Spring Break

When you think of college spring break, the first thing that comes to mind is Cancun for a week in the sun. Not for Mike and I here at Belmont East. Just because colleges get the week off does not mean that the companies we work for just shut down for the week. So after putting in my 40 hours at work Mike decided that we should go to Philadelphia for the weekend. It was supposed to be the rainiest and windiest weekend that we have had up north. So we went anyways. On friday night we got very little sleep and work up at 7:30 Saturday morning to start our journey. First was the 45 minute subway ride up to midtown Manhattan and then the wait for the Bolt Bus, followed by the just over 2 hour ride to the city of brotherly love. when we get there it is pouring down rain with the wind blowing us sideways. Neither of us had an umbrella, not that it would have helped anyways.

Mikes friend Rachel picked us up at the bus stop and we started our tour of the city at a little french restaurant. I had a really great lamb sandwich with french bread and some awesome french fries. After the filling lunch and a nap that promptly followed, it was time for our walk around the historic city where a vast majority of our nations history takes place. Still pouring rain and sweet wind gusts we walked through all the old sites. We walked down South street and through Washington Square, past the liberty bell and over to the location where Washington crossed the Delaware. Even in the rain we saw a lot of the living history of Philly taking place through thousands of green clad people filling the streets and the pubs. Mike and I learn quickly of the Irish history here after seeing a huge statue showing the many Irish immigrants starving in Ireland and their journey here and getting off the boat in this great city. The best part of this Saturday night was the cheesesteaks. We were told to order it "wiz-wit". This means steak on a hoagie bun with cheese- wiz and onions. Fantastic! Cheese-Wiz never tasted better than it did that night.

Sunday after sleeping in a little longer than we had planned Rachel drove us down town and dropped us off. We walked right around the corner and found ourselves in the middle of the biggest St. Patrick's Day Parade I've ever seen. We just started walking with the parade and saw dancers, Irish bands, clubs, teams and many people that had been drinking before i thought about getting out of bed. We walked with them for a few miles, all the way up to the Rocky steps. Of course we could not resist walking up them and taking pictures of the steps and parade and the statue. (side note: this is the only real statue of a fictional character that I have ever had the please of seeing) Mike wanted to go into the museum at the top which was having Picasso exhibit. We were told that it was free on Sundays so we went in only to find that it was free on first Sundays and this Sunday was a $20 entrance fee and being the very poor college students we are, we left. The rest of our day in town was filled with wandering and looking for food to eat. Yes we did some other cool thing and I may discuss them later, but as far at this post goes, we hit up a random taco bell near where we were staying and headed back to the bus. The bus took two and a half hours to get back into the city and when we got off Mike and I looked at each other and both said that Philly was really cool but we were really glad to be back in the real city. New York continues to be the best city in the U.S. You can argue but you're wasting your breath.