running & walking

Philadelphia has inspired me to run again. Of course, I live in the hilliest part of the city, so this may not have been the best athletic decision on my part. It is happening nonetheless as I roughly follow the Couch-to-5K plan. I skipped ahead a little (the former track runner in me needed less walking and more sprinting) and I am running two miles straight on week 5. Perhaps I will end my triumphant completion of 3.1 miles by running up the art museum's steps, Rocky style. Probably not.

Several college friends have visited me here, each with varying degrees of touristy activities in our itinerary. I think Greg P's wins for walking distance, though:

We took the bus from my place to center city around 11AM, getting off at 19th and Chestnut, then walked to Rittenhouse to eat our Wawa breakfast (no food or drink on the bus). We then walked around City Hall and Love Park before heading to Chinatown (10th and Arch). We wanted dim sum and mistakenly believed the restaurant called 'Dim Sum Garden' would have what we were craving. Not so. We decided to order a duck entree (I have frequent duck cravings), and several small appetizers of dumplings and buns. We unknowingly ordered Xiao Long Bao, or Shanghai soup dumplings and managed to eat them successfully, which entails poking them with your chopstick and letting some of the soup drain out so that you don't scald your tongue when biting into them.

We had many leftovers and dropped them off at a friend's office refridgerator, only after a trip to CVS for blister pads. I wore the wrong shoes for city gallavanting, that's for sure. We then took a bus from Broad over to 22nd (only 8 blocks but I was in pain) to visit the Mutter Museum. Fetuses in jars, horns growing from heads, and a special exhibit on conjoined twins. After this, it was cocktail hour at Continental in Old City. They were premiering their new martini menu and I had a couple on the sweeter side. There was also partaking of the cheesesteak spring roll, a Philadelphia classic. Then we strolled down to South St., purchased a new pair of sandals for my aching feet, and met up with relatives at Gnocchi, a delightful cash-only Italian BYOB on Passyunk which has a killer recession special.

Total walking distance throughout the day was around 4 miles, give or take. I managed to cross the Mutter off of my 'Philly Bucket List', too. Not bad for a Monday. Pictures of other visitors and happenings (The Roots Picnic on my birthday weekend, happy hours galore, and more) to come.