Lots of menu choices, most over 1000 calories, i.e. half a day’s intake.

Filter coffee tastes like international roast.  Apparently it is.

Omelette was yummy, if a little too much cheese. Arriahne had the banana and strawberry pancakes, which weren’t too bad either.

While eating, a guy was talking loudly on his phone. He sounded quite agitated, and was annoying the other people on the restaurant.

After a while, the guy from the table next to him asked him to take the conversation outside.

He grumbled, said “is this guy the manager?”, but eventually complied.

“Welcome to Philadelphia”, the good Samaritan proclaimed!

Was worried it was going to escalate, but all’s well that ends well.

Walked to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  The steps outside are known as the Rocky Steps, because that’s where Rocky Balboa trained in the movie.

Lots of great paintings, a Roman fountain in a complete replica courtyard, and some old halberds (like pikes) from the Holy Roman Empire were the highlights.

Walked for ages trying to find a cheesesteak for lunch.  Google Maps had an outdated location.  Eventually found “Rick’s Steaks” in the Liberty Center food court.

Yum!  Onions make it awesome.  A bit salty, stocky, beefy.  Quite cheesy with the cheese whiz.  Not out of this world, but definitely yummy.

Washed it all down with some lemon iced tea from the soda fountain.  Did I already mention how cool it is that iced tea is everywhere? 

Tomorrow we’re off to Canada!

The tourist infrmation books say to get to Independence Hall early, so that’s our first stop.

Indedendence Hall is where the Declaration of Independence was agreed on by the delegates on the 4th of July.  It’s now world heritage listed.  The constitution was also written and signed here.

Congress Hall was next door.  Philadelphia was the capital for 10 years from 1790 to 1800, and the Congress sat here.  Among the business it dealt with was the bill of rights (the first ten amendments to the constitution), the admission of three new states, and the inauguration of John Adams as the second President (George Washington was inaugurated in New York).

The Senate sat upstairs in the same building.  Literally the “upper house”.  There was a portrait of Louis XVI in committee room.

Liberty Bell.  It had lots of different symbolic meanings thru the years.  Even photos of Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama in front of it.

Constitution Center.  Some interesting interactive presentations, but nothing compared to the Independence Hall.  A highlight was a room with statues of all the founding fathers.

Lunch at Society Hill Hotel.  A yummy burger.  Ordered medium, it came out a perfect medium well.  I guess I have to order medium here.  Washed it down with a Victory Hop Devil IPA.  Delicious!  Almost as good as Sierra Nevada Torpedo, but a bit more watery like Stone and Wood Pacific Ale.

Went for a walk to the river, then headed back to the hotel.

Went for a swim.  Beautiful.

Then headed out to find some ice cream, only to find two stores closed permanently, and two others closed for the day.  Had a Starbucks Frappuccino, a distant second choice.

Figuring out what to do tomorrow, but have to try and find a cheesesteak somewhere.

Forecast for today is 93, around 33 Celsius.  Will definitely be checking out some of those ice cream flavors I’ve been hearing about.  Might be good weather for a swim or a movie too.

Checked out and took the subway to 34th.  Signage to Penn Station was lacking, but eventually found our way.  Also, there were no elevators at the station, so we had to carry our bags up and down the stairs.  Fine for us, but for less able people, it would cause some problems.

Waited in the Amtrak Lounge.  Free wifi again.  Woo!

The train left around 11.40, and within 5 minutes we were in New Jersey.  Assume we took the Lincoln Tunnel.

New Jersey is quite picturesque.  Very green and lots of water, or at least the bit we traveled thru.

Went past Red Bull Arena, a silver reflective space dome where the New York Red Bulls soccer team play.

Incidentally, news this morning is that the USA beat Brazil 2-2, 5-3 on penalties in the Women’s World Cup quarter final game.

A bit later, we passed thru Trenton.  It didn’t look nearly as wonderful.  Again, we only saw a tiny bit from the tracks, but it looked like Trenton wasn’t doing so well.

Got into Philly at 1.  Still two hours before check-in.  The main hall is art deco with huge ceilings.

