mass as well as the largest parochial grade school in the US. Among the church's famous, past parishioners is Peter Boyle! Very cool.

We topped off the night, and the week, with our first trip to Koch's Deli just a block away. We waited for an hour to get our order in and get our food, but to be honest: totally worth it. We decided to give our Cheesesteak Quest a break for a few weeks while we try out some of the other amazing meals Philadelphia has to offer, and Koch'sDeli was a solid choice for one of those meals. Danielle had a turkey club on toasted wheat with bacon, lettuce, and tomato; I had a special with corned beef, turkey, and beef brisket and coleslaw, Russian dressing, and pepper jack cheese. Jewish delis ain't bad.

Well that's definitely all from me for now. Tomorrow is the Vikings game, so I will make an Angel's-in-the-Outfield-style promise: if the Vikings can keep it together in the second half, I will write another posttomorrow. If not, who knows???