Day Trip to Philly

A good friend of mine Eric packed up all his belongs today and went off to Las Vegas to start a new chapter in his life. My friends and I wanted to hang out and do stuff before he left. We asked him "Okay what do you want to in NY before you leave?" His answer was "I want to get some Philly Cheesesteaks." Okay...not exactly in NYC but if that's what you want let's go!  I don't exactly eat cheesesteaks but I'm all about road trips and having good times with good people.

We planned to head out to Philadelphia Friday night after work around 7.  Okay whenever you make plans that include Angel and Daryl expect to be delayed...We didn't leave NYC until around 10pm.  We didn't arrive in Philly until midnight! The drive out there was fun.  We all loaded up into Tian's mini van and went on our way.  We jammed to some tunes, talked about random things, and cracked jokes. You know the usual stuff friends do. 

Tony Luke's from the outside

We had three cheesesteak spots on the tourist list to hit up. First spot was Tony Luke's. It was the first time any of us were there.  We've heard good things about it from other people and that's why we wanted to stop by.  Okay when it comes to food pertaining meat I'm pretty useless in that category.  I myself ordered an Uncle Mike which consisted of sweet peppers, hot peppers, red gravy, fried onions, spinach, broccoli rabe, and cheese. For a veggie sandwich it was slamming!  It was huge. Much bigger than the cheesesteaks my friends got and it was so flavorful.  They also had these salt and vinegar fries which I was really tempted to try but if you know me I'm a sucker for cheese so I had to get a side order of mozzarella triangles.  What I also really liked was the unlimited free pickles slices.  The good kind too, none of that stuff that's injected with yellow dye.  Since we were going to eat at 3 places everyone wanted to pace themselves. Tian and Sherida split each sandwich while Eric and Angel decided to eat half of each sandwich and take the other half home. Yuri and Daryl on the other hand decided that they could handle eating the full sandwiches.  If you want to know what everyone thought about their cheesesteaks it was ranked unanimously in third place.  It's not that it was a bad sandwich everyone just thought that it was a little too fancy and not greasy enough.  If you don't know what I mean check out the following clip. 

Daryl struggling to finish at Geno's

The second spot we hit up was Geno's Steaks. Geno's and Pat's are right across the street from each other. If you can't remember which is which just remember that Geno's has all the fancy lights. While we were online at Geno's we ran into one of our friends from NYC! Totally random.  He was staying the weekend to party and he couldn't believe we made the trip out to Philly just for some sandwiches and then planned to head right back home. Ha! Everyone throughly enjoyed there sandwich from Geno's.  I was told it had the perfect meat to cheese ratio.  It must've also had that perfect greasy factor. Quick tip the hot sauce that they offer there is super duper spicy.  Of course Yuri ate it with no problem, but Daryl on the other hand was having a problem getting it in his belly.  Angel really enjoyed his sandwich.  He almost ate the whole thing instead of saving half to take home.  The only negative I would say about Geno's is that they always seem like they are in a big rush over there so they can come across as pretty rude. 

Now it was time for the third course.  We walked across the street to Pat's King of Steaks.  It doesn't have all the fancy light's like Geno's but it definitely has a vintage touch.  Everyone that I know usually rates Pat's as their favorite Philly cheesesteak hangout.  But tonight everyone that I went with ranked Geno's as the winner!  Maybe Geno's stepped it up or maybe Pat's just fell off for a night. I have no idea I'm just relaying the collective thoughts of my friends. As for myself I ordered a veggie wit whiz. Yea the have a vegetarian option. It's a secret item off the menu, I found out about it the last time I was in Philadelphia. They load the sandwich with onions, peppers, mushrooms and throw some whiz on top.  They also have really good fries. Yuri got a side after he inhaled his third sandwich. On the other hand if you are wondering what happened to Daryl he had to tap out after Geno's. He couldn't hang with eating the full sandwiches.  We then headed out next door to the South Philly Bar and Grill to digest and have a drink.  It was pretty dead in there but the people that worked there were pretty cool.  We stayed until the place closed at 2 am. 

