We didn't have very far to travel today, from just outside Trenton, on down to Philadelphia. Once there, seeing as I had done a whole day of touristy stuff in this city within the past year, there weren't very many priorities as Clarkman didn't have an extensive list of things he had to see here.
We had a nice lunch at some pub on Walnut Street, then walked to the art museum so Clarkman could run up the stairs and pose in front of the Rocky statue. Happy with our accomplishments for the day and ready for some relaxation, we bought beer at the one beer store we crossed - since I know all about Pennsylvania's draconian liquor laws - before going back to our very nice Alexander Inn suite that we had booked for the night.
The tall, skinny building is the Alexander Inn.
When I booked the accommodations for this trip I was amazed at the lack of reasonably priced rooms in Philadelphia. A room for the night in our budget meant either staying out near the stadiums, over in New Jersey, or paying for decent accommodations.
In the end, with only 20 hours in the city, we splurged and stayed at the Alexander Inn for $130.
As my old hikers were held together with liquid cement and rubber pieces back home, I had bought some new, incredibly comfortable hikers while in New York.
This meant my feet were doing okay, while Clarkman's New Balances put his feet through the ringer. Unsurprisingly, this was a contributing factor to lounging about in the ice cold room with a few Yuenglings.
Eventually it was time to get on the subway system and head past Tasker-Morris Station, to the end of the line at Philadelphia's three professional sporting stadiums.
Having been to Citizens Bank Park and covering it here before, there's little point in repeating said coverage.
Regardless of having been here previously, I was still in one of my favourite cities, at one of my favourite ball parks, with a cold Hoegaarden, on a night finally bleeding away the day's humidity. I was feeling good as I went for a fifth inning walk from our seats out in right field.
In a funny coincidence it was again dog night. We sat and wondered if the dog night's would follow us throughout the road trip.
As for the actual baseball game, the Phillies were slaughtered by the Giants, Mets or some other boring team, with my fantasy left fielder Domonic Brown doing as my fantasy players do (putting up 0-fers).
Leaving Citizens Bank Park, we ended up in an underground concourse after getting off the subway, where some skateboarder was skating the smooth ground.
Why can't Corner Brook have underground subway connection concourses for the wintertime? :(
Neither of us had looked up where to go in Philly, so we ended up guessing on an area and coming upon the Locust Bar. It wasn't anything in terms of clientele, but the beer selection was good and when the bartender noticed us not saying too much, he came over and had us in stitches by telling joke after joke after joke. He was one of those funny men who can somehow remember 100 jokes perfectly.
My piss-poor memory was happy enough to know one punch line beforehand, after he asked what university Michael Jackson attends.0
Late night walking...
...and all-night diners.
The morning came soon enough and with that, we were out of the Alexander Inn and Philadelphia before we knew it.
It would be one of the shortest city visits of our trip.
Today was even hotter and here we were headed south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Continue to Part 4!