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Friday, August 17, 2018

Philadelphia Adventures: Day 2 The Philadelphia Zoo

On our second day in Philly, we went to the The Philadelphia Zoo.

Day 1
Restaurant Review: John's Roast Pork
Restaurant Review: Casablanca

I was so excited.  Kid in a candy store excited!
We had a lot of fun wandering through seeing all of the different animals.  It was large, but not so large we couldn't see all of the exhibits comfortably.  In fact, we even saw some twice. And it's pretty well organized with lots of signage to make it easy to navigate.  It was also lovely because some of the animals have private walkways so they can travel through clear tunnels over the pedestrian walkways and you can see them on their travels.  That was pretty amazing.
The only downside was the heat.  It was too hot for us (and for some of the animals) so we had to keep trying to find shade and other ways to cool down.
That being said, we had a lot of fun.  I took soooo many pictures, so I'll just share the best ones here.
Our first little monkey
A little orange monkey



it looks like a furry baby elephant








I love this sign!!

A little old man monkey






He's adorable!

The prettiest fountain








such a pretty snake! 
Just warming up










Such big eyes you have! 


so many endangered animals












A very large snake

No seriously, look how big they are!!











Superstition and Religion intertwined 















The biggest turtles! 


Love the Statues























Watch those wolves fight for scraps

Sleepy Tiger

Being a cutie! 
We're birdies <3

Hello pretty birdie! 












Happy Hippo! 
Penguin!!









Sooooo many penguins!! 
Penguin Love
Baby Giraffe spotting! 






Beautiful Stripes 







































Flamingo Fun
My baby flamingo!
just taking pictures 
A new way to be flamingos

Flamingo friends 









































He's very content up there 
Kangaroos hopping away





Peacocks 



























Bonding lol 
They love each other... hehehehe


Can you see its paws?  
My obsession is tigers
Such a beautiful creature





















Friends

That's all there is to our Zoo Adventure.  It was so much fun even though I was dying in the heat. I know Andrea and Baros felt the same so at the end of the day Andrea went home to shower and Baros and I went back to center to Reading Market. We had quite a bit of time to kill before catching our bus back to NYC so we decided to grab some delicious cheeses. And then after sitting for a long, long time recovering, we went to dinner at The Dandelion before heading home.

It was a short trip but we had a blast and I'm definitely looking forward to our next.  Since we don't have much of a budget right now, Philly was a lovely, easy and affordable place to travel and we have the added bonus of being able to visit with friends!!

To check out our other Philly Adventures, follow these links:
Day 1
Restaurant Review: John's Roast Pork
Restaurant Review: Casablanca

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Philadelphia Restaurant Review: John's Roast Pork

When planning our Philly trip we decided that we wanted to try the best, most authentic Philly Cheesesteak.  Baros had never tried it before and I wasn't convinced I had had a really good Cheesesteak.  So we decided to do some research online and then by asking our Philly friends for suggestions.

One name continuously appeared: John's Roast Pork.
I love the signage!


It was even featured on one of our favorite Youtube channels: Worth It.  If you've not watched Worth It, it's a lot of fun and has some great food suggestions at varying price points (each episode focuses on one type of food and three restaurants serving said food). In the episode about Cheesesteak, they feature John's Roast Pork at the lowest price point and it looked delicious.

The internet recommended John's Roast Pork and so did some of our good friends.  Inchan and Andrea told us that it was a trek  from center city especially since we don't have a car. 
A simple menu of deliciousness
But they also said it was well worth the effort, so we decided to take the 40 ish minute public transport route to get the "best" Philly Cheesesteak and see how good John's really is.





We were definitely not disappointed.   John's is known for the roast pork and cheesesteak sandwiches.  We just got a cheesesteak this time but when we go back I think we'll definitely try a roast pork sandwich as well.  And we'll go there even hungrier so we can eat more!

This time we decided just to share one sandwich for the both of us.  We got a traditional cheesesteak with sharp provolone and cooked onions.  We didn't add any of the other extras like peppers or spinach since we wanted to try a basic form this time.

Our Glorious Sandwich
It was delicious even in basic form.  The beef had great flavor and was complemented
by the cheese and onions.  The bread was fresh and had soaked up some of the flavor from the meat and onions. The portion was more than enough for us to share.  We'll have to go even hungrier next time to try everything else on the menu.

The food was delicious but more importantly the staff (and I think owner too) were incredibly helpful and nice even though there was a line out the door.  Everything was well organized and even though we had to wait since everything was so organized, it didn't feel like we were waiting for an eternity.  It helps that there were news articles about John's on the walls so I kept myself and Baros entertained by reading and reporting back to him! 

John's felt like a really homey place even though they have no seating indoors. We were able to sit outside in a picnic seating area.
It wasn't too expensive for what we ate and we really enjoyed the experience overall.
I really loved the signs too!!