Leaving for Philly & DC!!

Woo hoo! We are heading to Philly tomorrow to be in our friends' wedding this weekend and then will drive to DC to spend a few days there!

We've never been to either of those places so we are excited! And I cannot wait for all that time off of work!!! If there is anything you recommend we shouldn't miss or places to eat at, let me know!

I will miss my animals terribly though! And all the packing tonight will not be fun, especially since our closet decided to fall apart while we were sleeping last night! (ALL of our clothes are now on the floor under the shelf and under everything we had on the shelf...it's a mess!)
lol.

Yay for Philly!!!

I live in South Jersey and am like 15 minutes from center city Philly... there are lots of neat shops and food places on South Street and if you have the opportunity, you HAVE to get a cheese steak at Genos!!! They're the BEST cheesesteaks ever! Here is their web site: http://www.genosteaks.com/home.html

There's a link for directions and all and if you plan on going there I can tell you the "proper" way to order a steak so you don't seem like too much of a foreigner

If you like baseball, the Phillies are home against Florida starting Friday - it's always a fun time at the ballpark

You can also hit the historical sites like the Liberty Bell and the Constitution Center... and there are some historical points at Penns Landing

Ooo have fun up here in the northeast!

Originally Posted by BuzbyJLC10

Yay for Philly!!!

I live in South Jersey and am like 15 minutes from center city Philly... there are lots of neat shops and food places on South Street and if you have the opportunity, you HAVE to get a cheese steak at Genos!!! They're the BEST cheesesteaks ever! Here is their web site: http://www.genosteaks.com/home.html

There's a link for directions and all and if you plan on going there I can tell you the "proper" way to order a steak so you don't seem like too much of a foreigner

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Ok so i got the directions to there! We were definitely wanting to get a famous philly cheesesteak while we are there! So...how do I order?? lol. I see their website even had a warning on it about ordering properly...that's funny!!

Oh yes, you gotta know how to order!

Ok there are 3 kinds of cheese: American, Provolone and Cheese Whiz and you have the options of "with" or "without" onions

So I always order a steak with american cheese and no onions, which at Geno's is ordered as such "Cheesesteak American Without"

If you wanted no cheese and onions it'd be "Steak with"... do you get it? lol They have I believe pulled pork and Italian Hoagies too but why would you get one of those at Geno's? haha

You order and pay for your sandwhich at the first window (the one up by the corner - you'll see) and then move to the second window to get/pay for your drinks/fries... then the condiments are at a station behind the windows and there are some picnic tables to sit at

Now in Philly, there's a big discrepancy between who's steaks are better, Geno's or their competitor Pat's - I'm a Geno's girl alllll the way! But feel free to take the challenge and decide for yourself! Pat's is like right across the street... their website is down but here's one with a google map of the area:
http://local.yahoo.com/details?id=12...QJg8xOY7gcSQ--

And when you're at Geno's take time to look at all his pictures - LOT'S of famous people have gone there and often take a picture with the workers while they're there and they hang them up all around (both sides) the building... recently Joey Vento (the owner) has been in the news for his controversial sign in his window "This is America, please speak English when ordering"... some claim it's discriminatory, he won his case though by saying he and his workers do not understand any other language but English and therefore can't help you unless you speak it... anyway, I took a picture of the sign recently just cuz of the local fame about it

Ummmm, I think that's all I know about Geno's haha but post or PM if you have any other questions haha

Oh edit! If you're ordering cheese whiz, you just say "Whiz" like "Cheesesteak Whiz Without"

Sorry, but as a Philly native, I have to recommend "Pat's Steaks", the original: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat's_King_of_Steaks Their website is currently "under construction", so I have to resort to Wikipedia. Go for cheesesteaks.

Other things to experience: Italian hoagies (known as subs/heroes elsewhere), soft pretzels, and scrapple. The bagels are good, too, as well as hot pastrami sandwiches (or corned beef) in the "ethnic" delis.

Geno's Geno's Geno's!

Hahaha, but like I said, you could take the challenge yourselves (ie: buy 1 sandwich from each place and split them) and then decide which is better!

Oooooh have fun!!

LOL!! I asked my friend in Philly about Geno's and she said to go to Pat's!

I think I will try both though, that is a great idea so I can decide which one I like better!!! LOL!

Too funny!

Originally Posted by roxsam

LOL!! I asked my friend in Philly about Geno's and she said to go to Pat's!

I think I will try both though, that is a great idea so I can decide which one I like better!!! LOL!

Too funny!

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I told you it's quite a dispute! I remember like last summer one of the news stations went throughout Philly and randomly asked so many people Geno's or Pat's and they got basically a 50/50 split... I remember they particularly found an out of town couple and had them do the challenge and one picked Geno's and one picked Pat's! You'll have to let us know what you pick! (Geno's Geno's Geno's! )

HAHA! I will be sure to let you know my pick when I get back! Maybe I'll have some cool pictures too!!

