More Tales From the City…of Philadelphia
On Friday morning, I had an unusual Belgian Waffle thing for breakfast. It was called a Gorfa (or something like that), and it can be served with gelato on top (I had it plain). It was quite flavorful. A few hours later, Chris arrived and we met for the first time.
Chris and I had been chatting on-line and we clicked immediately. We quickly realized we had a lot in common and when I told him I’d been thinking of exploring the Phildalphia area – he said he’d love to meet. So, Friday was the day we met (he drove up from Washington, DC).
After a quick lunch off Broad Street, we hopped in his car (a green convertable VW Cabrio he dubbed the Barbie Dream Car) and we drove south to Longwood Gardens. Throughout the planning process for this trip, I was concerned that I was trying to squeeze in too many sites. At one point, I suggested to Chris that we skip Longwood Gardens but he insisted we should go there….and I’m so glad we did! That place is absolutely gorgeous.
We arrived mid-afternoon and first walked through the manicured gardens, then along some paths by waterfalls and a stone tower (see pictures). Then we entered the greenhouse buildings and observed an infinite number on nuns and priests exploring the place – it was a little scary seeing those habits pop up behind banana trees. We then walked down towards the forest path, but the ominous sign warning of Lyme Disease resulted in us detouring into the meadow where we sat on this strange boardwalk thing and talked for a while (and observed some fluffy rabbits at play). We continued our walk through the manicured gardens and then ended up back where we started and headed back to Philadelphia. After settling in, we headed out for dinner and ate a lively Italian place in Rittenhouse Square (Pietro’s Coal Pizza…or something like that). It was close to 10PM and that’s probably the latest dinner I ever had (I’m such a L-O-S-A-H).
The next day (Saturday) we had breakfast at this glorious little dive complete with chain-smoking (and eating) cash register clerk and a U-shaped bar to eat at. If it wasn’t so authentic, this place would have been retro. We then walked around a while, then got the car and headed up to New Hope.
Quick side note: one of my biggest Philadelphia area complaints is the smell. Whether on side streets or highways, every so often this nasty odor would appear. Does anybody know what this is? At times, it reminded me of driving in Maine near the paper factories.
OK – we arrived in New Hope in early afternoon (and got ripped off with parking – ugh). New Hope is like a woodsier Provincetown or Rockport, minus the ocean and the number of gays. It’s very pretty country. We crossed the Delaware River and visited (and had lunch) in Lambertville – equally charming but less crowded.
Back in New Hope, we decided to cool off in a Starbucks where a local gay man befriended Chris. When Chris ditched me to go to the bathroom, the man decided to befriend me, too. He seemed harmless enough, though Chris watched our back as we headed to the car. hehe
We drove back to Philly by winding through some charming towns. The last of these apparently affluent towns was Melrose Park – right at the Philly border. Within blocks of crossing the city limits, though, things went down hill…
FAST!
Warning: if anybody goes on a similar trip – don’t return to Philadelphia using Route 611 (which is North Broad Street). This was the worst neighborhood I’d seen in my entire life. Block after block of boarded up buildings, trash cans laying down on the sidewalks and piles of debris all over the place. And I’ve never seen so many cops in my entire life. The sad things is that these buildings, at some point in the past, appeared to have been quite nice – perhaps a comfy working class community. Nowadays, it’s practically rubble.
Okay – we made it back to Center City and headed out for another late dinner. This time, Caribou on Walnut Street. Despite the heat and growing humidity, Chris talked me into eating outside on the sidewalk. We checked out (and occasionally made fun of)pedestrians working the sidewalk, ate our food, and then listened (somewhat briefly) to a jazz trio that was playing. After eating, we slowly walked around the entire Rittenhouse Square district. Unfortunately, after having been outside in the sun, heat, and humidity all day, I had developed a head ache that was gradually getting progressively worse. This put an end to our plans to go to the Bike Stop – Philly’s ruff-n-rumble leather gay bar. Oh well….next time!
Sunday was Chris’ last day. We had scrumptious crepes for breakfast, then literally walked the entire city. We started with the Gayborhood, then went to the Market Street area (depressing inner-city mall, but also home to the most gorgeous Lord & Taylor I’d ever seen…the atrium even had a pipe organ). Chris suggested we head to South Street so we walked down there, had lunch/dinner, then walked through Society Hill, Washington Square and back to the hotel. The city is very interesting in that you can go one block and the neighborhood changes completely. Interesting stuff.
Anyway, Chris drove home, I packed up and went to sleep. As I proof-read this blog entry – it all sounds kind of boring…but it was anything but. This was one of the best trips I’ve had in years.
Chris and I are already trying to come up with another vacation/trip/get-together…but this time for the four of us (with his partner, John, and my Matt). So, if my text here didn’t bore you enough, don’t forget to check out my Philly photo gallery page. The pictures are already posted…and I hope to post comments on the pictures in the next day or so.
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wow — you didn’t even mentioned that I almost died. …or that Dusty has returned to her self — she hasn’t cried once since you returned.
you don’t love us.
BabyHed! I didn’t mention your medical fiasco’s because I didn’t know how you’d react to having that become public knowledge (when I posted that entry, you hadn’t even uttered anytyhing about it in your own blog).
But now that it’s known – I refer people to your blog for the details!
yes, I think I saw your comment to my blog shortly after I posted. …I was only kidding.
The text was good, but i stil cant find the play ipdates. looking for it dude.
A heap of wheat, says the Song of Songs
but I’ve never seen wheat in a pile 🙂
did you like it?
Nice one, but what about der weg ? anywya, congrats from me.