- Self- guided tour of America’s first hospital: Pennsylvania Hospital
- Tried out a cheesesteak at Jim’s Steaks
- Had a unique and tasty hot dog at Hot Diggity
- Wandered around the Reading Terminal Market
While walking around during our first day in Philly my brother and I came across a sign that mentioned the nation’s first hospital was right next to us. We read the sign and the hospital sounded pretty interesting. There was a phone number to call to find out about tours. I called up and found out that the self- guided tour was $4. This sounded like it was worth checking out so we came back the next day.
Pennsylvania Hospital is over 250 years old. One of it’s founders was Benjamin Franklin. Highlights of our visit were checking out the surgical ampitheater and medical library, both the first of it’s kind in the country. The visit was definitely worthwhile and I’ll probably write a full post about it at a later date.
I attempt to try out a new cheesesteak on each trip I make to Philadelphia. I heard that Jim’s Steaks was one of the best so I had to give it a try. We showed up early and it was pretty quiet inside. We decided to share a cheesesteak to save room for something else later on.
We ordered the cheesesteak with whiz. My half is on the right, without the onions. When ordering, the staff was not the friendliest but that usually seems to be the case at these places. The cheesesteak was really tasty. The meat was juicy and had nice flavor. I also liked the roll that it was on. I would’ve liked a little more generosity with the cheese whiz though. Overall it was a very good cheesesteak but not much different than others I’ve had.
I heard about Hot Diggity thanks to the TV Food Maps app.We were walking around and we happened to walk by the restaurant so we went in for a look. The menu is really interesting. Each hot dog is named for a different city or area and it is dressed in various toppings based on where it is representing. The store has really cool menu posters that are pretty much caricatures showing the hot dog with toppings. I preferred to see what they had to offer by looking at the posters rather than at a more traditional menu. I went with the Texas Hold’Em.
I eliminated a couple of ingredients so mine was a bacon- wrapped hot dog with shredded cheese and barbecue sauce. The hot dog was very good. I didn’t really notice the bacon much but the hot dog itself was really good. I also liked the cheese and bbq sauce but the thing that stood out too was the bun. We were told that they come from a local place and if they run out of buns, they close shop for the day.
I love Reading Terminal Market. There are lots of great choices of things to eat. Too bad we weren’t hungry. At first we walked around, checking out what was new. This was the quietest that I’ve ever seen the market. I guess a freezing Tuesday afternoon can scare people off.
I bought a pretzel and whoopie pie from a couple of the Amish vendors. I brought the whoopie pie home to share with Kim (it was really good and pretty cheap) and shared a pretzel with my brother at the market & took another with me for the bus ride home. Great call on both items!
Well that sums up what we did during the rest of our time in Philadelphia.
Check back for a review of my Megabus experience which is coming soon.
There also might be a new Ridiculous Street Signs picture to share from the trip.