Leaving tonight....!!!!!

Have lots of fun!

Let me know how you like it. I'm moving there in Sept and I've never been.

Ok, so I've been back for a while but was playing catch up at work and home for the first week, and then I just had surgery so am recovering from that now. I finally have time and feel up to posting!!! LOL!

When we flew into Philly, we picked up our rental and headed out to find some cheesesteaks! I gotta say, in general, we were VERY disappointed with them! Maybe my expectations were to high, but they didn't taste any better than any cheesesteak I've had before! (sorry!) We got one from Geno's and one from Pat's. Not sure I could pick a favorite...Pat's had a little more flavor but was really greasy, Geno's just needed a little salt. If we had to pick...I would go with Geno's because it has an awesome atmosphere! We really enjoyed looking at all the pictures, and the free bumper sticker is awesome!!! (and thanks for telling us how to order, it was VERY helpful).

DC was really awesome. We had so much fun there and enjoyed seeing our capitol!!

When I get home tonight, I will be putting up some pictures from both places so be on the look out for them!!!!

Aw glad you had fun! Sorry the steaks weren't up to your expectations... however when you grow up in/near Philly and go somewhere else and try to eat a cheesesteak, you just can't! hahaha (example: when I was in Germany in high school, our exchange students were all excited to offer us "cheesesteaks" which turned out to be a big slab of nasty beef on a hard round kaiser roll hahaha but I still cant eat American cheesesteaks away from home lol)... glad the ordering info helped!

lol, I imagine it is different when you have grown up eating them! Like I said they weren't bad, just not what I thought! It was a fun experience! We wen to Pats first and I got my ordering experience there. Then at Genos I felt like a pro...the people in front of me had no clue how to order and it took forever! Then I walk to the counter and show them up...it was nice, lol!


Here are pics from our Geno's vs. Pat's experience:

Pat's. Doesn't look very inviting!




Geno's, me in front holding the controversial sticker



Pat's on left, Geno's on right! lol



And our Pat's cup with our Geno cheeseteak, lol!

Some pictures from Bucks County, Pa and Philly

A really old covered bridge




Another really old bridge (and me being me)




downtown Philly




Pics in the DC area


Great Falls, Md





Arlington National Cemetery



White House



Washington Monument



Panda at the zoo!



Capitol Building

Oh you will LOVE DC!!!! I've visited 5 times in the last 7 years. I'm from Iowa so that's a pretty big deal!

One place you need to go is the Museum of Natural History! It's awesome! And it's free! I've spent very little money visiting there other than for food and to use the subway. Most of the sites are free to visit and are well worth it. If you have time the Holocast museum is really awesome too! It will probably make you cry, but it's amazing. It takes quite some time to get through so if you want to go, plan on spending most of the day there.




EDIT: Oh I missed this thread before you left! Stinking floods!!!

Originally Posted by EnzoLeya

Oh you will LOVE DC!!!! I've visited 5 times in the last 7 years. I'm from Iowa so that's a pretty big deal!

One place you need to go is the Museum of Natural History! It's awesome! And it's free! I've spent very little money visiting there other than for food and to use the subway. Most of the sites are free to visit and are well worth it. If you have time the Holocast museum is really awesome too! It will probably make you cry, but it's amazing. It takes quite some time to get through so if you want to go, plan on spending most of the day there.




EDIT: Oh I missed this thread before you left!

Stinking floods!!!

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LOL, that's my fault! I posted in the same thread just so the people who were posting would know! Thanks for the advice! We did LOVE DC! It was amazing! We were there for 3 1/2 days and still didn't get to all we wanted to see (like the Holocaust museum!). We stayed with friends for free so like you said, we only paid for food and the Metro! It would be nice to go back someday!
AND we were xo exhausted from walking everywhere, but it was nice to be tired at the end of each day!

Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip, even though you were disappointed with the cheesesteaks!

Originally Posted by roxsam

We were there for 3 1/2 days and still didn't get to all we wanted to see (like the Holocaust museum!).

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Just an FYI if you do make it back to DC and want to go to the Holocaust Museum, you should set aside basically a whole day to do so.... I have a degree in German Language and Literature and always had interest in WWII and the Holocaust so I always wanted to go to the museum, so a couple years ago my mom and I went and met my uncle down there (he works in DC at the FAA) and it really took all day and could've taken even longer... that said, it was ENTIRELY worth it in my opinion - it was very very informative and interesting and even though I had studied the holocaust quite a bit, I still learned a lot of new things... IMO it's an event that can't be forgotten and the museum does an incredible job of preserving the facts and remembering those involved.

And I love all the pics! Glad you got to show up the people in front of you with your Geno's ordering hahaha