Over the past year and a half, have found one of the biggest challenges to be learning how to relax. I mean this is New York City. There is ALWAYS something to do, and always feel a twinge of guilt if I decide to curl up in my bed after a long day of work when really I should be out exploring all the innumerable culinary options, or at the very least plopping myself down on a bench with a cup of coffee from some hipster store and people watch. Unfortunately, have learned that despite my best intentions to prove to the contrary, am not the energizer bunny powered by an unlimited reserve battery life. So the looming question remained for a significant amount of time how to relax when you are living in the center of the financial (and arguably cultural) center of the world? The answer: get out of town, go someplace quiet.
Fortunately, my boyfriend is still a student at Princeton and am able to fairly regularly pop on down to visit him on the weekends. One day, however, we decided to be tourists in Philly for a day. On a side note - I was resolute in eating my first cheese steak in Philly (it was so close it seemed absurd to not take advantage of the proximity). Not surprisingly after four years of being trapped in the C-level of Firestone flew by, still had yet to taste one of these raved about treats. It was one of the best things we ever did, and felt like a little kid again full of intrigue and excitement while exploring the various shops in the Antique District and staring with awe at all of the historic sites.
Moral of the story: part of living a healthy and balanced life entails making relaxation a priority. Regardless of whether you live in the slowest backwoods country town or New York City, sometimes the best way to find that change of pace is to hop in the car (or potentially jump on a train or bus) and drive. Philly was only 45 minutes away, and spent just a little above $100 between the two of us when considering gas, tolls, parking, and food. And the best part...I finally got my Philly cheese steak. The only problem with my master plan is that because I had set the bar so high, had no baseline with which to compare my cheese steak and am unsure whether I was truly able to savor the moment. Then again it's bread, cheese, and meat - not sure how much there is to savor.
 |
| Beautifully displayed candies - I ended up caving into the peanut brittle |
 |
| Front view of Independence Hall |
 |
| Back view of Independence Hall |
 |
| There's two competing steak houses that sit facing each other on opposite sides of the street-this one had the shorter line |
 |
| I thought this day would never come |
 |
| The sweet taste of victory |
 |
| Some food for thought... |
 |
| courtesy of the owner, Joey Vento |
No comments:
Post a Comment