If I knew Picasso, I would buy myself a gray guitar and play

Wednesday night after work I had some time to kill, so I submerged myself in the airless humidity of the grounds of the Philadelphia Museum of Art to check out the exterior sculpture garden behind the museum. The building itself is magnificent, I could walk all around and stare at it for hours.

Not to mention it has a killer view down the Parkway and the Rocky statue.

As well as a nice view over The Water Works. The sculpture garden is small but in general the exterior grounds of the Museum are a great place to wander, and it's free. Free is for me. Did I also mention it was hot? Hot is not for me.

After my sweaty foray around the grounds, I UBER'd down to the waterfront to meet Debbie & Melissa. We took the RiverLink Ferry over to Camden for the Rob Thomas & Counting Crows concert. I will never drive to a concert in Camden again. The ferry is the way to go. Ten bucks a person and no stress. I had a peanut butter and nutella sandwich with strawberry as a topper for dinner from Lunch Box Philly and it was delicious.

Rob Thomas was already playing when we got there. He sounded good and seemed like a cool guy that we all agreed we'd be friends with. The Counting Crows didn't come on until after 9. They were really good musically and Adam sounded great. The last time I saw them I was in college, and they played the songs off of August & Everything After very differently than they were recorded. They took a lot of liberties so it sounded more like what you hear on their live CDs. They did that with some songs at this concert, but what they also did was stray from their hits to play some lesser known stuff. I enjoyed it. I like how it's not necessarily a sing along for every song, but more like a show and of them pushing the limits of their music. I dig it. They didn't play Mrs. Potter's Lullaby but you can't win 'em all.

Let's see, what else...we broke our asses sitting on the lawn for a zillion hours, saw some awesome non-concert attire, smelled a shit ton of weed, watched drunk people fight and lose things and almost fall, witnessed a domestic dispute on the ferry back, and sweat every spare ounce of water out of our bodies.

Not bad for a Wednesday. But now it's Friday. It's still hot as fuck, but the weekend is upon us and I wish you all a good one.

Philly: One Liberty Observation Deck

For the next stop on my tourist in my own town tour, I figured I'd check out One Liberty Observation Deck since I work right next to it. I went at lunch on the Thursday before the July 4th weekend and was one of four people up there. 

Views:

This is the view I spent the most time on. I stared at this guy for at least 10 minutes with second hand anxiety.

As far as views go, personally I prefer the views from the City Hall Observation Deck. You can see a straight shot down the parkway, which is one of the best views in the city in my opinion, with the Philadelphia Museum of Art as anchor. PMA is largely obstructed from Liberty One. City Hall is definitely different - not as high, cheaper, limited hours/accessibility, and the experience going up to the top is not cushy like this one is. Overall, this is more of an experience. And I always think it's cool to see a city from above.

They give you a little Philly flavor up at the top, with some fun facts scattered about and narration in certain areas. 

They also have interactive maps you can operate to let you know what's in front of the view you have right now and to also search by category like music, sports, etc.  

This is a shitty video of how it works:

The entry was actually my favorite part aside from the large Ben Franklin head. It captures the things important to Philadelphia: our cheesesteaks, sports, music, the fact that we are the birthplace of this nation, mural arts, mummers, that damn cracked bell, our real life Princess, and a movie character we believe is a real person who is representative of this town. Do not try me on Rocky.

If you go:

• One Liberty Observation Deck is at 1650 Market Street
• Open daily 10-10
• Ticket info here, I did the adult for $19 but should've done the two visits in 48 hours for $26
• Directions and parking, click here

My verdict: I'd do it. If you're hesitant or in a budget, the entry at One Liberty is worth a pass by if you're in the area and seeing that is free. It's very well done. Twenty bucks for a view from 57 feet up isn't too bad either.

TWTW - The Birthday one in Niagara Falls

A day late and a dollar short for a weekend post, but let's do this! Friday my Mom and Rich came over to celebrate my birthday bearing gifts and also all courses of dinner: Mom's it's all greek to me salad which is awesome and  bang bang shrimp. She brought bread (I was out of butter...who am I?) and cookies too.

Saturday we were up and off early to Niagara Falls. That is an easy direction-wise but long ass ride time-wise. Eight hours there (rain and stopped to sit down and eat) and seven hours home.

We stayed at Sheraton on the Falls on the Canadian side, and I'm glad we did. We stopped to pee on the NY side and it was sort of seedy. We had a Falls View room (on my 40 before 40 list) and the view was astounding. You can even open a door and hear the Falls and feel the wind. I took a photo of me looking like a psycho so you can see this. You're welcome. The location of the hotel was excellent and the price was pretty standard. We were in walking distance to everything, right on to the corner of Clifton Hill, a block from the American Falls and a block from the Rainbow Bridge.

We checked out the American Falls and wandered around the town. It's like a cross between a carnival and the Wildwood boardwalk. Very touristy and kitschy but a lot of fun sights to see on Clifton Hill, both the attractions and also the people walking around. I hope they named Ellen & Clark Avenues after The Griswolds. That would make my heart sing.

