Philadelphia

Flynn and I left New York bright and early to make our train to Philadelphia on Wednesday (Aug. 13^th). The train ride was fairly uneventful. The scenery wasn’t as nice as between Boston and New York, but it was nice enough. When we arrived in Philadelphia it was about 9am. We opted to take a taxi to our B&B because we were pretty tired and didn’t want to have to think about navigating a new transportation system. The taxi ride turned out to be a good choice. We got to the B&B in less than 15min and it felt good to put our bags down.

Unfortunately check-in wasn’t until 2p, so we had to go kill some time before we could get our room. We went to a great restaurant on the corner for breakfast than started to walk around. We ended up on the water front and Penn’s Landing. From there we took a short ferry ride across the Delaware River over to Camden, NJ. We found a quiet, shady bench near the USS New Jersey and chilled out there for a while. We watched the helicopters fly around Philadelphia and the old Navy men visiting the ship. It was a really nice way to kill time. We eventually took the ferry back to Philadelphia and walked through the old center and gradually walked back to the B&B.

When we were shown our room we were completely surprised. I had forgotten that we had reserved a suite. Also, compared to our room in New York, this new room was incredible. It had a private kitchen, several large windows that let in plenty of light, and an interesting selection of antique decorations. We liked the room so much that after our nap we decided we wanted to stay in for the evening. We ordered some Mexican food to be delivered, bought a bottle of wine from the Inn, and did our laundry. It was a great night.

The next morning I went for a run. I had originally vowed to run every morning, except on travel (train/air) days. But that hasn’t really happened. I went for a couple runs in Boston and had slacked off until Philly. My run in Philly was good though. I went through some neighborhoods that I otherwise wouldn’t have seen. It was nice. When I got back to our room I slaved in the kitchen for a few hours to make Flynn a nice breakfast in bed. Edit: I made a pot of coffee and put the frozen waffles in the toaster.

We enjoyed a great, lazy morning in the B&B. It’s been really nice not having to be anywhere or do anything. If we want to stay in bed, we can. If we want to watch a movie, we can. If we want to go for a walk or be tourists, we can. Having absolute freedom has been a wonderful thing.

Eventually we got ourselves out the door and into the heat. We walked to Constitution Hall and the Liberty Bell. That was pretty much the extent of our tourism of Philadelphia. It was a hot day. So after sitting near a fountain and having an ice cream we walked back through the center to the nice cool AC in our suite.

The rest of our stay included a couple nice Italian dinners from the Italian Market neighborhood, watching the Olympics and Apollo 13 on TV, and watching the lightening during a thunderstorm one night. It was a very relaxed, low key visit.

On Saturday it was time to ship out again. We headed to the train station early to meet up with some of Flynn’s family. Flynn’s cousin Sarah lives in Philadelphia with her husband Brian and their four month old baby Maggie. Also in town is Sarah’s mother/Flynn’s aunt Mame. We met them all at the train station and chatted over breakfast and coffee. It was a nice visit, though quick. Soon we were on the train to DC for the last leg of the East Coast portion of our trip.