Thursday July 7

 Thursday July 7

Up at 7 and grabbed a couple

Bagels on the way to the car park. Can’t be late or I get charged another $50US/day. Yikes! 

Waited outside for the family to eventually drag their butts out to the car. In true Grizwold family fashion,  we drove around the block 2 times waiting for our stupid GPS to figure out how to get to the Lincoln Tunnel off the island and into New Jersey. Down and around and through some crazy overpasses to the I-95 and south for an hour before we pulled over at Starbucks for ‘She who will not be named’. 😉🤪😆

Back on the Formula 1 course - I mean Interstate - at 80 mph - all the way to Philly. 

We made our way downtown and found free parking by the Arts centre and did some stretching before running the steps like the Rocky movie! They weren’t as far as I thought and we did it in 30 Seconds. Tons of fun. 

We left downtown and headed to an outlet mall back in Jersey - only a 20 minute drive - and found smokin hot deals on shoes and hoodies at Nike and Under Armour. 

We grabbed a bite to eat and went across the street to Dave and Busters - sports bar and arcade - and the boys spent a couple hours playing video games while Mom and Dad watched Wimbledon and a few other events. 

We headed back to Philly and went to Cherry Pier and the water district on the east side. 

We spent a couple hours stretching our legs looking at ships and then went for a drive to the Sports district to look at all the huge stadiums. There was a Phillies game on against Washington but we had already seen a game a couple days ago. 

We made our way north through the deep South part of Philly towards the two most highly ranked Philly Cheesesteak Restaurants in the city - Geno’s and Pat’s. 

We had to drive 40 blocks through 4 way stop signs to get to them and the neighbourhoods we drove through were surreal to say the least. One way streets with cars on both sides, barely enough room to get your car through, tons of garbage everywhere. Most houses were tiny little brick buildings smouldering on the 90 degree heat. It reminded me of driving through east Detroit a decade ago when we took a wrong turn off an interstate. 

Eventually we made it - lovely little neighborhood. Krista lined up at Pats but I went to take some pictures and video and sat with some locals to chat them up cause that’s what I do. Turns out they were huge Geno fans so I bought a footlong Steak Cheese Mushrooms and Onions and it was TO DIE FOR! Sloppy as ever, but finger licking good and worth every penny. 

We crawled slowly out of the neighbourhood and stopped at a Giant grocery store for some food and beverages before hitting the Interstate to our low budge hotel way south of the airport in the middle of nowhere. 

We arrived 15 mins later and had some snacks/bevvies while watching the NHL draft. 

A quick swim and catch up with family and email and called it a night. Busy day if Independence activities tomorrow.