Looked for some food nearby and found a Pizza Hut.  Shared a supreme.  Delicious.  Tangy capsicum and lots of cheese.  They also have ice tea on the fountain (post mix machine).

Checked in at the hotel and chilled for a bit.  The rooms are somewhat old, but nice and roomy, and there’s free wifi and a swimming pool.  On the downside, limited power sockets.

Went for a walk to find dinner.  Felt like fish and chips.  Found a great-looking pub, but inside was under 20 degrees (a common theme so far).  So went to a nice looking Mexican place that had outside seating.

Arriahne had the shrimp ceviche and I had the beef tacos.   The tacos were average, but the shrimp salad was really light and fresh.

Tomorrow: touristy stuff.

Some random thoughts and observations that didn’t fit in previous posts…

People have been very friendly and pleasant.  I thought it would seem insincere, but it’s really nice.  Even the way most people avoid swearing, which I’ve heard some people decry as intellectually dishonest, seems like a good way to let positive thoughts lead to positive actions.

In service industries, a lot of the workers seem to be Mexican, and they talk among themselves in Spanish.  A lot of signs appear in Spanish as well, which I could have imagined in southern states, but wasn’t expecting in New York and Boston.

Most retail stores seem to open 11-7, which is awesome.  Assuming office hours are 9-5, that should mean less traffic and subway congestion, and office workers can still get to shops while they’re open.

The main beers appear to be Bud and Coors, but Heineken has been available everywhere.  Not only that, but it’s the real imported version, and it’s moderately priced.  Many pubs also have Samuel Adams, which is one of the better East Coast beers, and Sierra Nevada is available at a number of larger delis and bagel shops.

Coffee has been average, too hot, and overpriced.  But percolated coffee is everywhere, cheap, tolerable, and if you ask for extra milk, not too hot.

The newspapers I’ve seen are about a foot (30 cm) wide.  These ones you could read on a train!  The Age and The Australian take note!

There have been a lot more police around, both in patrol cars, and standing on street corners.  Yesterday we saw a movie filming on Wall St, and there were cops in attendence who had assault rifles!

Both hotels have had DirecTV.  About 40 channels, but not much worth watching.  CNN seems to be a reasonable news source so far, but all news stations are repeating the same stories day in day out.  For the last four days, the stories have been Casey Anthony, Kate and William’s visit, and the US debt ceiling.  You could miss the news for days and not miss anything.

ESPN seems good, but that hasn’t been available in the room.  Food network’s pretty good too.  Looking forward to Netflix, Hulu, Google TV, etc. to get some more variety.

Most people walk quite slowly.  Perhaps it’s normal, or perhaps it’s because there are so many tourists at the moment.

I was expecting there to be a clear difference between Boston and New York accents, but they’re pretty similar.  Most people in Boston say “yard” as “yahd”, like the stereotypical “Haahvahd” which is their famous dialect, and some New Yorkers have that “fugeddaboutit” accent, but again, there are more similarities than differences.

There are a LOT of Italian, Mediterranean, and pizza restaurants in New York.  Obviously a large Italian population.

Dinner time seems to be much later.  Around 8pm seems to be normal, and most restaurants stay open until midnight.

The streets are quite damaged.  I guess because it snows, and they have to salt the streets.  The kerbs are reinforced with steel too.

Well, that’s all the random thoughts I’ve got for now.  Tomorrow we’re off to Philly.  Forecast maximum of 93 (34).

82 degrees with 88 forecast.

Walked up Wooster St past Wooster Street Social Club, the tattoo parlor featured in the TV show NY Ink.

Also went in to Bloomingdale’s on Broadway to take a look.  Some nice clothes and accessories, but just another shop.

It had a plaque saying that the original Dutch settlement in New York was all below Wall St, and that Broadway was the original shopping strip, whereas now the boutiques are mostly on 5th.

6 train from Spring to 14th, then 4 express to Yankee Stadium.  The train was fully packed, and there was an anxious moment when the driver announced the train wouldn’t stop at 161st Street, but then changed his mind.

The stadium looks quite new.  Apparently it was built in 2009.  Big training field next door.

When picking up the tickets, one of the attendants said it was standing room only.

