Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

It's been a little while since we ticked off a state but this weekend we visited the beautiful and deeply historical Philadelphia. I always hear Bruce Springsteen singing 'Philadelphia' when I hear the name and of course, think of Tom Hanks in the same movie all those years ago. And of course, Rocky was filmed here back in the 70s and for many of the sequels. And yes, Philadelphia cream cheese also gets its name from the city. It was actually made in New York but ‘Philadelphia’ was adopted as the brand name, after the city that was considered at the time to be the home of top quality food. It was distributed for the first time in foil wrappers. While we have previously visited Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, we have waited to visit Philadelphia before officially claiming this state as touched. 

Short History from Wiki. In 1682 William Penn founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia played an instrumental role in the American Revolution as a meeting place for the Founding Fathers of the US who signed the Declaration of Independence (from the British) in 1776 and the US Constitution in 1787. Philadelphia served as temporary U.S. capital while Washington DC was under construction. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became a major industrial center and railroad hub that grew from an influx of European immigrants. It became a prime destination for African Americans in the Great Migration and surpassed two million occupants by 1950.

We had little time here so our mission was to see the key sights. These being:

Independence Hall - finished in 1756, this is where both the Declaration of Independence (1776) and US Constitution (1789) was debated and signed. The National Park Service ranger does a quick tour and you can see the rooms and artefacts from the day. Out the front there are brass plaques on the ground where JFK gave a speech on 4 July and where Lincoln raised a flag. They both sit by the George Washington Statue. Note that the original documents are held in the Archives in Washington DC and I hope to visit there in coming months. I have gotta see those.

 

Liberty Bell - 1752, this is an icon of American independence. It used to sit atop the Independence Hall but now hangs across the road in a separate museum. The bell first cracked when rung after its arrival in Philadelphia, and was twice recast by local workmen. In its early years the bell was used to summon lawmakers to legislative sessions and to alert citizens about public meetings and proclamations. After American independence was secured the bell fell into relative obscurity until, in the 1830s, the bell was adopted as a symbol by abolitionists societies, who dubbed it the "Liberty Bell." The bell acquired its distinctive large crack some time in the early 19th century. Beginning in 1885, the City of Philadelphia, which owns the bell, allowed it to go to various expositions and patriotic gatherings. The bell attracted huge crowds wherever it went, additional cracking occurred and pieces were chipped away by souvenir hunters. The last such journey occurred in 1915, after which the city refused further requests. It is an icon for liberty and freedom and its museum house has some great information on its history.

Rocky Steps - these are the 72 stone steps to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I have always dreamed of running up those steps like Rocky did. 

So I did, like many millions of other people have. It felt so good and I actually thought there were twice as many steps. There is also a statue or Rocky down the bottom and it's like a rite of passage to do the steps and then get your photo with the statue. If you haven't seen my video before this post, go and take a look. Batman was there too !!

 

Philly Cheesesteak - just as we Australian's eat and love a meat pie, well the Philly Cheesesteak is 'the' food of Philly. We were given some recommendations of the best places to go and found ourselves waiting 40 minutes at night at the most popular place in town, Jim's of South Street. Can't say I'd have waited if it wasn't for the great chick behind us who assured us this was worth the wait. 

So for the un-Philly of us, this food is a long fresh bread roll full of chopped steak and topped with any topping you want - onions, a number of cheeses, mushrooms, peppers (capsicum) and mayo. Well, we kinda think it was pretty average. The steak was bland in taste and overall it lacked flavour. We're not sure what the real rave is about but we did not broadcast this in the local street. We tried another one for lunch the next day from a different place, also highly recommended in the local food market but again, it was the same even though we got more cheeses added. I think I'm more of a corn beef girl or brisket or turkey with some lettuce and tomato and cheese - they call these type of rolls 'hoagies', like a sub. Ah well, we came, we saw, we ate and we'll stick with our meat pies or hoagies or even hot dogs.

