Weekend highlights

This past weekend we went to Philadelphia with Steven & Thad to see some of the famous Christmas sights. (All photos may be clicked to enlarge them.)

We left at 9am and arrived in Philly at about 11am. Our first stop was Macy's, located in the old Wanamaker's bldg. We watched the famous Christmas light show (narrated by Julie Andrews) which was really cute.

Immediately afterward we listened to Christmas songs played on the world's largest working organ. Not that I'm a huge organ music fan, but I think Christmas songs sounds wonderful on an organ. Then we had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant called Viet Nam, an old favorite of Thad.

Next we stopped at Termini Brothers Italian Bakery (one of mine and Spouse's favorites) inside the Reading Terminal Market for a little something sweet. Spouse had a chocolate chip cookie and 2 biscotti while I had a dark chocolate disc filled with macadamia nuts.

Then we headed back to Macy's to walk threw the Charles Dickens Village. There was a huge line for it and it turned out to be kinda lame. (I would recommend the Christmas light show and the organ music, but not the Dickens village.) Then we left Macy's and went inside Kenneth Cole for Spouse and inside LaCoste for Thad. We also walked through some bldgs to see the Christmas trees. I found this one to be gorgeous.

Afterward we stopped in at the Christmas Village, a collection of open air stalls selling Christmas ornaments and decor, hats, gloves, scarfs, and gifts. Spouse got 3 cashmere scarfs for $20.

Then we went to the Comcast headquarters lobby for the huge, impressive 3-D Christmas video display on the lobby wall. We arrived 20 minutes early. Here's Spouse, Thad, and me waiting for the show to start.

The 3-D show was so life-like!

It was really cool!

After being on our feet all day we finally checked into our hotel and relaxed a bit. (Steve got us gorgeous rooms at the Hyatt at Penn's Landing for $70.) Although it wasn't in the most convenient location, it was really nice, and our room was on the 17th floor and had a lovely view of the river and Ben Franklin bridge. Spouse & I watched the Christmas boat parade from our room.

Then the 4 of us met up with our friends Joe P and Allen for dinner at Maggianos.

We decided to order from the Classic Family Style menu and the 6 of us shared caesar salad, chopped salad, spinach and artichoke dip, stuffed mushrooms, chicken parmesan, lasagna, pork medallions, veal and mushroom ravioli, peppermint ice cream cake, and tiramisu. OMG!! Needless to say we all left there stuffed.

After dinner we went on a self-guided driving tour of the over-the-top Christmas decorations in South Philly, where Spouse's family is from. That was really fun!

Sun morning we had breakfast at South Street Diner, then did a little shopping at Ikea and then stopped in at Kindy's (over-priced) Christmas decor store before heading back to DE.

We had a great time with our buddies in Philly!

Weekend highlights

We spent the weekend in Philly!

One of the Bobs road with us and the other Bob road with Steven & Thad. We arrived at Bobby Flay's Burger Palace downtown where we met up with Bugs & Roger, Thad's sister Robin, and Thad's friend Alan. We had a delicious and surprisingly affordable lunch at Bobby Flay's. I had the Napa Burger (topped with goat cheese, water cress, and honey mustard) and beer-battered onion rings. Yum!

Then we drove just outside Philly to Merion PA to the Barnes Foundation. Albert Barnes amassed one of the most impressive and valuable art collections in the world with more than 800 paintings by masters including Renoir, Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani, and Cezanne. I don't know anything about art, but it was really cool to be able to view all of those masterpieces in one building. The collection is estimated to be worth about $25 billion.

Then we headed back to downtown Philly where we checked in at the Marriot Residence, across the street from the gorgeous City Hall building. Our room was on the 7th floor with a fantastic view of City Hall. I took this photo while laying on the bed.

Then we walked to Reading Terminal Market with Bugs & Roger for a snack. I got a dark chocolate 'wheel' filled with macadamia nuts from Termini Brothers bakery. Then Roger and I split a piece of Pumple cake from Flying Monkey. Pumple gets its name by combining pumpkin and apple: pumple. Pumple cake consists of pumpkin pie encased in chocolate cake (layer 1) and apple pie encased in yellow cake (layer 2), then frosted with buttercream icing. It sounded so intriguing we had to split a piece.

We both liked it, but it didn't have the 'OMG' factor I was expecting. Next we went to the Macy's that now occupies the old John Wannamaker's building. It is incredible! The grand court is open to the 4 floors above it and you can watch/hear an organist playing the largest organ in the world. Learn more about the organ here. In addition to providing music for daily shopping, the organ and grand court are also used for concerts and extensive holiday light shows. Its truly a spectacle everyone should see when in Philly. Then we went back to the hotel room and relaxed for a while before changing clothes for dinner.

Steven & Thad, The Bobs, Bug & Roger, and Spouse & I met up with Alan and Joe P at Knock. I had a delicious dark rum marinated pork loin with grilled mango and rice. The food and service were excellent and we all enjoyed our meal together. Afterward we walked to the Bike Stop bar, Tavern on Camac bar, and the famous Woody's bar.