How to order a properly order a Philly

Now that we fulfilled out culinary tourist experience we weren't going home until we did one of the most touristy things you can think of...run up the Rocky steps.  We got in the car and headed to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  We thought hey it's the middle of the night no one is going to be at the museum.  Boy were we wrong!  There was this whole biker gang hanging out at the top of the first landing of steps.  Christian and Eric decided they wanted to stay at the bottom of the steps.  The rest of us started acting like pure tourists.  Yuri started playing Eye of the Tiger on his phone and we started running.  When I tell you there was a bunch of bikers at the top of the steps I meant full out dudes in leather with their motorcycles hanging out smoking and drinking.  The farther up the step we ran and the closer to the bikers we got I just kept laughing harder and harder. Sherida was yelling at Yuri to turn the music off. I just couldn't contain myself.  Those bikers must've took one look at us and thought "ugh more tourists running up these damn steps."  By the time we reached the first landing we were no longer running. We were trying to play it cool and walk past the bikers.  Once we maneuvered our way through them we started running again to the top of the steps.  But then all of a sudden these other tourists came out of nowhere and they beat us to the top of the steps!  Yea we felt pretty pathetic.  We hung out at the top of the steps for a little beat. It was such a beautiful night.  The view was nice, the company was great, and the weather was perfect. (Compared to earlier in the week when it was a scorching 90 degrees)  Why the other two chose to stay at the bottom of the steps I have no idea. I personally think they were intimidated by the bikers. Once we made it back to the bottom of the steps we just hung out and took in the scenery for another hour. 

Hanging out by the Rocky Statue

After that we it was back to NYC we went.  Luckily for me I didn't have to drive so I knocked out once we hit the road. Actually everyone pretty much knocked out.  Eric shouldered the drive back to NYC and we made it home with the sun rise just after 6 am.  I would recommend visiting Philly to anyone during anytime of the day.  For a day trip or a night trip in our case is pretty fun if you have a couple hours to spare and want to go on a Philly Cheesesteak run.  I've also been to Philadelphia for a weekend experience but you'll just have wait for that post. =P

Anniversary Trip to Riviera Maya

Last month my boyfriend and I wanted to go somewhere for our 10 year anniversary.  Yes 10 years!  We didn't have any specific place in mind we knew we just wanted to get up and go.  I was thinking more of a bed and breakfast, some place in New England and he was thinking more of a lay on the beach and have drinks kind of vacation.  I was looking everywhere for a vacation that was decently priced. I'm all about the budget over here.  Since the end of June is pretty much high season for everyone in the US all the bed and breakfasts I was looking at were all booked up the specific weekend I wanted to go.  Everything on Cheap Caribbean was over budget. I was starting to get discouraged.  Then one day before I went to work I checked out Expedia Last Minute deals.  They had a deal to the Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda All Inclusive in Riveria Maya for $675 pp for 5 days the exact weekend I was looking for.  I hopped on the deal right away.  Within the next hour it was already sold out!  This was going to be my second time in Mexico and Angel's first.  More about my first time down there in another post.

Shhhh Keep your mouth shut and your eyes open.

We got on the first flight out of New York that morning and arrived at Cancun International Airport super early. If you have ever been to Cancun International you'll know that they have a million Time Sharesque people waiting at the exit of the gates waiting to talk your ear off.  Since we arrived so early and check-in time wasn't until the afternoon we decided to have a chat with one of representatives. I'm glad that we did.  If you have time to spare while you are in Mexico then I say that it doesn't hurt to go on one of these tours. The representative told us that if we went to the Mayan Palace we could get a big discount on the tours we wanted to go to. Which was true because our hotel was selling the same tours for a lot more money. We made an appointment for the next day to go to this Time Share like meeting which we knew we had absolutely no interesting buying.  We were comped car service from our hotel to the Mayan Palace and back. Once we got there we were comped a breakfast buffet which was very good.  Lots of options to choose from. I definitely was stuffed during the tour.  We checked out what they were trying to sell and listened to their pitches. That's when it got a little bit annoying. We told the first girl we weren't interested, then her boss came over and lowered the price, then after more Nos, they sent us to another guy, then ANOTHER one. That's when I put my foot down.  I was zoning in and out and I just flat out said look I'm unless you're going to give me a free apartment I'm not putting any money down. The representative looked so shocked but I mean they weren't listening so I had to get a little rude. But anyways after that we booked our excursions for a fraction of the price and got a free bottle of tequila for our anniversary. So yea if you have free time and want to book cheap excursions then I would suggest going to one of these time share like meetings but just remember BE FIRM when telling them no or they'll keep you there forever!

Chichen Itza during low season.  Simply amazing!

