Weekend in Philly

This past weekend, my girlfriend and I took and extended weekend and turned it into a short mini vacation to Philadelphia, PA.

Both of us had gone to school in this area, and subsequently lived there for a few years post college. I for one still own a house in the city and am about to have three new tenants moving in this May. So I wanted to make one last final walk through of the property before they moved in to make sure everything was in good working order.

In addition, my girlfriend's old roomate's birthday was this particular weekend as was my college alumni rugby game. So with a few pretty good reasons to head down for the weekend, we set off on our 360 mile drive from Buffalo to Philly on Thursday night.

The drive usually takes approximately 6 to 6.5 hours so we didn't get in until after midnight, and being exhausted from the drive just called it quits and packed it in until the morning.

Luckily for us, the weather treated us particularly well. Upon rising on Friday morning we set off to stroll around the city with our dog "Brewski".

We started the day with breakfast of egg sandwiches and coffee in Rittenhouse Square. Rittenhouse Square is quite possibly the nicest place to be in Philadelphia. As stated in wikipedia, Rittenhouse Square is one of the five original open-space parks planned by William Penn in central Philadelphia.

Rittenhouse is the elite area of philadelphia that boasts the highest property value and the most posh of all shopping areas in the city. It is where people in the city who wish to be seen go to stroll around, and therefore those of us who enjoy to people watch, sitting on one of its many park benches provides you with endless amounts of visual entertainment.

Not to mention, people bring their dogs their in droves, thus providing Brewski with lots of entertaining new friends to meet. We spent the morning there, just walking around before venturing down Walnut to do some window shopping. Unfortunately though we ventured into the city streets around 1pm on Friday. Also known as peak lunch hour. Needless to say, navigating through the crowds with a dog(a young energetic one at that) was neither fun nor entertaining.

After getting a little frustrated we ourselves felt it time to get some lunch but wanted to get a little further from the business center of the city, hoping that we could sit on a less busy sidewalk table where my dog wouldn't be going crazy.

So we headed south from Rittenhouse to South Street and came across a nice little Bar/Restaurant called the Ten Stone. I have been at the Ten Stone once or twice, as it was only a short walk from where my house was located, but never during the day so I wasn't too familiar with their menu. But I did know they had many cold beers on tap and ample seating on the sidewalk, pairing that with knowing it was quite a few blocks from the rush of the working professionals on lunch break, I knew it was a good fit for what we were looking for.

There we had a few Yuenglings, a salad and sandwich and then ventured back to the house. Feeling content, full and in need of some down time to prepare for the night ahead.

That night we met up with my girlfriends roomates at a place called the Manayunk Brewery. Coincidentally this is the same exact place I spent my 21st birthday at. Although I remember few things clearly from that night, I do remember it being a good time. And they had a Pizza counter upstairs in the bar. I found this to be very convenient at the time.

This past weekend, however I did not partake in any of the late night pizza eating though. There was a singles mixer there though, which allowed me to run into some friends of mine. Two guys who are known for always being on the hunt, so although I had no idea they would be there, and they didn't know I was even in town for the weekend, it came as no surprise to me to see them at a place holding a singles meet & greet party.

Sure enough, I talked to them for a brief second, but only long enough to throw them off their game. Then they were off, back on the trail of their prey. Watching this type of behavior never gets old.