Philadelphia

Stage One of our East Coast adventure, visiting Anna's friend and her husband and two kids. They were going to the arboretum, eventually. I took off exploring downtown Philly. It's a nice town.

Functioning public transportation! I took the SEPTA regional rail there and back, and took a bus at one point. All pretty flawless and on time. (Buses can run on time! Who knew?)

It was nearing noon when I got in, so the first stop was Reading Terminal Market for lunch. Lunch is the wrong time to go on a Saturday, of course, since the place is wall-to-wall restaurants and grocery vendors, but I landed at Beck's Cajun Cafe and had a perfectly lovely jambalaya. Put their Devil's Dust seasoning on it, which is normal Cajun seasoning with some cayenne: they under-season the food a bit, presumably so tourists from Akron aren't put off by too much flavor.

Then across downtown for the Mütter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. I went in, and immediately realized I'm not intensely fascinated by medical deformities and oddities, and maybe $14 was a bit much to pay, all things considered. My friend Joe, who I saw later in the day, said that he's done that two or three times now. I'm glad I went, though.

I stopped a guy from stealing a bike.

Back downtown, to Elixr Coffee. It was the most hipster-sounding elitist coffee shop I could find in a quick scan of the Yelp listings. They make quite nice coffee, and for someone experienced in San Francisco coffee snobbery, I'd say they weren't very snobbish at all.

Then I got to see Amy and Joe! I'd totally forgotten until last night that they live here, but it was an easy bus ride to hang out for an hour and a half. I haven't seen them since they moved away at least 5 years ago, so that was awesome.

Tomorrow: train ride!