My Quick Little Daytrip to Philadelphia

I visited Philadelphia, a city I love, the Sunday before last. It was a quick trip as I didn’t want to be there a long while and tempted to spend more money. I took the train to 30th Street Station. While there, I grabbed a cappuccino and chocolate croissant from Au Bon Pain, both of which were delicious. Unable to sleep much the night before, I definitely needed some more caffeine. I’m sure the sugar helped a bit too.

With some pep in my step, I hopped on the subway a couple of stops towards the Reading Terminal Market. This huge indoor complex of stands selling food and food-related items is wonderful. It’s my favorite place in Philly. It’s probably the favorite of many since it was packed! First, I purchased cranberry pistachio biscotti from Termini Bros. for the upcoming week’s breakfasts. There were well done. Delicious. (Read what I thought of them here.)

Next, I bought dark chocolate creams and dark chocolate covered vanilla butter creams from Mueller’s right across the aisle. These are good, but simply not my favorite chocolates. I still savored all the chocolate ones throughout the week. I did sample a few of the butter creams, but gave most to my three co-workers who were delighted.

I walked around the market next, which was difficult since it was so crowded! The burger stand was closed as some are on Sundays. In Philly, go to the cheesesteak place with the longest line; it’s so worth it. That would be DiNic’s, famous for its roast pork sandwich as well. I took my place at the end, which was all the way around the stand’s counter and continued plenty down the aisle, but, luckily, the line moved quickly. I ordered two plain roast beef sandwiches and a coke. One sub was for my sister who was incredibly happy with it that evening when we were at my parents’ place, me doing my laundry. Anyway, I finally found a bar height table to stand at in order to eat. This sandwich is remarkable. The beef has some sort of Italian seasoning. I could only finish half there and had the other half for dinner the next (Monday) evening. It was still amazing!

On the way to dessert, I snapped this photo of the stunningly beautiful flower stand… I love tulips!

Then, I bought four cookies from Famous 4th Street Cookie Company, two chocolate chip which are my favorite plus two black and white which I thought were cosmopolitan, although more New York than Philadelphia… I just wanted to try something a little different. I enjoyed one of the chocolate chip cookies while waiting for my train at the station. Despite the cold weather, the chocolate chips were still gooey, so good! I enjoyed the rest of the cookies over the next week.

I emerged from the busy market and walked in the direction of where I remembered a nearby West Elm would be. I was a tiny bit lost, so I googled the store on my phone really quick and got the address. I quickly found it after that. I bought this 12″ Square Lacquer Tray in Metallic Silver to go on top of my bookcase bar. It holds my ice bucket, shaker, jigger, handheld citrus juicer and stack of four coasters nicely. (I’ll post a photo in a future blog post.) It was convenient to load all of my food bags into the large sturdy shopping bag. After that, I strolled down Chestnut and then walked up Walnut, which is a nice shopping district. The sun was shining and I was smiling, happy to be in a city I adore. On Chestnut, I walked around Di Bruno Bros., the Italian grocery store, cheese shop, and cafe. Their prepared foods look incredible. I wish I could have a shopping spree there, but unfortunately everything is on the expensive side. I love bread and they sold demi baguettes for like $1.50, so I picked up one of those. Accompanying my pasta or salad meals at home, it was delicious.

Among the places I stopped was Papyrus, a stationery store to browse a bit. I also took a bit of break by sitting down on a bench in the lovely park at Rittenhouse Square. I tried to Instagram photos, but the signal wasn’t great and my battery was dying, so I did as much as possible. Unable to fit in a visit to a museum, I actually made my way back to the train station slowly. The line to the stairs for the platform was long and again the train was full, this time with a lot of college students returning to school after spring break.

My parents both took me to and picked me up from the train station. Even though I was tired, I managed to do my laundry at their place afterwards, so that I could be social on Monday. It was a short trip, so just a taste! I kept thinking that it was so great to be there. I really love it. After about 15 months away, I had seriously missed it. It was a change and nice to spoil myself rotten on this trip too! Hopefully, I will return for a longer and more indulgent daytrip around my birthday next month. I probably selected the last cold day of the season, so it will probably be much nicer when I return. There is so much going on in this city advertised on banners plus I spotted a couple of new places that I would like to check out! I can’t wait to go back!