Bob Does the East Coast

Okay, so I got back into St. Louis around 7:30 PM on Thursday. My luggage arrived around 11:30 PM on the flight I was originally supposed to be on, but was delayed for reasons unknown. Luckily, the people at Southwest Airlines put me on another flight to St. Louis from Chicago-Midway and I was able to get home at a reasonable hour. They also gave me a call when my bag arrived. See, the flight they transferred me to left too soon to put my suitcase on it, so it had to arrive later.

That's okay. I can go a few more hours without those particular clothing items. Oh, and some Kashi I bought at a Target in Philadelphia before I left today.

That's right, I bought cereal and packed it in my luggage. Why? Because cereal is really freaking cheap at this particular Target near Penn's Landing. Don't ask questions. I didn't, and I'm a better man for it.

So, on with the pictures:

My very first stop took me to 9th Street and Passyunk Avenue in South Philadelphia to check out two long-time rivals: Geno's and Pat's. Both claim to have the "real" Philadelphia Cheesesteak.



Zach and I bought one steak from each place and tore them in half so we could get a representative sampling of each. Both had onions. The one from Pat's featured provolone, and the one from Geno's featured Cheez-Wiz, or "wiz" as the locals call it. We soon realized that a true comparison was not possible, due to the fact that Zach's was "wit' provolone" and mine was "wit' wiz." They're simply two different culinary creations entirely. They're both really good, too.

Sarah is a vegetarian, so she packed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and ate fries.



Here's a better view of Pat's (image not my work):



And here's a better view of Geno's (I actually took this one!):



I couldn't leave Philadelphia without trying some other steaks, though. I also had one from the Wawa near Penn's Landing and one from Rick's Steaks, which is apparently part of the Pat's family, and offers a 10% discount to hungry jurors! No, I didn't get pictures of the other two steak places. Yes, my seat belt was a bit tighter on the flight back.

Okay, on with the non-steak stuff. After eating such decadent, greasy, deliciousness as a cheesesteak, one needs to do some walking. So that's exactly what we did next. We went to center city (what all of us non-Philadelphians call "downtown") and saw the Liberty Bell.



It's cracked. But you knew that. It's also under very heavy security. Sure, that velvet rope may look all pansy-like, but the type of security we had to go through to get into the building was actually more thorough than what I went through at the airport. They made me take off both my watch and my hat!

Okay, so that's pretty much the extent of the Philadelphia pictures I took. Most of the pictures are from our trip to New York City on July 4th.

First, we went to Greenwich Village to meet up with my old buddy Matt, who showed us his awesome residence hall. Read the building's history -- it's pretty cool!



Matt Also showed us this black cube, which is a pretty cool piece of sculpture sitting in the middle of a busy NYC intersection.



Next, we ventured down to Battery Park, where, I swear on the Baby Jesus, we saw Yakov Smirnoff. No, I don't have a picture of him, but you'll just have to trust me on this one. I've met him several times before. So has Zach. He's really a nice guy. That's why we left him alone.

I did take some pictures of the Statue of Liberty...



And the Staten Island Ferry...



After Battery Park, we ventured up to Times Square, where I took some pictures of the Ed Sullivan Theater, the place David Letterman has made famous all over again.



We were going to visit the Hello Deli to try to get some pictures of ourselves with Rupert Jee, but he was closed for the holiday.

We then ventured to Rockefeller Center.







Sadly, the NBC Store was closed when we tried to go in. Otherwise, I would've bought one of these for my mom:



She loves Triumph.

Alas, it was time to go, as my hosts were getting very, very tired.



And it's no wonder -- we probably walked at least four or five miles over the course of the day. I was so tired, I didn't actually take any more pictures. Except for this one, that I think pretty much sums up the parking situation in NYC:



And that, my friendly readers, was my vacation.

So, where should I go next?