Oct 9 Sunday

Travel day, but not until later.

We pack up in the morning, check our luggage at the hotel, then travel south to the Italian market 9th Street.

We continue south to sample the classic battle of cheesesteaks between Pat’s and Geno’s.

I like Pat’s, Shell preferred Geno’s. I should state for the record, that, as far as cheesesteaks go, I liked Pat’s better than Geno’s. That said, I’ve not been impressed by any of the three cheesesteaks I tried. I certainly wouldn’t order them on my own. Sorry Philly. I don’t think you’re favorite food is all that great.
Then we headed back to the Italian market to Philly Cannoli King to get cannoli. The dude running the place was clearly invested in producing a good product. But…. on the service scale from Indifferent to Surly, he was in the Bothered-by-our-Presence range. Cannoli were good though.

With a couple of hours to kill before heading to the airport, (next time I’m going to schedule an earlier flight home, since you typically have to be cleared outta the hotels by 11 we went to the Museum of the American Revolution.

We chose museums because they have bathrooms available AND usually a café where you can get water or snacks.

Then we went to the National Constitution Center.

While there, one of the guys mentioned Elfreth Alley, the oldest continually inhabited street in the US. So we stopped there before leaving,

then grabbed our stuff from the hotel and headed to the airport.

PHL has one of the greatest boarding gate areas I’ve ever seen: banks of tables, each outfitted with tablets, where you can charge phones, and order food that will be brought directly to the table. They had a decent restaurant right next to our gate (B8 for the record), so we each got a skirt steak with chimichurri, fries, and I got a Guinness (from Independence Prime, for the record). All while keeping track of the Galaxy game AND charging my phone, AND sitting in a decently comfortable chair.

We got back to LA around 10pm, and home by 11. Tired but knowing we had a good trip. Except for the hurricane part.

Since I had already technically been to New Jersey, having stayed in Newark during our first visit to NY, I added 4 states and DC to my map of states visited.

The next planned trip would be New England and then the remaining Midwest states, and a trip to Canada in the bargain.