One place I have been wanting to visit for the longest time was visit Chichen Itza. Now I can officially say that I can cross it off my bucket list.  I previously read that June is probably one of the worst times of the year to go because the heat is unbearable.  I was very lucky in that the day that we went it was supposed to rain.  I was discourage in taking the trip during rainy season but from reading other people's experiences they said Mexico has a more of a Florida type of rain. 20 mins here and then sunshine.  It didn't rain while I was actually at Chichen Itza just a lot of overcast so the heat wasn't too bad. Also since so many people are discouraged to go to

Everyone needs to experience a cenote.

Chichen during June it was practically empty while we were there. It was an amazing experience!  Usually when you see pictures you see a million people in the background and to see it completely bare was breathtaking.  I wish we could've climbed the pyramid to the top but they have long since put a stop to that due to people stealing the rocks and graffitiing the place. It's dumb people like that that ruin it for everyone else!  The trip to Chichen Itza from Riveria Maya is a  very long bus ride but definitely worth it if you are interested in experiencing history and culture. During our day trip we also got to visit a Mayan town have have an authentic mayan lunch.  We walked around the town for a little bit and walked into a really old church.  I only went in the church for a few minutes because there was a wedding taking place!  The authentic lunch was good.  The only downside was that they had a bunch of lime sitting in a bowl of water. I wanted to put the lime juice all over my food but I knew that since we were off our resort I should stay away from the water. My boyfriend on the other hand chose not to heed my warnings and by the time we got back to NY he had a stomach virus for a week and a half. You've heard the warnings, if you're not at your resort don't drink the water!  The other part of our tour was to go swimming in a cenote.  If you haven't done it before put that on your to-do list next time you are in Mexico.  The cenote was an amazing experience but very cold!  We also got to go to a tequila museum and do some tequila tastings. Yes it was an all day tour but worth every penny!

Angel and I at Chichen Itza. One of the 7 New Wonders of the World!

We did one other excursion while we were in Mexico.  I wanted to visit Tulum or Coba but my boyfriend was convinced that we should check out Xcaret.  At first I was very apprehensive. I thought it was going to be like a Mexican Disneyland.  I wanted to experience the culture not something inauthentic. Yea I put my foot in my mouth.  Xcaret was pretty awesome.  It was a huge eco-park not a theme park that I was expecting.  The place was absolutely huge!  We couldn't cover the whole park in one day. We did get to experience a lot of awesome parts of the park.  We started off in the aviary.  You can get right up in there with the birds. The best part of the park was the underground river.  It's basically like a really long lazy river without the tube.  Since it's underground there are some parts when you are in a cave and it's pitch black.  Freaky!   Another really nice touch to the park was this river ride.  It's about 15 minutes long and they ask you to be completely silent.  They just want you to observe nature.  It was spectacular.  You just hear the water flowing, see the fish swimming, and the crabs shuffling around. My other favorite parts of the park is the butterfly garden and the natural pools.  Like I said the park is extremely huge.  At one point we just went to lay in some hammocks to recoup some energy.  At the end of the day they have this huge show in the theatre.  Try not to get there too late. You want to have good seats.  It's an open air theatre so it gets really hot.  If you make it out to Xcaret the night show is not to be missed. It is a great end to a great day.

Taking a breaking from exploring Xcaret

Just hanging out pool side

The rest of the time Angel and I spent time at our hotel.  We got an all inclusive so we might as well take advantage.  Since it's low season over there the pool was empty most of the time and getting drinks were really fast. The food was good and the service was excellent. The day we went to Chichen Itza I actually left my safe open. Most of my cash, our cellphones, and our passports were right there in the open. When we got back to the hotel there was just a little note that said we had left our safe open and they closed it and to call the front dest when we got back.  When we got the safe open everything was there. Not a dollar was missing! I thought the food was good. My favorite restaurant was the seafood restaurant. The grouper melted in your mouth like butter!  You just have to remember to make reservations the day before.  Don't forget to stop by the swing bar or the bungalows by the beach! The only negative I really have about the hotel is that the beach sucks.  The water is pretty brown and you can see sand bags lining up the beach.  I wasn't too upset since the pool was nice enough and you can get drinks in a snap.

I enjoyed Mexico and I can definitely see myself returning in the future. On my list for when I return is to check out the ancient port city of Tulum and the metropolis that used to be Coba.  (You can still climb the pyramids over there!)

Getting Started

Ok if you know me there are 3 things are are important to me in life. Food, movies, and traveling.  In the last year alone I was lucky enough to have a handful of adventures. My friend Angelina and fellow blogger inspired me to just take the plunge and start writing! So I decided to sit down and write my experiences so I can always look back and be grateful for all that life has shown me.  So here goes nothing....