Got in.  Quite nice.  Beautiful green grass and a huge screen.

Come starting time, the stadium was still only half full. 

Had a Bud light and a hot dog.  The latter was quite nice, but the beer wasn’t.  Malty but not in a good way.  Suspicions confirmed.

Today is special because Derek Jeter, batter for the Yankees is nearing 3,000 hits.

He got a hit in the first inning, but didn’t have enough support behind him to score a home run.  The first of those went to the Rays in the top of the second.

But in the bottom of the second Jeter hit a homer to bring up the 3,000 and the crowd went off.

The lead changed hands a few times and by the end of the fifth Yankees were up 4 to 3.

We were sitting in the third level, a long way up, and a foul ball landed only two rows in front of us.

After some good strategic batting, Yankees made it to 5-4.

Then a bit of a break.  The crowd got up to dance to YMCA.  Think we got on TV briefly.

At the start of the final inning, it was still 5-4.  The Rays failed to score, so Yankees didn’t need to bat again.  Game over!  Frank Sinatra, New York comes on, followed by the crowd chanting Derek Jeter, Derek Jeter!

Game finished around 4.20, followed by a postgame press conference with Derek Jeter.

Train back to the hotel took about an hour.

Went to a nearby Subway for dinner.  Had a tuna, which was quite good.  Reminded me of how they used to taste in Australia.  Maybe the bread, or maybe it had more lettuce.  Either way it was good.

Had another early night.

Forecast top of 76, so wore jeans.  Within an hour it already hit 82.

Walked down Church Street.  Passed 32 Avenue of the Americas, another grand art deco building.

A fair way down was the World Trade Center.  It would have been surreal to be there for 9/11.  Just some office buildings.  Imagine if you were working there.  Now it’s a large construction site.

Went to Battery Park to take the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island ferry.  The statue is awesome.  Must see.  Did the audio tour and learned some interesting facts.  I already knew it was donated by France, but didn’t know it was actually French citizens rather than the government.  They were trying to send a message to the French Emperor that America was free, while France was not, and that it was time for the French revolution to live up to its promise.

Also learned that US citizens paid for the pedestal (base), and that the statue is a hollow structure built out of a metal frame and thin copper sheeting, designed by Eiffel before the Eiffel Tower.

And apparently women weren’t allowed at the opening!  How ironic!

Ellis Island is where most immigrants arrived for processing.  Having been thru immigration, and agonized over visas, I can empathize.

Most intriguing is that inspite all of the officialdom, rules, and questioning, reportedly 1 in 10 were detained for trial, and only 1 in 100 immigrants were refused entry and sent home.

Took the boat back.  Went looking for a highly rated pizza bar for lunch.  Urbanspoon suggested Adrienne’s on Stone St.

Their pizzas are huge!  Only one size, it comes out in a tray maybe 8″ by 11″. 

Walked back to the hotel up Broadway.  Bumped into some Aussies in the way.

Tomorrow we’re off to see the Yankees play the Rays at Yankee Stadium.  It should be extra special due to our seats and a milestone coming up for Derek Jeter.

Up Mercer to drop off Arriahne’s laundry.

Thru Washington Square

Took 1 train.  Stations are a bit nicer.  Some even have timetable displays!

Macy’s.  Big department store.  Meh.

Empire State.  Strange shape.  Art Deco.  Tall.  1250 feet.  Waited about 45 minutes to get tickets and then to the observation deck on the 86th floor.  Great views of the city.  A real highlight.

By this time we were both feeling queesy, so decided to look for a restaurant nearby so we could sit down and relax for a bit.

Found a TGI Fridays a good few blocks up.

Jack Daniels Chicken Burger.  Really weird but at the same time good.  Flavorful and not soggy pickles, yummy onion rings, and shoestring fries with skin on.  Didn’t end up having the Jack Daniels sauce.

Went to Grand Central station.  Another ornate, expensive-looking building.  Inside is expansive.  Beautiful corridors heading in all directions, and a ceiling painted with stars on a blue background.

Took the 5 express train downtown, without knowing which stops it services.

