Philly For A Day

 Philadelphia, PA

All Aboard America, All Aboard Amtrak!

Baltimore Penn Station

The main train station in Baltimore is called Pennsylvania Station or Penn Station.  The name comes from the fact that The Pennsylvania Railroad built many of the train stations in this area back in the day.  

Today is The Baltimore Running Festival.  It's a HUGE running festival with a 5K, 10K, Half Marathon, and Marathon going on all at once.  Most of the action is right near us and many of the walking routes we normally take to downtown are closed off and many of the bus routes are re-routed and traffic is NUTS.  Last night on the news they were talking about the running festival and said that every year the running festival happens on the same weekend and every year traffic is nuts and every year people complain.  Their point was made by saying, "People, plan ahead!  It's this way once a year every year!"  We are new here and had to plan a head the night before.  We found a but that would get us close and then we could walk the rest of the way.  We gave ourselves plenty of time.

When we were getting on our bus there was a very old man in front of us trying to figure out how to get to a certain place.  The bus driver explained to him, very nicely, that the bus was diverted from its normal route and that he would have to get off and walk a few blocks to the Navy Line.  He complained a bit and then the bus driver asked him, "sir, how long have you lived here?" Donna and I assumed it was a rhetorical question eluding to the fact that it is like this every year during the Running Festival.  He looked at her and said, "10 years, is that long enough?"  We got a good chuckle.

We got off the bus at the point we thought it was going to be closest to Penn Station and this left a 20 minute walk.  We had an hour and 45 minutes so that wouldn't be a problem.  We walked the route and even had time to stop and get a doughnut at Dunkin.

Penn Station

We got to Penn Station and it was getting a facelift.  Fortunately many of the old train stations we have been to on this trip have either been restored or are being restored to their former glory.  Penn is smaller than I expected but it is still really pretty and I hope to see it when it is done.

Doughnuts make everything great!

MARC trains to D.C.  We weren't going that way today

Our train, only 2 stops between us and Philly!

Chaos on the Amtrak

We haven't taken many Amtrak trips before so we didn't really know what to expect.  We knew there were a lot of people on the platform waiting for the train.  We tried to guess which car to get into but it was difficult.  When we got on the train was PACKED with people standing as the train started to move.  I took comfort in the fact that it was only about an hour ride and we were on the train.  We walked to the back of the train to look for seats and found Business class and turned around.  Then we squoze by people standing and passed through the dining car.  We started to find single seats so we each took one that were kinda close.  

In all of the chaos, someone lost an ear bud.

The train ride was quiet and comfortable.  The engine was a Siemens ACS-54 electric engine.  We passed through 2 new Maryland Counties, 1 County in Delaware (our first time in that state), and 2 new counties in Pennsylvania.  

  Pennsylvania Union Station and Philly

We got to Union Station right on time and our friend Jon was waiting for us.  He had taken Amtrak from his home in New Jersey to hang out with us for the day.  He and I met at Point of View working on a few games and have kept in touch all of this time.  

Okay FIGS!  

We didn't spend much time in the station because we were off to lunch at The Dandelion.  It was a great pub and I highly recommend it if you are in the area.

We sat at The Dog bar.

A shot of Jon and Donna.  They were both very excited as you can see.

I had a traditional cask IPA

And fish and chips

The two Jons

The rest of the day we just kind of walked around the city with loose goals in mind.  We headed to Reading Terminal Market because it is an awesome market like Pike Place.  Then we headed to the historic area to see what we could see without waiting in any lines.

Poe is creeping on us everywhere we go!

We stopped to get a Pennsylvania Monongahela Rye Whiskey.

At ease crew!

Ben "The Jammin" Franklin and...

The Philly Phanatic!

We laughed at people in line to see a broken bell

Look at all of the stuff you can't do in The Land of the Free

On our walk we saw many subway entrances but didn't have time to ride them.  Next time!

This is a photo of Jon trying to change his Amtrak ticket to an hour earlier and Amtrak trying to extort Jon out of a ton of money.  He stuck with his original ticket.

We weren't invited in the lounge.

A tiny luggage carousel! 

It was a really fun day of walking around and exploring with Jon.  We didn't have much time but I felt like we spent our time well.  We vowed to come back and even to visit Jon and his family in New Jersey next year.  We are still planning out what next year looks like but I am sure it includes a trip to New Jersey.  

That was it for today.  If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.