Boston, Philly & DC.

-We left early Friday morning. Everything was good until we hit Pittsburgh. We got lost a few times. Their roads are so confusing.

-Halfway to Boston we stopped at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub. It's the home of the largest hamburgers. Matthew saw a TV show about it and needed to go. Even though they have 2 or 3+ pound burgers, we each got a regular sized one. Surprisingly, they didn't taste all that wonderful.




Time of how long it took people to eat the 3lb burger.






-The first thing we did in Boston was go on the Samuel Adams brewery tour. The tour was free! We tried 3 different types of beer and got to keep our glass. One of the beers is called Brick Red which is only available in Boston.







-After Sam Adams we ate ad Ye Olde Union Oyster House which is the oldest restaurant in the United States. I had a fish sandwich (boring choice) and Matthew had oysters and clam chowder. I had some of the soup, though.








-During the day we walked around and window shopped. We visited the Gardener Museum which is a museum of privately collected artworks. It was where the largest art heist took place in the early 90s where a few paintings were stolen--one being a Rembrandt and his only oceanic scene. To this day no one has any leads as to who took these works or where they are.

-We walked around the market place which was fun. It was total chaos, boxes being thrown everywhere and people yelling prices of food. We need something like that here in Columbus.





-After a long day we got a hotel room at The Colonnade. Normally the room we got would run of $400 a night but we got it for $150. It was so nice and the bed was the most comfortable bed I have ever laid in.

-After checking in to the hotel and showering (walking around all day made me so nasty) Matthew and I met up with Brittanny () and her boyfriend Shawn. We hit up Bukowski's and then went to Cigar Masters for drinks and smokes. I had such a good time! You guys better come to Columbus soon!

-Day two started off with brunch at Upstairs on the Square. It's been said that they have the best Eggs Benedict in the country and they do! It was amazing.



-We walked around Harvard for a bit, Matthew was wearing his Harvard thrift t-shirt for shits and giggles.






-We then hit up the art museum, walked around the bay and had dinner at the Barking Crab.










Philadelphia, Pa:

-First off let me tell you that the whole city smells like URINE.

-The first thing we did was have Philly Cheese Steaks at both Geno's and Pat's. Rival places right next to each other. Matthew and I split them, don't worry. The concensus was that Pat's was better. It was the original, too. Their cheese was thicker and the meat was juicier.


Pat's.


Geno's. Their advertising though was much better and "in your face". Didn't help with the taste of the actual food, though.

-We checked into our hotel called Rodeway Inn.

-Walked around and saw the Liberty Bell. We actually had no idea that it was in Philadelphia so that was a nice surprise.



-We went to the Mutter Museum which was so, so, so awesome. It's a Physicians Museum filled with body parts, aborted babies, diseased organs, etc. Very informative and visually stimulating.





-We had dinner at Morimoto. The iron chef, Morimoto. The food was delicious as was the atmosphere of the restaurant. I started off with a Lychee Cosmopolitan. My appetizer was Morimoto Tempura and for my entree I had his surf n' turf. The entree had lobster and steak. Matthew had a food flight so he was given literally 7 or 8 things.





-We drank at Nodding Head Brewery (which wasn't that great) and Monk's. There are tons of Belgian bars in Philadelphia which is awesome.

Day two:

-Went to the art museum. It's the one with all the steps that Rocky ran up. There was a statue of him and his shoe imprints were at the top of the steps. Poor little Stalone only wears a size 9.




Check out that flip flop tan line. Nice.


Salvador Dali!!


-As the day progressed we decided to stay another night even though we only booked one night at the hotel. We parked at the top of a 24 hr parking garage and slept in the car. I got some good photos as a result. Also, I had to pee really badly and had to pee in front of the car. Thank god we brought a roll of toilet paper with us.










I caught something flying in the sky in this one.



-That night we drank at Eulogy. We drank a lot of Belgian beers. A lot.





-We had a beer, chocolate and cheese tasting at Beneluxx. It was really awesome and both the chocolate and cheeses went really well with the beer.




-Ate chili dogs and fries at Ben's Chili Bowl. We sat in the same seat as Anthony Bourdain did.





-We booked a hotel room at Hotel Helix. Wowwee, that place is so tacky. Snake print elevators, leopard print bathrobe in our closet, lots of color. It was fun though.


We had a convex mirror near the bathroom. Green bar and orange contrasting ice box.


Here's the outside of the hotel. The painting is very Rene Magritte-like. The building was a grayish purple.




Our room number.




Part of the hotel room. The couch was sweet, I won't lie. The pictures on the wall are of barbie dolls.

-We walked around DC, enjoyed seeing the Washington Monument, the White House and Lincoln's Memorial. We also went into the Smithsonian's Art Museum. I saw a Da Vinci for the first time along with some Raphael, Van Gogh, Monet, etc. I had no idea that the Smithsonian was free...makes me want to go back soon and see the other museums. We didn't have enough time to see them all. Oh! I also saw a freakin' ANDY GOLDSWORTHY piece. Oh my god, I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was. Look him up if you have no idea who he is. If you have Netflix, watch Rivers and Tides. It's on there for free viewing.










Not gonna lie, I was quite impressed with seeing this statue (finally) in person. I've seen it on the penny all my life, you know?


I'm always impressed with seeing a Van Gogh painting. His portraits are especially breathtaking in real life. This is the second one I've seen. The first was in Chicago.


A walkway in the Smithsonian. Shiny things empress me.


Leonardo Da Vinci!!


ANDY GOLDSWORTHY!!!! I sort of freaked out when I saw this.


-We got back to the hotel for free cocktails. We had a white wine sangria. We showered and got ready for dinner.



-Dinner was at Minibar. It was really cool. 27 small entrees prepared in front of us. All were so cool and amazingly presented. Check out Anthony Bourdain's DC episode--he goes there.

(I'm still editing the minibar photos...it's going to take some time.)

-After Minibar, we went to Disrict Chophouse and Brewery and had a few more drinks where we met a colorful fella who kept offering me his food. He was funny though, I enjoyed him.


You can sort of see his hand in this photo and all the food he ordered.



Final thoughts:
I had a great time! I still have so many photos to upload and it's taking me a while. These though in this journal entry, I think, show off the trip nicely. I love traveling. I love documenting. I had fun.

I'd also like to say that if you guys reading this don't watch Anthony Bourdain, well, then you should. He's literally like our travel guide when it comes to getting food in each of our destinations. I love him.