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

I'm reading: On the Streets of Philadelphia

Blog Swap 2011

Hello readers! For this post we're trying something new! As you may know, Becky and I are members of the 20 Something Bloggers Community, and they were creative enough to facilitate a Blog Swap for its members! We were paired up with Kanan from the blog Cheesecake. So take a look at the fun post he wrote for us and head on over to his blog to see our post, and check out the rest of his writings as well! He's a funny guy, and his post is unlike anything we've had on the blog before, so I will give you the same advice that he gave me before reading it: Keep an open mind!



Hi guys! Sorry we’ve been MIA but um.. but um… Okay I can’t do this anymore. We’re on the run. The countryside sweeps and billows past us in drunk hiccups and you know, I’ve never seen anything like this. We’re driving past a landscape where the dominant life form seems to be cars on fire. I think I was told to keep guard but that has little meaning in a car. Becky has passed out in the back seat. She wakes up every now and then to scream. Kanan is driving and keeps gyrating and singing to spice girls songs. This is both extremely dangerous and wildly inappropriate, considering…  

Well I start at the start. It was just any other thursday, we were doing our thing, y’know going and getting stuff, squat thrusts and what have you, when this guy showed up at our door.

He beamed at us with his arms stretched outward. “The goal getters! I love you guys!” he said and took a step forward.

“It’s the go getters” I corrected, while automatically backing away. Something was not right about this. I’m usually more cordial to strange men who show up at our door, but few did so with that much enthusiasm.

“I’m here for the blog swap!”, he said beaming, and pointed to his T-shirt which said ‘Slog bwap’, which we still don’t find funny.

We couldn’t just turn him away, he flew in from a different country for Christ’s sake! So I thought the least we could do was invite him in before we explained to him exactly how this was supposed to work. He came inside and in a second had scanned all our doors and windows and plopped on our sofa, stopping to inform us of our kitschy decor. “Where is your blog?” he asked, half expecting it to be lying around somewhere.

“It’s on… the internet?” said Becky, who seemed suddenly unsure of this fact.

“Oh good choice, good choice” said Kanan scratching his chin “that way the bugs dont-”

“ok WHY are you here?” I began. “This is really not how-”

“BLOG SWAP!” he said happily leaping to his feet. “I’m here to do things! Come on! you’re the goo dangers!

“Go getters” corrected Becky. “Look how a blog swap works is-”

“I’m asian. I know” said Kanan, rolling his eyes and leaping on our coffee table. He would do this a lot. “I have a list” he said, digging in his back pocket. “ A manly list. A list of things with things you can cross off”

“You’re too liberal with the use of the word ‘things’” said Becky, forgetting the insanity of our circumstances for a moment. “Hand your list over to me,” she said and he complied. Becky read the list and wordlessly passed it to me.

“This is a list of people’s names” I said slowly. “I know some of these people. How do you-?”

“Grapevine!” interjected Kanan happily, with hand gestures that I’ve never seen before. Sufficeth to say they somehow conveyed the idea of a grape vine. “There are only ten people or so, that should be easy enough. After all you are the gang bangers!”

“GO GETTERS” I said through gritted teeth. “Look, we talked about having murder on our list but that’s generally in poor taste-”

“Relax, relax!” said Kanan. “I was only kidding”. His smile made me seriously doubt that, he took out another list and handed it to me. Contrary to his explanation, the piece of paper had “backup list” written on the top in what looked like lipstick.

“Alright so, number 1, Facebook-rape someone!” said Kanan reading off his palm, forgetting he had given me the list.

Somehow, I agreed. It was probably a temporary lapse of judgement or something about him that was strangely persuasive. Maybe it was the fact the he didn’t blink nearly enough. Bottom line was that it sounded fun and it was actually something we didn’t have on our lists.

We ended up making a little chit chat after we agreed, and Becky slipped away inside for something. In a split second Kanan had pulled me over to Becky’s now unattended laptop where her facebook page just happened to be open. He put his palm to his mouth and giggled effeminately. “Lets do it to her” he said and winked with both his eyes.

Not waiting for me to reply he quickly changed her status to “Just kidnapped the police chief’s daughter! lulzz!”

He smiled and leaned back in his chair. “Who’s the slum dog now?” he muttered under his breath.

“What?” I asked.

His body became rigid as he slid of the chair. I would have been surprised, but now I was just curious. Suddenly he leaped to his feet and turned to me.

“Ok well that’s enough of me, see you around tub thumpers!” said Kanan and before I knew it, he had exited our apartment through the window. I followed him and screamed “GO GETTERS” out of the window, but he had already disappeared.

It took about an hour for the police to show up. It took the warmth of two brain cells to figure out that the police chief’s daughter was missing. We were fucked. Well actually, Becky was fucked but I couldn’t really pretend to be happy about that could I? Not really in front of her anyway. We were about to go out with our hands up, when Kanan showed up at the back window. “Psst! Go hithers” he said.

