Philly Day 4

We woke up and decided to grab breakfast before heading into the city. We went to a place that was closed (I see a theme on this trip!) so went to another called Mil-Lee Diner. It's a quaint old-style diner in Lower Makefield (I think!) We got leaded up on coffee and got omelettes and oj then headed into the city. My friend had some work to get done, so she dropped me where my cousin works so he could grab my bag. He works at One Penn Plaza/JFK Boulevard, above a train terminal and site of an old terminal station. There are mosaics in the lobby that show the history of the place.

I decided to cab it over to the museums, which would have been a 20ish minute walk had I known where I was going. The cabbie was frustratingly hilarious. 'Where are you going?' 'The Barnes Museum at one Ben Franklin Boulevard.' two minute pause. 'where are you going?' 'One?' 'What road?' Wow. So after clearly stating 'One Ben Franklin Boulevard' about 100 times, I gave up and demanded he let me off. The meter ran up a few extra dollars during this interchange, and we passed it a while back at that point. The funny part too was that he pulled over to ask someone where it was, and that person clearly had no better grasp. 

http://withart.visitphilly.com/museums-attractions/the-barnes-foundation/?gclid=CNCL4rmGgLECFYkSNAodyi1SBQ

I walked down Ben Franklin and stopped at the Rodin Museum. The Museum is closed for renovations (yes, we did find that out before leaving) but you can walk the grounds. It was really beautiful and there were statues around the grounds to enjoy. A large replication of the famous "The Thinker' was out front, reminding me of when I was in Paris and almost got tossed from the Rodin Museum there of taking a picture of it.

http://www.rodinmuseum.org/

I saw a Whole Foods and decided to pick up some of the soap my friend had at her house (she has a 'thing' with soaps, lol!) They unfortunately didn't have it, but it was nice a cool and a good break from the heat and humidity. I continued walking to the Barnes, to find out, yes, you guessed it! It's closed on Tuesdays. Ugh. Sad but true. It just opened in mid-May so would have been really nice to see. Oh well.. So, I admired the building a bit then made my way to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

There was a beautiful and large statue of George Washington on his horse on the grounds in front of it that I stopped to look at, then headed to the South Entrance made famous by Stallone in the movie 'Rocky.' To commemorate it, they have a large statue of 'Rocky' at the base of the steps, and of course, tourists were having fun talking a picture posing in boxing stance, beside it. I walked up the steps by a family who did a race up them, so it was pretty entertaining to watch. Especially when the youngest boy of the crew declared 'I'm dying!' and nowhere near the top. The stairs are an architectural feature and quite impressive. Near the top there are quite a few beautiful sculptures, and the building is beautiful to look at.

There was an exhibit on 'Arcadia: Gauguin,Cezanne,Matisse that was really beautiful and well-done with an auditory accompanyment. You could also play music from the era as you walk around. The museum has a lot of Monet, Renoir, Gauguin and others, so I enjoyed walking around. There's also an armour collection which was interesting, and some modern art as well as European art from other time periods. http://www.philamuseum.org/

I spent two hours touring, pretty much my museum limit, then headed back toward's my cousin's office. I stopped in the Comcast building next door, which has huge displays on the wall inside the building, offering constant movies. Downstairs is a food court, but a rather upscale one. I grabbed a cup of coffee and sat for a bit, enjoying the coolness!

My cousin got out of work early so we headed over to the Continental for a drink. It's a funky place that we ate at the last time I was here (maybe three years ago.) http://www.continentalmidtown.com/ It has a rooftop restaurant as well with a nice view, so we went up there when it opened. We met up with my cousin's wife and two friends of hers from work, and talked for a bit.

We left and made our way to Parc, where we were eating. It's in the Rittenhouse area of Philly, which is very nice and beautiful, with a large park in the center. The restaurant is french and very good, with gorgeous tiles on the floor, almost like a mosaic, and very french-style seating. For dinner I got the scallops, and my cousin got french onion soup (when in rome!) and spaghetti bolognese and Lisa got chicken. We got an order of pomme frites (french fries) for the table. It was great.

After we left, we decided to walk around the park, which is very dog-friendly, and the area. They showed me million-plus dollar condos on the square which didn't seem quite so impressive. We walked back to the car and came home to Northeast Philly. Their cat, Ashley, is not very happy about visitors, and that hasn't changed. Surprisingly, she isn't hiding constantly though, and has stared at me a bit.. from a distance. I think that means she likes me! Today we go to Longwood Gardens, which I'm looking forward to. Then *fireworks*.. yay! I LOVE fireworks. Have a great day!! s