We got something to eat at Clifton Family Restaurant and it was a lot better than I thought it would be. This whole weekend was a treat yo'self weekend food-wise so I felt no guilt ordering the traditional poutine and slopping it all up.

Saturday - my birthday! I'm always excited for my birthday so we were up early and had a quick snack at Tim Horton's (above right photo), which is open 24 hours. It was like we were the only people up in the town. We went down by the American Falls and had them to ourselves.

 A quick shower and a walk down to the Horseshoe Falls

Brunch at the buffet in the Skylon Tower - the food wasn't bad (I wasn't expecting greatness), nor was the price ($30 PP) and the views were wonderful. You got to go to the observation deck too (bottom series of photos) for that price so we killed two birds with one stone. MFD nearly got himself killed by having the entire restaurant sing to me.

We did the Journey Behind the Falls ($22/PP). Since the Falls were still frozen, you only really got to see rushing water from the one observation deck (pics 1-3 below), which was really cool. The information about the Falls that's down there is the same as the information that's on the top floor of the Welcome Center.

After a brief respite in our room, we walked over the border from Canada to the U.S. I love doing that kind of stuff.

We changed quickly and had dinner at Weinkeller. I was not expecting to have such an excellent dining experience in a total touron part of town. If you're ever in Niagara Falls, I hope this makes your list. The owner was awesome, the chef came out to talk, and our server was funny and knowledgeable. I loved the entire experience. Sorry for the crappy photos, they're from my phone. You see the warm winter salad with some pork belly because why not; then the fried goat cheese - I cannot describe how amazing this was with the rosemary honey truffle oil. I wanted to lick the plate; grilled pork loin chop with veg and an amazing butternut squash croquet thing that managed to taste like Thanksgiving stuffing; and NY-style cheesecake. They make everything in house from scratch, they even make their own water and wines. And check out MFD's cup for his espresso - so cute.

We capped off the night with a ride on the terrifying Ferris Wheel. I'm not sure why we did this since MFD doesn't like heights and I don't like enclosed spaces, but the view of the Falls lit up at night was pretty good from here.

I'm glad we made the trip - the Falls are truly majestic and better seen from Canada. If we lived closer, one night there would do. Given the drive time, two worked for us. It was a good workout too - we walked over two hours Friday night and probably for about six hours Saturday and the town is hilly in spots. I was really excited to see them with some ice still on them. That was cool as hell.

We'll finish this out with pics. Of us next to the Falls...

Of some wildlife and no shit signage:

And various, including MFD dressed up in War of 1812 gear because of course he would be. Why not? Ahem.

Thanks for reading a weekend post on a Wednesday. It seems wrong, doesn't it?

Please head over to Casa de Crews where I'm sharing some spring hausfrauing tips today! Click here.

Linking up with Biana at B Loved Boston for Weekending

Hello, San Francisco

Cheers, vacation

Yesterday was not bad for a Tuesday. Not bad at all. We left home at the asscrack of dawn, arrived in San Francisco via Atlanta at 1:15, checked into our hotel, and set out to see some sights. 

A guy dressed as Mario playing the accordian is a sight, right?

What a lovely city, really. Beautiful architecture, clean, lots of street musicians, easy public transportation system, very walkable. I can't wait to see more today. I never mind being a total tourist and seeing the sights a place is famous for - I don't live there, so if I look like I don't blend in, it's because I'm not trying to. I'm trying to be a tourist.

We hopped on MUNI and headed to the Haight. Walking down towards the infamous street, we saw gorgeous homes.

As we were about to turn onto Haight Street, we ran into a girl high on much more than life, laughing like Jack Nicholson in The Shining and waving the end of a cutoff broom at the air. Hello, Haight Street. We also encountered friendly folks. Yin and yang.

MFD saw these umbrellas and said "Like Lil's!"

We had a great time. It's a chill area. I got our requisite coffee mug - coffee mugs and magnets are what we buy when we travel. We had drinks at Magnolia Pub and Aub Zam Zam, a great dive with nice people and good looking dogs. AND the bartender was wearing a flipping hair mane - here I thought only my mother still wore those. Anyway, I love a good dive bar. Pubs not clubs, people. 

At the Magnolia Pub & Brewery

After freshening up at the hotel, we headed out to see the Chinatown gate and wandered around the Union Square area, stopping at King of Thai for some delicious egg rolls, fantastic duck fried rice and fried banana with thai tea ice cream. Unbelievable! Thank you Yuki for the recommendation.

Look how perfectly my nail polish matches the menu. Eating here was clearly kismet.

Yesterday I did one of my life list items: I saw the sun rise on the east coast and set on the west coast. By the end of the day, my ass was dragging, but it was worth it.

We can't get over how cool it is here - both temperature wise and otherwise.

Toodleoo, more sightseeing to do.