Sun morning we enjoyed a free breakfast at the hotel and hung around talking for a while. Then we packed up, checked out, loaded our luggage into the cars, said goodbye to Bugs & Roger, and headed to Moriarty's for brunch with some local area guys who will be going on the cruise next month. We met several nice, friendly guys and enjoyed the brunch. Then we strolled through Outfest Pride festival before heading to the cars and leaving for home. We arrived home at 4:30 and just hung out the rest of the evening, and watched some shows on the DVR.

The weather was fantastic - sunny and in the mid/upper 70s during the day and a little cooler at night, which was ideal for all the walking we did. We had a great time and I can definitely see more day and weekend trips to Philly in our future.

Crush du Jour: Drew Pare

Weekend highlights

I mentioned on Fri that on Sat we were taking a day trip to Philadelphia with Steven & Thad. Wow, what a day!!

We left at 9am and got to Philly about 11am. We started with a driving tour that allowed us to see much of the beautiful downtown architecture.
Thad lived in several neighborhoods of Philly so he had a tremendous knowledge of many of the original and current uses for the lovely buildings we saw. We also drove by several historic landmarks such as the Liberty Bell, Joan of Arc statue, William Penn, and many museums and "free" libraries. I thought it odd that the signs all referred to the libraries as free, since I was not aware that any libraries charged admission.

Much of our time was spent in Center City, but we also drove through other places such as the Italian Market in South Philly, Antique Row on Pine St, Fairmount Park, Manayunk, and several beautiful residential neighborhoods like Washington Square, Rittenhouse Square, and East Falls. We passed by the house where Grace Kelly lived.

Then we were ready for lunch. Steven & Thad picked the lovely French creperie Beau Monde where we got a table on the patio. The weather was perfect for outdoor dining.
I had a delicious crepe filled with grilled chicken breast, leeks, olives, goat cheese & lemon butter. It was amazing. View their menus here.

Next we headed to Termini Brothers Italian bakery for dessert, a favorite of mine & Spouse.

For almost 90 years Termini Brothers have been making incredible Italian baked goods such as canoli, cakes, biscotti, and cookies. When you walk in the door you feel as though you've been transported back in time. Notice the black and white tile floor, the pressed tin ceiling, and the bakery cases made of wood and glass.

When you're ready, a woman dressed all in white places your selections on a stainless steel cookie sheet, then ties up your box full of goodies with twine. Spouse & I each got a canoli to eat right away, a box of assorted Italian cookies, some assorted biscotti, a package of pizzelles, a caramel pecan bar, and a dark chocolate macadamia wheel to take home. OMG - I can not even BEGIN to describe how delicious this stuff is!!! But why take my word for it? They will ship to you!

We went inside several antique, vintage, and one-of-a-kind art stores along Antique Row, then continued our driving tour.

Our next stop was a surprise: Citizens Bank Park, home of the Philadelphia Phillies. Prior to moving to DE, Thad was a project manager for the company hired to furnish and decorate the Phillies stadium. I once referred to this part of his career as "sports decorating" and it stuck. So Thad arranged for us to have a private tour so we could see his "sports decorating". Our mutual friend Joe (who lives outside Philly) met us there.

Not just the stands, but we also got to tour many other private/VIP areas the general public never sees, such as the Diamond Club, players club, hall of fame, and more. Although I know little-to-nothing about baseball, it was exciting to get a 'back stage', 'behind the scenes' tour. We looked all over for the plaque acknowledging Thad's contribution to the beauty and function of the stadium, but couldn't find it.

Next the 5 of us went back into the Gayborhood again to Giovanni's Room, one of the few remaining GLBT bookstores. It was colorful and cramped, just as you'd expect. There was a reading going on upstairs so we kept our visit brief and quiet. But while there, Steven opened up a magazine and saw a guy with whom I played beach volley ball last summer!

We walked next door to Mixto for dinner. It was an attractive brick and wood restaurant that felt cozy despite its large size. I started with a Mojito, then had Bandeja Tipico for dinner. Its description puzzled me: seared steak, crispy pork rind, arepa, avocado, rice, fried eggs, beans, and maduros, so I had to try it. I thought the ingredients would be all mixed together sort of like paella, but they weren't. Each ingredient was placed on the plate individually. It was quite unusual and tasted fantastic!

Our last stop was to have dessert at Max Brenner Chocolate from the Bald Man. The name alone was intriguing, but once we looked at the dessert menu, I knew I was in heaven. I was way too full from dinner to eat a full dessert myself, plus I knew I'd have a terrible time trying to decide on just one, so I told Spouse to pick whatever he wanted and we would split it. He chose the Munchies Waffles (page 2) which were perfect, and coffee to wash it all down. There is nothing quite like good quality (high cocoa %) dark chocolate. Its like truth serum to me.

We bid our friend Joe goodbye and headed back home. Steven and Spouse sat in the back since we knew they'd be asleep in no time. Thad and I chatted all the way back to DE. We got home at 11pm.

We had a terrific day and really enjoyed everything we saw and ate.

Sun we both slept in (surprise), had lunch and ran some errands. Later we went to a potluck at Deb & Greer's which was nice. We watched a little TV before turning in early at 10:00.

Crush du Jour: Marcello Baca