A Quick Stop In The City Of "Sisterly" Love

I successfully fought off the cliché of starting this blog with a terrible Fresh Prince into. You’re welcome. This week we had a wonderful trip up the 95 to visit one of Elizabeth’s college sisters. Linda “Of-the gidio”. We were graciously invited up to stay an extended weekend over the Labor Day Holiday. We had a blast, and by blast I mean we gained 36 pounds amongst us. The idea for the trip originally surrounded the victory tour for the Women’s National Team and their stop in Philly. We thought this was a wonderful idea and decided to make a weekend around it. That was just the beginning though as we would eat our way around town.

We will begin with the drive up. Maryland, for the love of fuck, I swear 90% of them obtained their license to operate motor vehicles from K-Mart. Here is one with their blinker on in the left lane, doing 55 MPH (in a 65MPH zone). I think they deserve some sympathy because it is not all their fault. I think that it is their representative governments fault, you see in civilized places, the roads make sense. For example, I-295 through Maryland DOES NOT have mile markers on the exits. We were driving up and had to stop, for a coffee and a breakfast break and all the GPS could say is take Arundel Mills Rd in 12 miles. Then we noticed that the exits do not have mile represented numbers. Also noticed they are asking fellow motorists to stop, on the entrance ramps. Yikes.

Well we all know Maryland drivers are the worst. Enough about that, we made it up to Linda after a short stint. We unpacked and made our way to the USWMNT Game. We met up with a few other lovely people who were putting together a little tailgate before the game. This was my first experience with a wonderful local concoction called tomato pie. I was woefully unprepared for the experience, so unless you are already familiar it. It is basically a pizza without the cheese. I know what you are thinking, why NO cheese? Believe me when I say, when done well (more on this later) it is amazing. It was also cold by the time we ate it, and it still tasted so good. I was blow away. On to the game then, wonderful time, the women took care of business. They won the game 4-0 and within a couple of inches could have easily been 7-0. #EqualPay

The next morning we got up and went on a stroll around the grounds of the Hunting Hill Mansion. Nice stroll around the grounds, the home is a stone palace built in the early 1900s. We walked around enough to work up an appetite, and on the way back Linda suggested we stop at an Amish Market. Mmmmm Freshly made donuts, pimento cheese, cinnamon apple pie, lemon blueberry loaf, and dark chocolate dipped bacon. Bacon was a Linda request.

Up next we had some tickets to the Phillies game. Because you can take food into the ball park, at Linda’s suggestion we stopped at DiCostanza’s and grabbed some subs. This is surprisingly located in Upper Chichester. The game was a disaster of boring proportions. It was a three hit, one to one, game through mid seventh. So we decided to leave, and when we got home we did a quick peek of the score. The game ended 11-5 in 9 innings. What the hell?! In two innings they scored 14 runs.

Saturday morning we had booked a food tour around downtown Philly. This one was a walking tour where they tell you a little about the city, but talked more about the food. I think this was a good tour to take in Philly, they have some distinctly local foods. First up, another tomato pie from a local institution called Joe’s Pizza. We were sold some sob story about special seeds from Italy, and how they grow tomatoes in trash cans on the streets of Philly or some shit. I am not sure that was EXACTLY what we were told, but that is how this particular place tomato pie tasted. While it was not awful, I am exaggerating, compared to Bridgeport Pizza. It was night and day.

A few blocks down we stopped at a pretzel place. The pizza place was a local place, it wasn’t that great, but a local place always rates a star above a chain joint. The pretzel place had a decent pretzel but was a chain joint so it was not that impressive a stop on the tour. That was kind of disappointing. Next up is Del Frisco’s, an old bank that has been turned into an upscale steak house where you can have dinner in the old bank vault. We didn’t get to try any food here but a cool story. We stopped a few blocks down and had cheesesteaks at Zios. I did not partake. Reviews were positive, BUT not on par with Tony Luke's. We then trekked down the road to The Reading Terminal, we caught a burnt cookie at 4th street cookies. Lastly, the donuts were the highlight of the tour. It was made by the same people who made the donuts at the Amish Market. The tour was better than the food was, and the tour guide was the best part.

A weekend trip with lovely hosts went by too quick as they always do. We look forward to returning the favor very soon. THANK YOU LINDA!!!!!!!