Ended up at City Hall.  A brief walk to the Brooklyn Bridge, so walked to the start of the bridge.

Saw a really interesting skyscraper with curved steel sections.  Since learned it’s called Beekman Tower at 8 Spruce.

Walked back past city hall, the federal court, and the supreme court.

Spent the rest of the afternoon in bed.

Tomorrow we’ll do an Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty cruise.  Will plan to do Central Park on Sunday.

Also found out the tattoo shop in NY Ink is only a block away from the hotel, so will check that out some time too.

Went for a walk to find a laundromat.  Ended up at Brown Bag, several blocks up Mercer, passing thru SoHo and into Greenwich Village in the process.  Two bags of laundry for $11 pick up.  Nice!

Checked out breakfast options.  Wendy’s only seemed to have burgers and salads.  Went nearby for another omelette.  The place I went had a huge “salad bar” with lots more than just salad, including lots of appetizing looking meats and fish.  Huge drinks fridge too.

Went to the Adidas and Nike stores to find some socks.  Came out empty handed.

Passed by a Levi’s Jeans store with a funny window display: two guys holding hands, wearing denim jacked with the words JUST MARRIED on their banks, celebrating the gay marriage bill that just passed.

Lots of Chase Banks around.  Only one Bank of America.  Kinda the reverse of the West Coast and Boston.  Went in and the guy said I could open an account without an SSN.  Excellent.  Will do that.

Went back to the hotel to rest and recover.  Also bought Yankees tickets for Saturday.

Headed to 42nd and 8th around 7 to see The Lion King.  Theatres and queues everywhere.

The show itself was really good.  The costumes and singing were outstanding.  Very well done.

At the end we went to Times Square.  Lots of tall billboards, such as the NASDAQ one, and a number of restaurants such as Bubba Gump and Hard Rock Cafe.

Headed back to the hotel for bed.

Planning on doing Central Park, Guggenheim Museum, and Macy’s tomorrow.

The nearby cafes should be open today.  Arriahne’s not feeling at all well.

It’s already 75 (24 C) with a top of 90 (32 C) forecast.

Went to CVS pharmacy.

Surprisingly they have a pretty good range of breakfast cereals.  Will keep that in mind.

Checked out and walked to Back Bay station.  Took the Acela Express train to New York.

For about the first half an hour we went quite slowly, perhaps we were stuck behind the regional train that left just before us.  (Why the slow train goes before the fast train I don’t know.)

After an hour, we were at Providence station in Rhode Island.

Another half an hour and we were in Connecticut.  We hit the coast near Mystic.  Beautiful views of the ocean.  Looks like an awesome spot for a summer holiday.

Air conditioning on the train was freezing!

Arrived at Penn Station in New York around 3.15.  Walked thru the tunnels to find a ticket machine, and then thru and down the ramp to the A/C/E station.   Limited signage and maps, and a lot of information to take in.  And my phone has no coverage.

Nonetheless, guessed downtown meant South and jumped on the next A train.  Some trains are express and some are local.  We boarded on the A/B/C local platform, but still ended up on an express somehow.  Maybe all A’s are expresses?  Thankfully Canal St is a major stop, so even express trains stop there, and it all worked out without a problem.

Got our bearings and walked the couple of blocks to the hotel.

Checked in and had a nap.

Around 7, had a shower and took the Subway to 50th Street.  After finding our bearings, we walked to New World Stages to see Avenue Q.

The theatre was small.  More like a cinema.  Went down two floors and ended up in what was basically a basement, concrete floors and exposed wires on the ceiling.

The set was awesome.  We’d seen Avenue Q in Melbourne and the stage was larger, and really well done, but this one was more authentic New York, complete with broken windows, trash cans like they have in Sesame Street, graffiti and the front door, and a dusty disused Weber barbecue on the balcony.  Avenue Q is supposed to be a cheap neighborhood, so it really set the scene.

Princeton and Kate were OK, Trekkie Monster was a little disappointing, but Rod was awesome, and Lucy and Christmas Eve were probably better too.

The same guy who did Rod was also doing Princeton.  I guess for $100 a ticket I was expecting a larger cast.

