Philly

November 16-17, 2018

TL;DR: Philly is so cool. We fell in love with the history, the culture, the amazing museums, and the food. Hardly spent more than a day but really enjoyed it. Even got a visit in with the legendary Shirl in horse country to cap things off.

The sights

Ben Franklin’s House

Even the museum store is cool here, with lots of curious things for sale and the Join or Die graphic everywhere. They’ve got Ben’s drinking log (wine lover), lots of hands-on displays, and interactive exhibits. It’s also a manageable size and not too overwhelming. In the courtyard is a really cool wireframe—they called it a ghost house—of his former residence.

The Liberty Bell

There was a protest going on outside, which made the square pretty busy, but we got inside quick enough. Really cool exhibit, especially considering it was free. Learned that in 1950, there were 55 replicas of the Liberty Bell (one for each of the 48 states, the District of Columbia, and the territories). Most of the replicas are now near state capitols.

Walked by Independence Hall and that area, saw a couple of the first banks and carpenter’s houses.

Fountain Porter

This is a really cool bar, especially for dark beers. Wood-panel walls and not a ton of room. They apparently have a great burger if you’re hungry.

Barnes Foundation

One of our highlights so far (thank you for the recommendation, Jen!). We were a little thrown off by the price ($30/each), but it was so worth it. Here’s the scoop: Albert Barnes had over $25 million of personal art in his home, which got transferred to this museum in the city—and everything was exactly as he originally had it, complete with all this old hardware like door knobs and hinges in between the paintings. There are 181 pieces by Renoir, 69 by Cézanne, 59 by Matisse, 46 by Picasso, 11 by Degas, seven by van Gogh… Over 25 rooms and 900 pieces, and that’s not even counting the many that weren’t on display. It’s enough to make you want to move to Philadelphia so you can be a member and visit it for an hour whenever you want.

Museum of Art

Even just from the outside (which was our only vantage point), the Museum of Art is gorgeous.

As we were walking up, we were wondering what the line was for at 8 PM… The Rocky statue. Yep.

Audrey Claire

This sweet restaurant is BYOB, and there’s a convenient and well-stocked store across the street for just that purpose. Super delicious food and awesome vibe. Was the favorite of and recommended by our good friends Jen and Chuck, so was extra special.

Chester County

Jen’s Mom, Shirl, still lives in Chester County, where Jen grew up. So we swung by to say hello, have brunch, and see some of the coutryside. Stopped at River Front Museum (where Shirl used to be a guide and Jen used to work the ticket counter!), which was home to many famous Andrew Wyeth paintings and the famous cow and pig.

Our next stop was to the conservatory, where Shirl was President for a decade or so (of course!). Here, we saw Longwood Gardens and an amazing mum exhibit. Who knew mums could be so beautiful?!

Finally, we drove through Brandywine battlefield and horse country (inspiration for the aforementioned Wyeth’s famous paintings). Got the full inside scoop about its conservation, which of course Shirl was a big part of. What a town. What a lady!

Details, details, details

During brunch in Chester Country, we had Bloody Marys and Shirl added club soda at the end, giving it a delightful fizz and cutting some of the heavy tomato. Brilliant!

And then this happened…

The morning we went into the city, we took our RV park’s shuttle (convenient!). The kind gentleman dropped us off with crisp directions for the bus… but he didn’t know the Philly marathon was happening. Only took us about 25 minutes to figure it out (not so convenient). We ended up just walking.

Now we know

When we left Chester Country, we decided to drive the two-and-a-half hours to Fairfax, VA, and we’re so glad we did because going through Baltimore was super challenging, and would have been terrible during rush hour on a Monday. We also couldn’t go through any of the tunnels because we had hazardous materials on board (propane). We thought we had avoided everything but then had to go through downtown Baltimore… which was pretty touch-and-go. Thank goodness it was later on a Sunday.

Road food

Sourdough waffles with malted butter, breakfast sandwiches with a twist, and iced cardamom coffee pay homage to Philly ingredients at High Street on Market.

Where we stayed

Nights one and two: Philly Campus Park & Ride

This place looks like a legit warehouse security lot. The guy who let us in said we were safer than we’d be at the White House. Works for us.

It obviously isn’t winning points for beauty, which is fine, but when we got up to try and dump Layla, it was clogged… gross. Bri made the executive decision that we shouldn’t do it there.

Night three: Cabela’s, Fairfax, VA