Philadelphia

July 10, 2006




A sign at the National Park visitor center in downtown Philadelphia proclaims that it is, “The most historic square mile in America” and while Boston and Washington DC may argue the point, there is ample evidence to support the claim in the wonderful historic district. We explored the area as part of our visit with Ann Holmes & Michael Pfeiffer who live in the cool little town of Narberth, just outside of Philly.
Independance Hall

We drove the short distance from Barto to Narbeth on Saturday after our winery excursion and arrived mid-afternoon. Ann gave us a wonderful walking tour of Narbeth which has a delightful small town feel for its close proximity to such a large city. We made a stop and met Sohelia Sobhani who runs The Cheese Company, a delightful little gourmet cheese and food store downtown.We had dinner at a great little Cajon/Creole place called Carmine’s which was notable for its excellent food and service as well. We have experienced some of the worst restaurant service imaginable on this trip and it was shocking how well good service stands out.

In the morning, I discovered the strangest thing on the car windshield, it was a bird dropping that resembled a human face. I figure if pilgrims journey thousands of miles to see the face of Jesus in a grilled cheese sandwich, I should at least show Kathy, Michael & Ann and see if they felt it worth a pilgrimage. Judge for yourself, I include a photo below.


Ann took us into Philly and we did the tourist thing. It is truly amazing how much history happened here. We saw Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, The first and second banks in the United States, the place where the Constitution was written and so on. We also walked down to Penns Landing where a Latin-American festival was occurring before having lunch at Rotten Ralph’s where I had the obligatory Philly Cheese Steak and we returned to our streak of bad service. Perhaps they should change the name of the place to Rotten Service if all their waitstaff was like ours. We returned to Narberth and said our goodbyes, using our standard line, “(Insert Host’s name here) This was the BEST visit we have had on our trip.”

Michael & Ann