How We Spent Black Friday in Philadelphia - Nov. 27, 2009

We had a credit voucher from Southwest we needed to use or lose before the end of this year, so we decided instead of braving the retail stores on Black Friday, we would go to Philadelphia for the day. The airfare was the same amount as our voucher, so it was a "free" trip. We left Providence at 8:35am and got into Philadelphia early at 9:35am. We researched transportation options and found we could take the Septa train (R1) from the airport directly in the Old City. We bought our tickets onboard for $7 each. Unfortunately, I listened to the weather reports that called for rain that day, so instead of going with my warm ski jacket, I brought my rain jacket. As soon as we got there, we realized I needed a different jacket. The rain had already come through Philly, and it was very windy. So right outside of the East Market Train Station terminal, there was a Ross for Less store. I bought a ski jacket for $15.99! You just have to love those Black Friday sales!! We strolled around Market Street for a bit to get the lay of the land. We had a "Ride the Duck" Tour (http://www.phillyducks.com/) reserved for Noon, so we headed over to their location next to the Visitor's Center.

Ride The Ducks is the nation's largest amphibious tour operator and amphibious vehicle manufacturer. Ducks were first built by General Motors in 1942 and were basically a truck enclosed in a water-tight shell. You may think they are called ducks because they can splash into the water and out again, but actually the name is a military acronym. The letters are codes indicating that it was designed in 1942 (D), for utility/amphibious purposes (U), with front wheel drive (K), and two rear driving axles (W). This tour goes through Philly's historic streets and a splash into the Delaware River at Penn's Landing. We made our reservation online and cost $26 per adult. The tour lasted about 80 minutes with about 20 of those minutes spent in the Delaware River!

This is a view of the Ben Franklin Bridge from the Duck!

Another Duck we passed!

A view of Penn's Landing from the Duck.

A Duck's eye view of the Philadelphia skyline!

As you can tell, it was pretty chilly out on the Delaware River!!

After the Duck Tour, we walked down Market Street to Campo's Deli (http://www.camposdeli.com/) to get an original Philly cheesesteak. Unfortunately, so did everyone else visiting Philly that day. There was a very long line and no empty tables, so we decided to save the Campo's cheesesteak for another visit and head up to the Reading Terminal Market (RTM http://www.readingterminalmarket.org/) to get some lunch.

The RTM is one of America's largest and oldest public markets.
It located on 12th & Arch Streets.

We were interested in a place called DiNic's from an episode of Man vs. Food. It took a while to locate DiNic's, but finally we found it and were able to get two seats at the counter.

DiNic's Menu

I ordered the Pork Sandwich with American cheese and a small diet Coke. It was so good!

Chris ordered the Brisket of Beef Sandwich with hot peppers and a diet Coke! That was very good too! Our bill came to $19.

Now that we finally had some food, we were ready to tackle the isles of the RTM. There are over 200 vendors selling dairy and cheese, meat and poultry, seafood, produce, Pennsylvania Dutch items, baked good, flowers and plants, specialty foods, housewares, books, and crafts. There are also about 50 restaurants located in the RTM as well. You can well imagine all the great smells as soon as you enter the doors!!

Here are some giantic shrimp Chris spotted. From the picture, you can see how large they were compared to his finger!


These are some of the flowers from one of the flower vendors. The colors of the roses were magnificant!

One of the other restaurants we wanted to try was Pearl Oyster Bar.

After the wonderful pork sandwich at DiNic's, I was not very hungry. I opted for cup of their lobster bisque ($3.75). It was good and hot, but I don't think the lobster meat was fresh but rather from a can!

Chris ordered the New England oysters (6 for $8.75). While they were very fresh, there were several that had broken pieces of shell and some were served in the shell tops, which I guess is a real no no!!

It was now about 3:00pm, so we decided to head out of the RTM and go down to see if we could get in to see the Liberty Bell. While on the Duck Tour, we noticed that the line to get in was quite long. When we arrived, we were very happy to see that there was no line. There is no cost to see the Liberty Bell. There was a security checkpoint that checked our bags and asked us to unzip our jackets!

Front view of the Liberty Bell.

This is the back view of the bell. From the languages being spoken within the crowd, I could tell that there were many people from other countries visiting this landmark!

Deb outside of Independence Hall.

Deciding our tired bodies had enough sightseeing for one day, we headed back to the East Market train station to make our way to the airport. We stopped and had a beverage at the 2nd Street Cafe located in the Mall adjacent to the train station. We purchased our train tickets at the terminal and this time they were only $6 each. We got to the airport about 6:15pm, which was a little early for our 7:55pm flight home. We explored the airport terminal bit and decided that we had not had enough to eat for the day, so we got a Philly Cheesesteak to split between us ($9). Our flight was departing on time, and we got to Providence ahead of schedule. I had left my house at 6:15am and returned home at 10:15pm. It was a good day!