July 18th
Philadelphia has a lot of history on it's soil. It's fun for the whole family seeing folks dressed in garb from the era ready push you off the ledge into the deepest sleep of your life with long winded stories about our nation's history. Some guys were sitting on park benches with signage above their heads saying story time. We were too smart not to get sucked in. Instead we approached them and asked them where to find things.
Most of our day was spent walking around and seeing the sights. The Liberty Bell, original congress halls, the stairs Rocky ran up in 1982..you know, the important stuff. All of the guys wanted to try a Philly cheese steak sandwich. I was eager to watch and judge. Right after parking in downtown, we asked this nice plump young lady where the best Philly cheese steaks are. After all, that plump didn't come from salads. She was quick to tell us that the best steaks are in south Philly.
After what seemed like a five mile hike in hot sun, we were ready to get our grub on and went to the 'best' steak places we'd heard about from a few people. Two of these joints were right across the street from each other in a small Mexican community. It sounds odd because it was. There was only fatty steak sandwiches and even fattier fries so I went to one of the over-priced Mexican food place.
When I got back, these guys were far from impressed. One guy tried one sandwich from each place and gave them both two thumbs down. He is from San Diego and said he knows a place to get better cheese steaks there! I guess they got better when they left Philly.