Mr. Behrendt Goes To Washington: Philadelphia

Philadelphia
On Friday, December 6th I trudged along to an Amtrak station close to my house. At the Amtrak station would be a train that would take me to the city of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia. I have never riden an Amtrak train before. It was enjoyable. As passenger, I could look at the country and cities of Baltimore and Wilmington, DE. The train took about 3 hours to get to Philadelphia. I did not too to much the first day other than checking into the hotel and get a Philly Cheesesteak with cheese whiz.

Saturday was the big travel day. First I went on a tour of Independence Hall at 9 AM with about 6 other tourists. I saw the place where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were drafted. Next I saw the Liberty Bell with the crack. Awe and excitement came over me at both of the cities when I thought about where I was standing were the same places as some the greatest men in American history. The last stop in that area of Philadelphia was the Benjamin Franklin Museum.

By this point, I was starting to get hungry. So of course I go to Reading Terminal Market. The Reading Terminal Market is an enclosed market. Over one hundred merchants offer fresh produce, meats, fish, groceries, ice cream, flowers, baked goods, crafts, books, clothing, and specialty and ethnic foods. The Pennsylvania Dutch have a fair number of stores in the market. The Reading Terminal Market has been a filming location for Trading Places and National Treasure. I ate at DiNic's Beef and Pork, which was featured on Travel Channel shows Man v. Food and Adam Richman's Best Sandwich in America. I also had a dessert of ice cream from Bassett's. Bassett's is America's oldest ice cream company.

Now that I was full, I was ready to embark on the next leg of my journey. I made my way to the Philadelphia Art Museum via the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Before I arrived at the Philadelphia Art Museum, I noticed a peculiar attraction that I did not know was present in Philadelphia. The peculiar attraction was a Rodin Museum. The Rodin Museum was beautiful. My favorite sculpture present made by the father of modern sculpting was "The Thinker". The only reason I know about Rodin is the movie "Midnight in Paris". Eventually I made it the Philadelphia Art Museum. No, I did not go to see the art. I went to see the Rocky Statue. When I was there there were people playing Rocky music on a loud speaker. Evidently people were running from Rocky's row house to the top of the steps at the Philadelphia Art Museum like in a Rocky movie. These runners ran about 31 miles. An article about the run can be found here. Most of the rest of the time I watched college football at a bar and in my room. I did not want to be out late at night in an unfamiliar, dangerous city with nobody I know within a reasonable distance. On Sunday morning, I got on my Amtrak train. I was able to make it back to DC before the big ice storm hit the east coast.