philly cheesesteaks and fist bumps for obama

16 hours of driving + 24 hours in philly later.

as is to be expected the trip was everything i thought it would be. which is to say it was nothing like i thought it would be.

we hit the road at 4:30am saturday morning and arrived at our hotel at around noon. it was pouring rain the whole drive and throughout the whole day. at times it was a torrential downpour. in fact, i won a bet by saying that the game would be played and would be completed.

incidentally we barely saw any of the game. due to the delayed start and our need to catch a train to plymouth meeting (where our hotel was) we caught the first inning in a bar and then the last couple from the hotel room. even still, the vibe was palpable. from the 'go phillies' signs in peoples windows, to the endless sea of maroon jerseys you just get the sense that the city is simmering, waiting to explode. it'll be interesting to watch that's for sure.

what little of the city we did see reminded me of cities in the uk. at least noticeably more than any other north american city i've been to. from the condensed, tenement style apartment buildings i saw from the train to the welsh and british place names i could really notice the colonial influence. which is rare for an american city because usually they to pump you so full of americana it makes you dizzy. it was a nice change of pace in that sense. however that must be contrasted by the 'this is america, speak english when ordering' signs we encountered at the 3rd philly cheesesteak place we ate from.

which brings me to the philly cheesesteak. for 2/5ths of our crew it was the sole reason for going on the trip. for the rest of us 3/5ths it was the most memorable part. only in america. after taking an informal poll of police officers at citizen's bank park (home of the phillies) it was clear that the 3 places we needed to check out were tony lukes, geno's, and pat's. tony lukes was about a 20 minute walk from the ballpark so we hoofed it in the pouring rain. it was not a mistake. it was phenomenal. it was out of this world. that was saturday night. on sunday we drove it to geno's and pat's, which are conveniently right across the street from each other. the general consensus was that pat's was better than geno's but neither could top tony luke's.

in all, it was exactly what i needed and i can't wait for the next foolish adventure to rear its head.