My next stop took me to Philadelphia where I stayed with my good friend Amanda. You remember Amanda, she’s the one who gave me all the great tips about where to go and what to do in Scotland. Amanda was working as the Senior Director of Admissions at the Art Institute of Philadelphia by day (man I had an idea of what that was like, as I was previously the Director of Admissions at the Art Institute of Colorado) so while she was hard at work, I got down to business on the getalifeatsea.com website and binge-watched all of my favorite shows on Netflix.
Finally, Friday night came around so I ventured out to Fette Sau to meet Amanda for happy hour.
Amanda had an Old Fashioned waiting for me.
And a seat at the bar
It was a perfect time for a selfie
we tried a few times
before we settled on one we liked
that was also in focus
There was a floppy haired bartender (this was meaningful to Alex who we would be seeing the following week)
We took advantage of the happy hour prices to get some amazing bbq and broccoli, and then we moved on to Bourbon and Branch
Where they had live music
Our final stop was at Heritage where we enjoyed the crafty cocktails, friendly bartenders and chatty patrons. 
On Saturday Amanda had to work the Open House. I was very happy to not do that. When she got home, we had 24 hours of pizza. We didn’t plan it that way. I mean, pizza is one of my favorite things to eat so if I’m going to eat one thing for 24 hours, it’s going to be pizza. We had pizza Saturday night from the place half a block from her apartment (I know, right?!), left overs for breakfast, and then found ourselves at 24 (that’s the name of the restaurant) where the obvious thing to order was a pizza with vegetables all over it and a kale salad, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
One of the things I love about Philadelphia is that it’s such a walkable city. The weather mostly hung out in the 90’s with 100% humidity, but on that Sunday it dropped to the low 80s. It was delightful. We hung a right outside of Amanda’s apartment and then walked along Fairmount (passing a variety of brunch places) until we reached the Rocky Steps (of the Art Museum).
Behind the museum is a park with gazebos and this amazing view. That balloon goes up and down from the zoo and you can also see it from Amanda’s rooftop patio.
There’s Amanda!
Here we are in front of the view!
We walked along the river (I saw the promenade while I was coming in from the airport and I thought it looked like a fun place to walk. I love seeing things I want to do and then doing them) until we came to 24 where it was just cool (well, not too hot) enough to sit on the patio. Inside there was a painting of a cat sitting on a horse.
Our next stop was Bok bar. This place was crazy. It’s on the roof of an old school (that takes up the full block). So we walk in the main entrance (where our bags were checked), past the old lockers to the elevator (where our ID’s were checked) and then up to the rooftop where there was a spectacular view of the skyline.
We got ourselves some cider and some seats, and took everything in. The floor (or roof) had been redone with bamboo. There were some cool sculptures to lean on (or for kids to play on) and quite a cast of characters walking by. I was so entertained.
Back down on the ground, we wandered the streets of South Philly until we came upon an old car festival!
I love festivals! Even when they celebrate things I am not really into
There were HUNDREDs of these cars all lined up along the street.
We had ourselves an afternoon cocktail as the festival wrapped up, and then made our way back to Amanda’s neighborhood for a dinner of fancy Mexican food. Not a bad way to celebrate Amanda’s weekend!
Later that week, highlights include meeting Brian Stanley (who I had met by conference call at the Art Institute but never in person). Everyone I knew who knew Brian better than I did hand nothing but wonderful things to say. I had to agree.
And then we had the BEST GELATO in PHILADELPHIA!!
It was.
During the week, I would climb out of the blissful air conditioning into the swampy heat to go to the grocery store so that I could have dinner waiting for Amanda when she got home.
When I worked at the Art Institute, all I wanted was to have dinner waiting for me when I got home (and to have all my errands done). My mom came into town one summer to be my wife, and I was so excited to have the opportunity to pay it forward as Amanda’s wife. Above is my Skype interview top matched with my beloved track pants.
When Friday rolled around again, I met Amanda at the Olde Bar for her favorite happy hour– oysters, steak fries, tempeh’d cauliflower with hot wing sauce, welch rarebit
And fancy cocktails.
This drink was so impressive, I had to take a picture of what was in it– The wrath of Aphrodite. 
Unlike the previous Friday, we called it an early night so we would be fresh and ready to go to Baltimore the next day.