“Go getters” I whispered and pulled Becky, who still wasn’t sure what was happening to the back window and we jumped out. Kanan had managed to get a car from somewhere. A purple minivan “gold diggers” painted on the side. We jumped in and drove. And just like that we were fugitives.

“Did you kidnap the police chief’s daughter?” I asked, trying to keep my voice from trembling.

“Whaaat?” replied Kanan in an impossible falsetto. “I just think this is an appropriate time to go to say… Argentina?”

There was this bit about visas and things I tried to explain to Kanan but he kept waving his hand saying something about Esteban, a favour and leather chaps. It was all I could do to fall asleep.

I woke up and I’m pretty sure this is a different country. This is also a different car. I think my bowels are afraid to move. I realised I haven’t explained any of this to Becky, but I’m more stumped by the fact that she has asked no questions. I see a faint glimmer of understanding in her eyes, maybe she wasn’t lying about being in the child marines. You know what? I can at least cross something off the list.

Damn that list.

Damn that slog bwap.




Hope you all enjoyed! And don't worry, The Go Getters are okay! For more insanity, visit http://kanangill.blogspot.com and don't forget to check out our post there too!

And until next time, good luck exploring the infinite abyss.

Love Always, 
The Go Getters

 

I'm reading: Blog Swap 2011

So, this is the new year...

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! Becky here! I know it's been a while, but Sam and I are ready to get back into the swing of things and start a whole new year of adventures! Hope you all had fun during the holidays and did some Go Getting of your own! While on our break, we still did a couple of really fun things that we were able to cross of our lists.

44. See a Cirque du Soleil show

Growing up, my family always went to see the Barnum & Bailey's Circus when it came to Philadelphia and I thought that was as cool as it would get. Boy was I wrong!! Sam was able to score some free tickets from work (best perks EVER!) and per usual, I jumped on board. After figuring out who got one of the 6 tickets and a little bit of sibling drama, we arrived at the Liacourus Center in Philadelphia. The show was called Dralion and was a mash-up of Chinese acrobatics and the typical Cirque Du Soleil ribbon twirling, contortionists, and even some double-dutch.

This is the only picture I was able to sneak. They were really strict about no photography.

But by far the coolest part of the entire show was the trampoline/wall climbing/anti-gravityish act! The show as a whole completely BLEW MY MIND! To this date, the best and coolest tickets Sam has gotten from work yet! I can't wait to see even more shows. I want to go out to Las Vegas and see The Beatles: Love soooo bad!! 

45. Go to a swanky New Years Eve party in New York City

Whenever I think of a HUGE New Years Eve party, I automatically think of the ball dropping in Times Square in New York City. I mean, come on, how many of us have grown up on Dick Clark's NYE special? I always thought it would be so cool to experience that in person. But...I get extremely claustrophobic (as you learned in the post about the Presidential Inauguration), so this posed some difficulties. The more I thought about it, an extravagant/luxurious/swanky NYE party represented that same magic and excitement that Times Square did (without all the crowds and having to be sober), so that's what I went for! A group of friends joined me, making it unforgettable! After navigating the NYC subway system, we arrived at CAPITALE in the lower-east side. As we walked up, everyone was dressed just as I expected (the girls in cocktail dresses and the guys in three-piece suits!). The building itself was absolutely breathtaking! Since I'm a sucker for architecture, my friend Gabby only allotted me 5 statements complimenting the design and style because she didn't want to hear about it all night. I was able to contain myself.

This was the ballroom that the party was held. Gorgeous right?
(picture from CAPITALE website)

We ended up paying a hefty price for the tickets. However, I will be keeping the price a mystery to all of you. But it was worth it!! We danced the night away, enjoyed the open bar (obviously!), and celebrated New Years Eve the way it was meant to be celebrated. Even though it was pricey, I had a BLAST and wouldn't have changed a thing. Okay, maybe a thing or two, but that will also remain a mystery to you!

We even had light up glasses!

If you ever have a chance to celebrate NYE in NYC, I highly recommend that you do! The energy in the city was like nothing I've ever experienced before. Definitely a magical night, worthy of kicking off what will hopefully be an amazing year!

Did anyone make a New Years resolution? We'd love to hear it! I've actually decided to be a little different with my resolution this time around and start a year long project. But you won't be able to see it until next year, so you're going to have to stick around!!


Update from Sam: My New Year's resolution is to learn to drive in Philly! I hate driving in cities, but I can drive everywhere else; over bridges, in other cities like Boston and Albany...but I have so far refused to drive in Philadelphia. But I need to grow up and stop being a baby and just do it so I don't have to rely on everyone else to give me a ride haha. What are your resolutions??

Let us know and until next time,
good luck exploring the infinite abyss.

Love always,
The Go Getters

I'm reading: So, this is the new year...