Day 3

My ignorance of US history was made known to my American friends when I first arrived in New Jersey on Saturday. I asked Prisicila, who came all the way out from Philly to visit with Bon and I, “how far is Philly from Livingston? What state is it in?”, she responded, “Pennsylvania”. To this, I said, “Pennsylvania…like where the vampires are??” Both Bon and her burst out laughing, and chuckled, “I think you mean TRANSylvania!” And with that, I knew we had to make a trip out there – if not to learn more about US history (the birthplace of the US!), then for their Philly cheese steaks, and Brotherly Loooove.

We knew we were in for a day full of adventures when we took the wrong turn off the highway and paid a toll to go in the WRONG direction. Nice. Sheepishly, we turned around and headed south on the 280, only to be greeted by yet another toll booth requesting payment for use of the correct side of the highway.

Our first stop in Philly was the well-known Love Park in downtown Philly. Upon exiting the car, we immediately sensed that this was a great city. The weather was warmer, there was a lot of green space, and who can deny a great city when they devote an entire park to the word, L-O-V-E! Inspired after our photo taking session, we blitzed thru the rest of downtown which included some time in an outdoor permanent art exhibit titled, “Your Move”. The display featured giant game pieces randomly placed in a public square. It had pieces from dominos, chess, bingo and Monopoly!





Following a guilty pleasured lunch at McDonalds, we made our way to where it all began – Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. My knowledge of US history is appalling, but I feel like I now know a little bit more about the founding of America after visiting the site of where the Declaration of Independence (from Britain!) was signed ☺ Walking through the surrounding streets felt almost surreal, as I was reminded of all the people who once roamed the cobbled stone roads. Perhaps the most remarkable experience was learning about the history of the Liberty Bell and understanding its importance as a symbol of equality, freedom and peace around the world.




After our time in old America, we took a drive through downtown where it was confirmed that we loved this city. With its one-way streets typical of any major city downtown core, we found an eclectic district of coffee houses, tea bars, jazz clubs, glamorous restaurants, funky clothing stores, colonial-styled churches and more. It was hip….and we loved it. Our drive eventually brought us close to Priscila’s neighbourhood to an area known as Queen’s Village. This area was even better than downtown as it had all of the above, but included antique lamp stores, brightly coloured buildings, Irish-everything, cupcake bakeries, punk/emo paraphernalia and loads of street art, or what I called, “Philly’s accessories”. The city just seem to have extra money to put towards making its city look pretty – statues, water fountains, random post-modern art, and decorated alleys! Just before we went back to the car, I looked down an alley and discovered a world of art in the form of mosaic murals. It reminded me of a good friend back in Vancouver who’s transformed space herself with her ability to piece together images from broken pieces of ceramics and tiles. This alley way was truly a masterpiece. Bon and I must have been in there for 15 minutes in awe of the detail and and beauty of this “systematic random form of art”…and no, that is not an oxymoron.






Having worked what seemed to be a 14-hour day at Pennsylvania State Hospital, Priscila came out and dined with us over Philly cheese steaks and cheese fries. We visited both of THE best steak houses in Philly, Geno’s and Pat’s, but ate at Pat’s because Geno’s vegas-style lights and aggressive service intimidated us a little. Pat’s is open 24 hours a day, and there is a constant lineup of people that wraps around the building in the wee hours of the morning. Rumour has it that its patrons chow the cheese steaks to help alleviate their inebriated states. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what I had prepped my vegetarian stomach for…I ordered a mushroom pepper cheese steak, and loaded on more pickled jalepenos and Dijon mustard. I can’t recall when the last time was that I ate such delicious meat. The flavours swam in my mouth as we all three in unison said, “mmmm!!” To top off the experience, the man who took my order was endearingly rude as I had mentioned I had come all the way from Canada to eat his cheese steaks! He asked if there was anything else I wanted, and I said, “a smile?” I never did end up getting my smile, but I know deep in my heart that he likes Canadians, as he snickered at us when he walked by to take his smoke break ☺








Nearby Pat’s was the Rim Café that boasted “Philly’s best hot chocolate”. What attracted us, however, was its quaint bohemian feel and a jovial, well-nourished man who made the drinks himself. I ordered up this so-called hot chocolate and was floored by the amount of chocolate that was in the drink. After he loaded on the whipped cream and a special concoction of chocolate, he proceeded to shave on pieces of at least 6 different chocolates before my eyes. All three of us looked in wonder as the served the hot chocolate, that by now, resembled chocolate sludge. I needed a spoon to drink it – it was exquisite.



As our drinks were being prepared, the café’s resident belly dancer approached us and decided to give Pri and Bon a lesson on how to dance. This…was hilarious. I eventually joined in and we spent the night dancing away all four of us in the coffee house having the time of our life. Some random guy was recording Bon and Pri when they were dancing, and when I asked him if he was recording, he said, “hey, you can’t blame me…I’m a guy!!” Our evening ended with the belly dancer, and shop owner's wife chatting with us over chocolate sludge and latin music in the background. I’m sure if you search hard enough, you’ll find us somewhere on Facebook or youtube.

We dropped Pri off at home around 930pm (the girl had to be up at 5am the next day!!). We explored her 1700 century heritage apartment for a little while before calling it a night and began the long trip back to Livingston, NJ. Hugs, and kisses, and we were on our way!

End of the story, right? NOT! With the help of Bon’s PDA for the duration of our trip, we mapquested our way home to Livingson. Except in the midst of our search and journey back, Bon was clocked at traveling 73 miles per hour in a 45 zone….for us Canadians, that’s 117km in a 70 zone!!! OOPS! Before we knew it, the familiar blue and red lights of a police car followed us on the highway. Light-heartedly I said, “oh fun…I want to take a picture”, when Bon groaned back at me, “it’s not funnnnnny!” I suppose she was at a loss of words when the officer asked us where we were going that we had to be traveling that fast. She said “New Jersey…we’re going to New Jersey…” and he barked back, “YOU’RE IN NEW JERESY!! Where are you going?!?!” With an understandably puzzled and somewhat speechless look on her face, I piped in and said, “Livingston…we’re going to Livingston.” Drivers’ license and registration (of another friend’s car!) in hand, we waited about 5 minutes, humming and hah-ing about the cost of the ticket, the speed we were traveling and then anti-climactic ending to a wonderful trip. His partner returned shortly after, gave us back our documents, and advised us to “slow down, you’re about an hour and a half away, and Livingston isn’t going anywhere.” Shocked, and overjoyed, we drove off wondering…was it cos they could tell we were tourists? Was it cos they had information to her being a doctor? Was it cos they somehow knew we were completely clueless about many things beyond the speed zone and that perhaps that was the least of our problems? Either way…we drove away extremely thankful that night.

dL