Trip 5: Day 5 (Rest & Saturday Happy Hours)

In any extended road trip, something people don't always allow for are rest days. The fact is that, after a week or so on the road, you just need to not be moving. I try to allow at least two days. Philadelphia has been somewhat of a rest day, but I've also allotted Bloomington, Omaha and Denver farther along in my trip. Ahead is the actual first week of "work" where I do what I had originally intended to.

But first, more drinking and walking. I walked through the historic district (Old Town), past the tourists inundating Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell site, on my way to a brewpub. I figured that I should visit at least one while in Philadelphia. This was called Triumph, and it was 13 blocks from the hotel. The day was more fall than spring, with a reasonable air temperature, but a dry and cold wind blowing from the west. When I finally got to Triumph, I found it shut down, with a liquor license application on the window, meaning that a new bar was going in. Maybe it could never find its niche in the tourist district. Maybe the mediocre Yelp reviews killed it.

By that time, it was almost time for the afternoon's social engagement anyway, so I walked over there. A few hours into the happy hour (I see the irony, but I would rather that than one actual hour) at Bar-Ly on the edge of Chinatown, and the group was done, and I headed to a nice chat in the lobby of the hotel where I had originally wanted to stay (though it was full immediately because of its proximity to the convention center). Then off to more bars, where I had missed the happy hours.

At the second bar, I got a coconut cream stout (not so much, but not bad) and tried to talk to an older Argentinian woman about which beer to get. At first I tried to guess which would be closest to an Argentinian beer, but she said she didn't want that. She asked me which was the best on the bottle list, and kept asking me and the bartender about Miller High Life. I told her, "Esta no tiene mucho sabor. Pero Yuengling es de Pennsylvania." She seemed to like that, and ordered one, but when the couple to her left got up, she moved down the bar. I felt a bit slighted by that.

Instead of continuing the alcoholism, I went back to the room to eat leftovers (with the intention of coming back out and drinking more), but was done after I finished eating. The basketball games were nice to see: U Conn and Kentucky pulling out as underdogs, with Kentucky at just the last, dramatic moment. I was asked why I don't pay attention to baseball, and I can't really answer. Maybe it's just not as exciting as college basketball, though I do watch it during the playoffs and don't have any particular MLB team that I follow (the Astros are close, but they've been so bad in the last few years that they're hard to like), which probably says something about me.

Random pictures of Philadelphia:

Reading Terminal Market	12th Street & Arch	View from the Doubletree
Independence Hall	"CAUTION HORSES"	Bar-Ly
Heather near the Liberty Bell	Sunrise from the hotel	Sunrise from the hotel