On the Streets of Philadelphia

Hello all! If you're anywhere on the East Coast I hope you're staying warm! Becky and I were unfortunately plagued with sickness and snow for the past week so we've been out of commission in all respects - not going to work and spending all day in bed...but we did eventually heal and the streets cleared and we were able to do things worth updating about! So let's jump right into it.

46. Take a brewery tour
I actually think I went on a brewery tour when I was really young. I don't remember where I was or what kind of beer it was, but it seems familiar. But anyway, Becky, our friend Lindsay and myself went to the Flying Fish brewery in Cherry Hill, NJ yesterday.

 

It was a pretty spontaneous decision. We were talking about going to the Dogfish Head brewery in Delaware with one of Jamie's professors and she told us that the Flying Fish brewery was even closer! So we looked it up and it turns out the tour is free AND they have free samples! So of course we were there. They gave us a tour of the surprisingly small brewery and then we had our free samples. Their exit 13 Chocolate Stout is pretty delicious. If you haven't heard of Flying Fish, that's probably because they only ship about 100 miles away from the brewery in Cherry Hill. But they told us that they just signed up with a company that will be able to distribute their beer further distances so keep an eye out!

Another really cool thing that the brewery is doing is making a different beer for each exit of the New Jersey Turnpike. They only have about 4 so far, but we're looking forward to the exit 2 beer! 

We unfortunately don't have any pictures from the tour :/ I don't know why but it just would have seemed strange to whip out my camera and take pictures. Plus, if you've seen one brewery you've seen them all. The best part was the samples and unfortunately we can't really share that via the Internet...so just use your imagination! 

Let's continue. The rest of this post is dedicated to Philadelphia! We have lived 20 minutes from Philly for most of our lives, but haven't come close to doing half of the cool things there are to do there. So this weekend we decided to change that and spent basically all weekend in the city. Friday night we visited Jamie's alma mater and went to the Galleries at the Moore College of Art and Design. Saturday night we went out and partied....nothing new there haha. But today we did some pretty cool things, so check it out!

The first task was getting to Philly today. As you saw in the previous post, my New Year's Resolution was to learn how to drive in Philly because I've been too much of a baby to try so far, but today I finally did! Unfortunately, we don't have any proof. We didn't think to take any pictures, but I swear I did it! So there's something I can cross off the list. And now I'm done for the year! I already did what I wanted to do. Ha, that was easy.
47. Learn how to drive in Philly.

So we made it to Philly in one piece, it was actually pretty uneventful and not nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be. I was being a baby for no reason.

So we met up with my friend Zoe and her boyfriend Erik and got falafel at Mama's Vegetarian. Delicious. If trying falafel isn't on your list, it should be.

Blech, this has been such a long post without pictures so far. Let's change that!

 

So the purpose of our excursion into Philly was to go to the Mutter Museum! It's a museum devoted to medical oddities and the like. They don't allow photography inside the museum so Becky had to be super stealth and sneak some pics with her phone...shhh don't tell on us! We don't mean any harm.

48. Go to the Mutter Museum
 

There were wax and plaster models of different ailments and hundreds of skulls and skeletons!   

 

Bodies are pretty gross to me, especially the insides, so there were some sections I just couldn't look at. Like the baby section, I skipped right over that one.  But here's some baby skeletons.

 

One thing that was really cool was the skeleton of a GIANT! Literally, he was 7 ft. 6 in! And he was standing, well hanging, next to a skeleton with dwarfism.

Even Big&Tall doesn't have his size :/

Other than skeletons and wax figures they also had old medical tools; from autopsy kits from the Civil War to Iron Lung machines! According to the sign, in 2008 there were still 30 people who were living with the help of an Iron Lung, which is the machine you see below. It was used around the 50s to treat people with polio. This looks pretty cramped and horrible if you ask me.

 

They also had an old X-ray machine that was used at shoe stores to see if shoes fit properly. Yea, you would stick your foot into this machine without any kind of protection and expose yourself and the person operating the machine to huge quantities of radiation. Whoops!

Well that's all of the pictures we have from the Mutter Museum. If you're ever in the Philly area it's definitely worth stopping in. There's also a plaster cast of the original "Siamese Twins" Cheng and Eng who were attached at the chest by a thin patch of cartilage and skin. However, they didn't know this until they performed the autopsy. Only a thin piece of liver tissue also connected the two, but today they probably could have been separated no problem. But the two ended up marrying two different women and had at least 10 kids each, if I remember correctly. So I guess they made it work. 

After the Mutter Museum we decided to take a walk since it was lovely outside! We ended up near Love Park, a place I have never been. I know, people who live near Philly are thinking WHAT?! You've never been to Love Park?! But don't worry guys, I finally did it! And we even took the typical Love Park picture!

49. Go to Love Park 

 

Then we asked Zoe and Erik if they wanted their picture too. Maybe they should have said no...

 

It was slippery!

 

Her endearing clumsiness is what we love about her haha.

Then we walked up to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where Zoe's mom Frannie is a studio assistant and also works on her pieces because she's an artist!

Fun fact: PAFA was the first art school in the United States!

50 (woo 50 things!). Take a tour of the studios at PAFA

 

She gave us a tour of the Printmaking Studio where she works and also one of the painting floors.

 

These are her litho stones!

 

We tried to go onto the Sculpture Floor but it was closed :/ But we did get to see this!

 

We also tried to go up to the Observatory at City Hall...but it was closed today. But now we have something new to add to the list! And of course we'll let you know when we cross it off!

Well that's about it for today folks. But we have something awesome in the works for next week. I won't give it away yet but I'll try to give you a hint...it's going to be really, REALLY cool. So go ahead and ponder that.

We also wanted to give you guys a sneak preview of the promo cards we've made for the blog! We just ordered 100 today and we're going to pass them out at the cool thing we're going to next weekend. But you can see it here first!

 

Okay well that's all I've got up my sleeves tonight, folks. So until like time, good luck exploring the infinite abyss.

Love Always,

The Go Getters

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