Philadelphia - Day 1

We decided to take a long weekend and head up to Philadelphia to check out the city and take a short break from work. I had been to Philly once in high school but never spent any serious time there. Mr_BTM had never been. In preparation for the trip, Mr did a ton of homework and created a handy google map of places to see, things to eat and where to stay. We started our trip Friday morning with a ride on the Greyhound. An no, it wasn't as bad as everyone says! It was quite nice, actually. We started our day with a tour of the City Hall tower. To get to the top of the tower (pictured left), you need to take a very small elevator, only large enough to take 4 tourists and a security guard. Once at the top you get a greate 365 degree view of the city! We had no idea this was an option so we were pleasently surprised at this spectacular view, and only for $10 total! After the tour we walked towards Rittenhouse Square to check out the park and the neighborhood. Our first option for lunch was closed so we fell back on option two, Good Dog Bar. We choose the burger and the mac n' cheese and a few good beers. After lunch we walked to JFK Plaza to see the infamous Love statue and boy was that lame! It's such a small statue in the middle of a concrete square. So underwhelming. After that we walked along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and toured the Rodin Museum. On the long walk back to the hotel we stoped by theSEPTA Museum although there wasn't much there. For dinner we had reservations at Zahav, an Isreali restuarant. We each had the Taste of Zahav where you can choose three dishes of your choice plus dessert. We had an amazing meal and even tried duck hearts (pictured) for the first time! After dinner, we wanted to grab a drink so we went to Triumph Brewing Company. This place was packed! We were able to grab a beer from the upstairs bar, but once we started drinking, realized we were really full from dinner! Plus, the beer wasn't that good. So we left the crowded bar and went back to the hotel. Really tired after all our walking around!