ROAD TRIP DAY 3 pt 1 – Fresh Princes of Philly

Wow, day 3 was certainly eventful. We got some awesome news, had fun times, and had some great food. To kick off the day though, I woke up at 630am to hit the hotel gym while the rest of the crew lay snoring soundly in their beds. Shoulder day today, so the hotel gym was sufficient for my lifts. Normally hotel gyms are neglected, but the one at aLOFT rivaled our 24 Hour Fitness back at home. What impressed me the most were the cardio machines! They were the newest lifefitness treadmills with the virtual training regimens. Each machine had a computer screen that you could plug your iPod to and simulate a hill climb, track or even a 5K course, all with a bird’s eye view. Pretty cool. Check it out:

Virtual Treadmill

After the workout, I went upstairs to find everyone awake and ecstatic. Tiff had just checked her NCLEX results, and it turns out, she’s gonna be a nurse! Whooo!!! All the countless hours of studying and hard work finally paid off. Good stuff Tiff, you deserve it. Since I wasn’t present for the initial celebration, here’s a little reenactment of what went down:



Once all our shouts of glee had subsided and we had gathered ourselves, we packed the car and bid farewell to our comfy hotel. We headed over to Independence Hall, to check out where most of the stuff they talk about in high school history books took place. It was very interesting, almost like teleporting in time. We checked out the old buildings, horse carriage rides, and the Liberty Bell.

At the Libery Bell

As a turista, one gets very adept at taking pictures. You have to wait for the perfect moment when no one else is around that would side bust your pic and ruin the moment. But, the one thing that most find difficult to do is getting everyone included in the pic. Here’s a valuable tip, look for another group or couple that’s taking photos. Notice that they are usually only taking solos or someone is always missing? What to do? Offer to take a photo for them and let them do the same. Good way to meet other folks traveling and getting your memories intact. One caveat though. Make sure that the person you ask has a camera that is at least similar to yours! You don't wanna be giving a stranger a crash course on how to use an slr. Also, don't hand over your camera to anyone wearing dodgers, padres, or phillies gear too lol.

While stepping back into the 1700’s was educational and all, our bellies were growling for some real grub, so we headed over to Reading Terminal Market in downtown Philly. Reading Terminal is a fully enclosed market where you can pick up everything from produce to fresh meats and poultry. However, what attracted us here today was the fact that over 50 food vendors are located in the multiple stalls! Every direction you turned was different type of food being sold, ranging from Chinese, Greek, American, Italian, French, Mediterranean, you name it they probably sold it. Everywhere you turned was a different vendor. We could have probably stayed there for hours sampling all the goodies, but instead we hit up DeNic’s, another featured joint on Man v. Food.

 There we picked up some Italian roast pork sandwiches with broccoli rabe. The sandwich was pretty good in general. The juicy pork was counter balanced well with the bitterness of the broccoli. If you don’t like vegetables, you can probably pass on the broccoli and just get the pork by itself, but it won’t be as authentic. With our meal, Jojo got some southern fried chicken and Tiff picked up a Gyro, both also very tasty.

Authentic Italian Roast Pork

With our time in Philly dwindling, we headed over to the Philadelphia Museum of Modern art to check out the Rocky Balboa Statue. The park and pavilion were both very appealing to the eye and had a great backdrop with the city skyline. We parked and snapped a couple shots of the museum, statues, art and water fountains to add to our albums. Before leaving, Jay-R and I were feeling foolish so we also took a couple funny shots and video. Check em out:

Playing with the wildlife

Eye of the Tiger

Before I close, I gotta mention the fact that there were a substantial number of Giants fans out here on the east coast! Joe, Jay-R and I were rockin Giants gear all day and random people would come up and give us some sort of praise and recognition. We were truly feeling the love and respect. Good lookin out Philly. Fun times in the city of brotherly love, but don’t get it wrong…we’ll see y’all in couple of weeks for the pennant! For now, we’re out. Here we come NYC!