Still, they’d changed to script a little, and there were some good new jokes.  And there were some nice little touches, such as the boxes singing “Purpose”, and “There’s a Fine, Fine Line” was really sad.

I also thought the actor playing Kate was emoting so much that I kept focusing on her instead of the puppet.

So not perfect (what is), but really good.

Had a sub for dinner.  Subway Melt with American cheese.  The bacon was pretty average, but they had yummy banana peppers, and the white Italian bread was toasted to perfection.

It was also cool that the menus listed the calorie content of each sub.

Tried to get some Yankees tickets online, but so far as I could tell the only tickets left cost $325 each.

Arriahne was feeling tired, so headed back to the hotel to get some sleep.

Found a 7/11 for breakfast.  They didn’t have any breakfast foods, so had a sandwich.

At the hotel, tried to set a PIN on my AT&T SIM card, but ended up locking it.

AT&T has a fully automatic voice menu that only handles common queries.  A quick Google tells me to say “customer service” at the menu, even though that wasn’t one of the options listed.  It worked fine.  Had to dial **005*PUK*PIN*PIN# to unlock because unfortunately Android doesn’t have a menu for unlocking.

Left for Back Bay station as soon as I got off the phone.  Got there about 10 minutes before the Framingham train to Erica’s departed, so picked up the tickets for tomorrow’s Amtrak journey to New York.

The station platform looked old and dirty.  Felt like we were in a cave.  Arriahne described it as “post apocalyptic”.

The train rocked up making a loud warning noise.  Walked to the front of the train to board where the crew member was letting people on.

The train has free Wifi.  Cool!

Once we got out of Boston, the landscape changed quite rapidly to forests, houses, and lakes.  Very picturesque.  European perhaps.

Got off at West Natick where Chris and Erica picked us up.

We drove back to Erica’s family’s place via some narrow country roads.  Stopped off at the town lake where Erica goes sailing.

Met Apryl and John.  They were very friendly and welcoming.  Had some snacks and beer and chatted about the US, Australia, politics, technology, life, etc.

Then we went in to Sherborn for the town 4th of July parade.  It started out as loud sirens in the distance, then slowly a fire rescue vehicle approached, followed by an array of fire engines, each from a different nearby town.  Many of the vehicles had crew on the back with water pistols spraying the crowd.

Then police and sherrifs, then some classic cars such as Cadillacs, a Triumph, and some even older cars I didn’t recognize.  Many of these cars were throwing candy for the kids.

And to end the parade, there were a number of local businesses and service organizations who had floats too.

Back to Erica’s for a late lunch.  Barbecue chicken, beans, potato salad and green salad.  Yummy except for the “California” salad dressing, which was red-brown and thick, and a bit too strong for me.

Then off to the train station (Woodland?) to take the Green Line in to Boston for the celebration on the Charles River.

The Green Line is actually multiple lines, collectively the oldest lines in Boston, and more of a light rail than heavy rail service.  It can get very loud, in fact when walking past a station in the city the other day, a passing train was so loud we had to cover our ears.

At Fenway and Kenmore stations, the previously half-empty train was filled with Red Sox fans.

At another of the stations, there were two old trains on display just beside the platforms.

Changed to a red line at Park Street to travel one more stop and got out at Charles/MGH station on the banks of the Charles.

Walked for maybe 10-15 minutes over a bridge and along Beacon Street, then along the esplanade, to find a bit of grass where we could see a big screen and the river.

Camped there for about 2 hours before the concert started.  First up, the Star Spangled Banner and a flyover from three US F15 jets.

After some more songs and a break, they did the 1812 Overture, complete with cannons.

Then after another break, they changed hosts and started a live TV broadcast, and had some more songs.

Then around 10.40, finally the fireworks.

At first they were OK, but they built up, and had some awesome ones near the end.  There were some that looked like a whole skyful of stars being turned on and off, which was a definite highlight.

Walked back to the city.  People everywhere.  Cars had no chance, irrespective of the color of the traffic light.

Saw Chris and Erica off, and walked back to the hotel.

Starting to get the hang of this city.  Shame we’re leaving tomorrow.