philly wrap-up

better than a fortune cookie
we had a hard time staying away from KC's Pastries in Chinatown. i think we went four times during the weekend. my addiction to their many flavored yeasty, sweet buns was not curbed by our hotel location, just a few blocks away.

cheesesteak
i wasn't too wowed with it the first time, though it was very fresh, but now that i'm back home, i'm really hankering for some jim's. i had mine with fried onions and provelone. that was one big sandwich. i couldn't finish, but erik helped out. the line was long and full o tourists, but hey, that's half the fun!

water ice
now this is just crazytalk. water that's frozen is ice. everyone knows that. apparently philadelphians have come up with a hawaiian ice concept that's a bit thicker, so they call it water ice. it was good, but what made it better was the custard on top and mixing the two together. mmm. could water ice be the next bubble tea?

authentic taqueria
it was a cab ride away and we had a hard time finding a cab on the way back, but it was worth it. even the cab driver on the way back knew of the place and was raving.

walking
we walked off at least some of the calories and had a great time doing it.

museums
we enjoyed just a handful of the museums we had planned to visit. the mutter was fun and gross. the philly museum of art was just so extensive and diverse. the constitutional law center was cheesy but fun too.

friendliness
the people were so, so nice. this wouldn't ordinarily stand out, but they weren't just nice, but very helpful, with good suggestions.

bikes
like any good big city, they had their fare share of bikes. made us kind of jealous that we weren't pedaling, too. the purple "phlash" bus was great and very cheap.

next time
the rest of the museums, we'll try out a few more byob restaurants (the ones we found were very hip and intimate with reasonably-priced but very cool food), try out some yoga studios, bring the bikes if we can, hit Little Italy, which i'm sad we missed. apparently Sarconne's in South Philly has "the best" hoagies, according to a friend. i was avoiding Monk's Café because i thought it might be too touristy, but apparently that's not the case. also, i'd like to hit Jones downtown so i can observe the hipsters.