 

A few other interesting food finds was Federal Donuts which sells hot cinnamon donuts and fried chicken. We got both for a small sample. The donuts were nice but they were cake like, not light and fluffy like our donuts at home. Still, best donut we've had stateside. Walking home at night we found this very cool ice cream shop and I HAD to get one. Do you recognise the Golden Girl(s)? There was also a Bluestone Lane cafe in our hotel. These guys are in New York and are owned by an Australian from Melbourne so the coffee is great. They are opening a second shop in Philly soon. 

We finished our time in Philly with a loop of the city sights on the Big Bus Tour which is always great to get your bearings. There is so much more to see in Philly and I look forward to going back with my sister later this year. The Delaware River sits beside Philly and you can catch the ferry across to New Jersey. It's seasonal so hopefully we can visit New Jersey in a few months as well. Overall we liked Philly. The streets are narrow, it's an old city but its got a nice feel about it and people are friendly. The history is great and while we're not into art so much, there are plenty of art museums to explore. 

We drove home through the country rather then the highway like the trip up. We visited an Amish town called Intercourse - yes you read that right. It's named this because it was the joining or crossing of some major roads many moons ago. They say the town signs get stolen quite a lot given their appeal to riff raft like that chick in the photo.  We saw some Amish buggies and girls pushing scooters around - they don't seem to like bikes or pedals? They have fantastic markets on Friday and Saturday so given it was Monday, things were quiet. We did stop at a bakery and enjoyed a free amazing homemade ice-cream. It's only 2 hours from DC so we will definitely go back to see the markets later.

During the week we had some snow weather and while it wasn't as much as predicted, it was enough to keep us all happy and give me some cardio and shovelling workouts. The dogs just wouldn't go to the toilet on it so we ended up with a number 1 and 2 on the rug - they both looked guilty so can't be sure which one did either. Not much damage really but note to self is to cover some grass area before snow next time as they desperately need something green to use. I eventually had to shovel some snow away the next day so they had some grass area and there was much squatting and leg lifting going on after that.

Cricket seems to be ok running around in the snow but Macey was not impressed. I think it may be because the day we ventured out it was more icy than soft. We don't walk long as I worry about their paws. 

During the week I made 100 small size lamingtons for a farewell morning tea. A lady is returning to Australia so it was a real treat for her to enjoy some nice lamingtons. I forgot to mention that the Bluestone Lane sold lamingtons too but they were not as nice as mine or those at home. It had a little jam in it but it was thick and soggy like. 

We enjoyed a wonderful meal with friends too at a nice steakhouse called Ruth's Chris Steakhouse - yes commas are all in the right place. I had a voucher from the work social club as a thank you for my Happy Hour cooking efforts. The food was incredible, expensive but just the nicest steak we've eaten in a very long time. We had prawns on our steak and I have to say, the Creme' Brûlée for dessert was easily the best we've EVER eaten. 

I am currently planning a few travel trips and keeping quite busy with a little bit of work and cooking healthy meals as well as continuing our running training. We continue to lose weight and can see and feel the benefits. 

A few left over pics to finish with.

 

Rocky Steps - Philadelphia

Who hasn't wanted to run up those steps like Rocky did all those years ago? I certainly have and I ticked that box today, and so did Batman. Greatest feeling today. Check out the video.

Holocaust museum

The past few weeks have been quiet with little of interest to blog about - sorry for the absence. While I have not been working, I seem to fill the days quite easily. The dogs and I are doing some great walks and they love having company through the day again. I’ve been playing the guitar a little but my shoulder/neck muscle is giving me some grief again so it makes holding the guitar a bit difficult. I am now seeing a better physio who seems to be good but time will tell I guess.

 

The good news is that we have both been eating a lot better and finally losing weight which is a miracle here in the land of upsizing, sugar and fried everything. I joined the Michelle Bridges program (Aussies will know this) but only to access her recipes. These are excellent, calorie controlled and have improved a lot over the past few years. I plan our meals and lunches for the week and enjoy cooking different things. We have both been very disciplined and focused with our food and the results are showing. We have been running a lot also as part of a speed development program and it’s helping also. So far we have each lost about 4kg which is fabulous. Clothes are starting to loosen and we feel much better for it. I confess I am desperate for a pizza or three and a coke and some Georgetown cupcakes but I will get that at some stage once I’ve reached my goal. So I recommend Michelle Bridges’ 12WBT program if you are looking of a good way to lose weight – the recipes are easy, tasty and quite filling despite me wanting to eat 2 pizzas.

