Easter Vacation Day 3: Cheese Steaks!
Wake up in the hotel after an incredibly good night of sleep. Out like a light by 10:30 and slept right on through to 7:00 or so. Solid night of sleep, much needed. Overnight, Vinny had texted that he could not sleep because he drank too much. I remember those days when too much beer used to cause bad sleep. Not any more. Lights out, I'm out. I ate a vending machine bag of peanuts before bed. Maybe that's the key. Take some Advil just in case.
Off to the Please Touch Museum which is kid friendly and used to be located behind the Franklin Institute. Find parking, feed the meter, and find out that it's since moved. Get back in the car and after navigating the annoying streets with an annoying GPS, we get there. It's a beautiful day out.
Julia has started posing like a "challenged individual" when I break out the camera. So the only time I get her in a natural smile is when I hold the camera at knee level, or hide, and take pics. She's got such a great natural smile but she's taking after her cousin and thinks that she's supposed to make a special smile when it's picture time. I shake my head. Kids are nuts. Speaking of kids, Vinny's oldest daughter is now 12, and I'm sort of half-mortified how she is now developing. We have a pic of me when I weighed a good 250 pounds holding her when she was about 10 pounds. I still weight twice as much as she does but the kid is growing up, and fast.
The museum was good for her, and probably better than the Franklin Institute. After a solid 2 hours we got her a yogurt and started making our way to the lunch target of the day: Jim's Steaks on South Street. It's been a long, long time since I've gotten a cheese steak in Philly - high school to be exact. We used to randomly find a steak shop after whatever concert we had gone to. We didn't have a set place, and they probably weren't very good. But I do have fond memories of them, more than likely because it was food and I was a slob.
Anyway, we got a tip from Mr. Fred on where to go. Why do I call him Mr. Fred? As a parent I guess you just get used to calling people Mr. So-and-So. We call the wife Mrs. Linda. I feel like I'm talking about a pro wrestler duo - Mr. Fred & Mrs. Linda. Drop the hammer! Well, after a solid 20-30 minutes in line, I got this, which I fully planned to drop the hammer on:
And drop the hammer I did. This was good, well worth the trip. This could be a return trip waiting to happen. I feel like they should be serving fries, but they're pretty standard with what you get. It's more or less cheese steak or nothing. They have "hoagies" but I'd say 1 in 100 people get them. You go there for the steaks. And you get Whiz not American or provolone cheese. The locals get Whiz. I get Whiz.
I ate it all and finished Nat's sandwich. Have to say, she did a good job with her's. I probably could have eaten another. Fred and I discussed riding our bikes down and having one, then riding home after it. The thing is a total gut bomb, and would make for a brutal hour after lunch. But goddamn it would be memorable.
Rest of the day was uneventful. Drove back up 95 then 206 which was great then terrible. 95 (great) and 206 (terrible) makes for a frustrating combo. You crush the first 45 miles then have to slog up 206. My allergies were overall better, which I was happy with. Julia started to really fade by the end of the ride but when we got home she was all good. I topped it off by going for a late afternoon bike ride and having some soup that Nat made.
In all, a solid day+ trip down to the Camden/Philly area. I have no love for Philly but this turned out to be a nice trip. Maybe we'll be back one day. I feel a Jim's Steak calling my name.
Off to the Please Touch Museum which is kid friendly and used to be located behind the Franklin Institute. Find parking, feed the meter, and find out that it's since moved. Get back in the car and after navigating the annoying streets with an annoying GPS, we get there. It's a beautiful day out.
Julia has started posing like a "challenged individual" when I break out the camera. So the only time I get her in a natural smile is when I hold the camera at knee level, or hide, and take pics. She's got such a great natural smile but she's taking after her cousin and thinks that she's supposed to make a special smile when it's picture time. I shake my head. Kids are nuts. Speaking of kids, Vinny's oldest daughter is now 12, and I'm sort of half-mortified how she is now developing. We have a pic of me when I weighed a good 250 pounds holding her when she was about 10 pounds. I still weight twice as much as she does but the kid is growing up, and fast.
The museum was good for her, and probably better than the Franklin Institute. After a solid 2 hours we got her a yogurt and started making our way to the lunch target of the day: Jim's Steaks on South Street. It's been a long, long time since I've gotten a cheese steak in Philly - high school to be exact. We used to randomly find a steak shop after whatever concert we had gone to. We didn't have a set place, and they probably weren't very good. But I do have fond memories of them, more than likely because it was food and I was a slob.
Anyway, we got a tip from Mr. Fred on where to go. Why do I call him Mr. Fred? As a parent I guess you just get used to calling people Mr. So-and-So. We call the wife Mrs. Linda. I feel like I'm talking about a pro wrestler duo - Mr. Fred & Mrs. Linda. Drop the hammer! Well, after a solid 20-30 minutes in line, I got this, which I fully planned to drop the hammer on:
And drop the hammer I did. This was good, well worth the trip. This could be a return trip waiting to happen. I feel like they should be serving fries, but they're pretty standard with what you get. It's more or less cheese steak or nothing. They have "hoagies" but I'd say 1 in 100 people get them. You go there for the steaks. And you get Whiz not American or provolone cheese. The locals get Whiz. I get Whiz.
I ate it all and finished Nat's sandwich. Have to say, she did a good job with her's. I probably could have eaten another. Fred and I discussed riding our bikes down and having one, then riding home after it. The thing is a total gut bomb, and would make for a brutal hour after lunch. But goddamn it would be memorable.
Rest of the day was uneventful. Drove back up 95 then 206 which was great then terrible. 95 (great) and 206 (terrible) makes for a frustrating combo. You crush the first 45 miles then have to slog up 206. My allergies were overall better, which I was happy with. Julia started to really fade by the end of the ride but when we got home she was all good. I topped it off by going for a late afternoon bike ride and having some soup that Nat made.
In all, a solid day+ trip down to the Camden/Philly area. I have no love for Philly but this turned out to be a nice trip. Maybe we'll be back one day. I feel a Jim's Steak calling my name.
Labels: cheese steak, Philadelphia, vacation
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home