holy shit was this weekend worth the wait. we stayed at a hilton, granted it was a lesser of the hilton hotels, but by that i mean it was only slightly better than the 4 star hotel we stayed at for our 1 year =p. located in china town and directly next to the reading terminal market, it was perfect. the air smelled like noodles, there were cookies in the lobby, and we hit the market at least once or twice a day.
day one started later than i wanted, but with jason, thats always the case. we hit sonic on the way, drove through silly towns with silly names, and eventually got to phili. we checked in, went to see the market to get fed and went to see the liberty bell. when we got home this roller girl was able to take advantage of the hot tub the hotel had and relax my sore legs and feet which are nicely blistered thanks to practice. jason napped then we asked a friend where to eat since we were in china town. this led us to new harmony, a vegetarian place specializing in "duck", and it was amazing. so good. the duck was yummy, and they give you a hot towel and a fried banana at the end.
day two i woke up early for breakfast alone, to relax since jason tends to drive me crazy some times. i get all excited when i ask for tea and a waiter brings me a box to choose from, not a bag of lipton. i went back to the room, beat up jason till he woke up and we headed to the aquarium. i love aquariums and this one had places to touch sharks, star fish, rays and jelly fish. it was alot of fun, got to see a hippo, penguins and a hammer head shark. we then drove to the zoo, which is small, but the first zoo in the US and has quite alot of animals there, saw a baby giraffe, and an aardvark, as well as more penguins and hippos. we decided to go get lunch, and then hit up the concert.
katatonia was probably the best concert ive been too since NIN. we had meet and greet passes and the guys were really cool. they played everything i wanted to hear, and put on a great show. im listening to the videos on youtube now lol
next morning we got breakfast at the market and checked out of our hotel, but went directly to the big bus tour. a doubble bus that takes you on a tour of the city but will drop you off at attractions. we got dropped off at eastern state penitentiary. a cool creepy tour through an old jail that once housed al capone. after that tour we hopped back on the bus and hit up the mutter museum of medical odditys. totaly worth the $14 to see so many conjoined twins preserved and various other creepy fun stuff. i got all excited when i saw the lobotomy kit first thing in. on the way to the bus we saw a street cart which smelled amazing, we didnt know what it was, but we needed to eat it. it had a long line so it had to be good, we were right, it was a greek guy who made a plate of salad, with grilled chicken, falafel and flat bread, and gives you that and a peach for $10, seeing two of us, he asked if we were sharing and gave us extra bread and another peach which was awesome. the food was soooooooooooo good. i cant stress that enough. eat at the cart with the longest line, you will not be dissapointed. there is a reason he has a long line.
we got back on the bus, finished the tour then headed home. stopping at strong hearts for our own home town amazing food before we even stoped home.
amazing vacation, well worth the wait, and completly worth the stress of saving the money to pay for it.