I signed up for a 12 week cooking course but it got cancelled. So they have a 6 week course (one day a week) which covers a lot of things I want to do. I plan to do that starting end March and keen to learn some new skills. I made my first tiramisu last week. It was ok but it wasn’t the coffee flavour I expected. I’ve not eaten a lot of it as I thought the biscuits had nuts in them so I’m not an expert at the taste. My biscuits were nut free and I could taste the coffee but the Marsala was more overpowering. I think next time I will use Kailua as a friend suggested. Needless to say it was all eaten by my guinea pigs at work. I did enjoy a small slab and it was very hard to stop.

This week I hope to experiment by making a Georgetown chocolate cupcake recipe and a peanut butter slice. I’ve got a non-nut butter made from sunflower seeds. It tastes like peanut butter and is so yummy. So the base is made from chocolate biscuits and I’m going to crush some pretzels in there to give it crunch. The filling is a creamy nut flavoured mix and it looks amazing.

Holocaust Museum. We haven’t ventured out much lately as Deb has been working long hours and the weekends have been a chance to catch up on rest for her. We did however go to the Holocaust museum as we waited until tourist season eased. It was still busy though given cherry blossom season is here and tourists are coming.  The museum certainly needs a few visits to read everything. We spent 3 hours and it was a very large and comprehensive museum. I liked that they covered the pre-WWII years to explain how the Nazis came to power through long term poor democratic leadership and how they treated the jews, gypsies and others they perceived inferior before WWII. It was unsettling to see parallels to today’s political leaders in some countries. History shows that people will follow a strong leader regardless of their beliefs and convictions and if the ‘good’ leaders don’t rise and lead the way, then ‘bad’ people float to the top. It was all just bloody terrible to read, listen and look at the information. We all know about it, we’ve all heard about it but it is disgraceful that this persecution still occurs today around the world. It’s complicated I know but we are human beings at the end of the day. How LUCKY we are to be born in Australia or another civilised stable country. Deb has seen some of the museums in Germany and said this museum was considerably better.

 

They gave us a card on entry – it was an identification card that told the story of a real person who lived during the Holocaust, and died at Auschwitz when she was 45. It puts a personal perspective to your thinking as you wander around. The artefacts in the museum were horrific, frightening, numbing and graphic. There was a pile of shoes from people who were murdered, the smell was overpowering. This was of course only a tiny sample but to think that of the number of people who filled those shoes is horrid!! And there was a massive pile of hair. From the museum website....Before killing women, the Nazis cut off their hair. Masses of hair were packed in bags. Twenty kilos, twenty-two kilos, raw material for German factories. Seven thousand kilograms of hair, 140,000 murdered women.

 

The Fascists traded in death. They made fertilizers of human bones. They sold hair to factories in the nationalized upholstery industry. Another branch of this same industry, the bandits tore out dentures from corpses' mouths to get hold of gold teeth. All such trophies took up the space of 35 storehouses. There was a train carriage that 100 prisoners would be transported in for days at a time, in the heat or cold with no food or water. There were models of the gas chambers and burners. Just horrific. The museum is a highly attended museum and an important part of history that all generations must see. I left feeling thankful for the life I have and so hopeless for those in the world who struggle for basic life.

The museum says, that the museum is NOT an answer, it is a question. And the question always is..... what is your responsibility now that you’ve seen, now that you know? Each individual must answer that question for himself or herself.

It’s hard to follow with something after writing about such an awful part of history. However, I will continue with a positive story about Cricket. We had his DNA tested by an easy mouth swab. We were expecting Kelpie genes but to our surprise he is mixed with a Koolie and a bit of Border Collie. I’ve never heard of a Koolie but I can see the similarities now that I’ve researched a bit. He’s 62.5% Kelpie, 25% Koolie and 12.5% Border Collie. Check out the charts with his results.

 









Went to a Texas steakhouse for lunch with workmates and this signed grabbed my interest. 

Another quiet week ahead. I got a call today to help the chef at the Amb residence for a function on Wed night. I'll keep you posted in the next blog post.