St Louis to Manhattan to Brooklyn
Elizabethtown, Lititz, and Back to Philadelphia
It IS a 4 part series! The whole trip was about 9 days, and we really got into the vacation feeling, where you feel like you can’t quite remember what “real life” was like and you are just sightseeing and following people around.
So, we left off having gotten to Philadelphia.
This was the view out of one of the windows of the hotel.
It would have been nice to really sleep in, but sightseeing awaited, and we had made arrangements to meet my brother for coffee and breakfast (at least for us), so we met him in the morning and went to a place called Elixir, which was near the hotel (and we had been in the past). It was excellent, and Louie and I enjoyed an almond croissant, some sort of savory cheese pastry, and cappuccinos.
After that we met up with Louie’s dad, Richard, and walked to the Barnes Museum. It’s a museum that is all a collection from one man’s house, and it’s really fantastic.
It was a pretty nice day temperature wise, but the weather seemed to be threatening rain.
The rooms of the museums are filled with art, and arrranged mostly how Barnes had them arranged in his home, so works from different periods and different artists are all side by side. I enjoyed it, though I always feel a bit ignorant when it comes to art.
It did start raining at one point, which of course didn’t affect our museum enjoyment, but then when it came time for lunch we decided it was a good reason to simply eat at the museum cafe. This was no hardship as the food was delicious.
After lunch I think Louie would have gladly spend more time at the museum, but the general consensus was to move on, but to where? Jesse remembered the Eastern State Penitentiary was both nearby and a part of our uncle Ed’s Philadelphia tour these days, so we headed there next.
It was a bit rainy, but not too bad, and most of the tour is inside with an audio guide. It was really interesting and thought provoking, and we learned about the history of prisons in the US, specifically this prison as well as more broadly, and thought about how many people are incarcerated in our country versus other countries as well.
After the tour we walked back towards the hotel and Richard’s apartment.
Me and my brother Jesse
We had a little downtime and just hung out in the hotel lobby while Richard rested and then we met for dinner with Kiyoko as well. We went to a Chinese restaurant which only served vegetarian food, and it was really tasty: we ordered a bunch of different dishes and shared. Nobody went away hungry! Jesse took a train back home after dinner. Louie and I stopped at a nearby dive bar called Dirty Frank’s: we couldn’t resist as our old neighbor’s cat is named Dirty Frank. We had a beer and then headed “home”.
The next morning we had Elixir again, though we tried different pastries, and then met Richard to visit the Mercer Museum in Doylestown. It was about an hour drive, and is a fascinating place, filled with old objects from around the country.
It’s hard to describe, but you walk into a giant room with stuff everywhere, different floors to walk around and items hanging from the center, and it’s just a bit overwhelming. It’s the sort of place you could return several times and never see everything.
There are chairs and bikes and all kinds of things just hanging from the ceiling.
Anyway, after wandering around for an hour or two, we were hungry, so headed off on foot for lunch. Doylestown has a cute downtown, and we found a nice looking Peruvian restaurant.
My dish had ceviche in it and was delicious, albeit rather spicy.
We went to the Moravian Tileworks next as Richard wanted to buy something, and I ended up getting a tile with a cat on it as a souvenir. After that we headed back to the hotel, and rested up before dinner.
We went to Positano Coast Restaurant for dinner and shared some oysters and other cold fish, and then I had the sea urchin linguine…it was really delicious and amazing! We again ate until we were stuffed and then walked back. It was actually pretty funny: on the walk to the restaurant we ran into some of Richard’s former students and ended up taking pictures with them (they were in town for a sort of reunion!) Small world, as always. It should be noted that while we walked a decent amount in Philadelphia, it was never as much as we walked in New York, and the streets were much less busy.
The next day we again started with Elixir (yes, it was that good and also that close to our hotel) and then mostly walked around. We were going to do a tour of the Masonic Temple, but it turned out that they had a private event there. We walked over to the Library and looked around, joined a rare book tour and got to see some things not normally open to the public, including a stuffed raven that belonged to Charles Dickens that most likely inspired Poe. And then played the theremin for a bit.
We had a late lunch with Kiyoko then, and ate at the Oyster House (mmm shrimp salad sandwich) and then had to head to the airport to fly home.
It was a fun trip: we saw a bunch of relatives, ate some delicious food, walked a ton (averaging 9-10 miles a day in NYC and 5-6 miles a day in Philadelphia), and got to relax after a stressful year of teaching.
It’s also always lovely to be home. The cats seemed happy to see us.
And now I’m teaching, playing Les Mis, eating less delicious food and more just normal food including food that can be eaten quickly, and it’s been a long week! Muny shows get out late (home around 11:30) and then I’ve been having to get up around 7, which was less fun. The rest of the week will be easier though, and I have to say that I’ve been having a lot of fun with the show. Louie and a friend of mine are coming to see it tomorrow night, and I think they will enjoy it.