Just spent the weekend there, absolutely great city!!! My buddy bought a condo in the Rittenhouse neighborhood across the street from the park. Beautiful area, great restaurants, and more affordable than NYC and DC. The women in Philly were GORGEOUS as well, I am dissapointed I didnt consider Philly while I was looking for a job this past Spring. It is a great up and coming city which would be a good spot for young professionals.

I noticed a bunch of places (clubs, bars, etc) just take cash, no credit cards. I found this interesting considering Philly has so many universities in the area and students mostly pay with credit.

On Saturday, we went on a tour of Philly and saw the Liberty bell (through this glass, I refused to wait on that huge line) and also saw one of the original copies of the Declaration of Independence. Also ventured a bit into a little of South Philly where another friend of mine got an apt near Merlino's former haunts (Passyunk). Went to Gino's, Rita's, and on the recommendation of the guys on the forum stopped in at Pesto's where they served an amazing Pollo alla Fiorentina. My date really enjoyed the place as well, she had Salmone alla Griglia. I wish I was able to travel more in South Philly but my buddy doesnt venture out of Center City much.

While we were walking around Passyunk for a bit there were a few restaurants (dont remember the name, very intoxicated at this point) that had pictures of Joey and his crew (from the 90s) inside. All in all we walked about 5 miles around Philly.

I also noticed there seemed to be a very sizeable gay population especially near central Philly (even for the gayberhood as it was called). At one point I went to this backyard BBQ where my date and myself where the only straight people there, later in the night the neighbors who were two lesbians joined us. I dont have any issues with gays (to each his own) but just noticed that.

Anyways, the trip down (a little delayed) and back to NYC was good.

Great city, great time, I highly recommend the area for anybody thinking of visiting. The weather was perfect as well. I plan on visiting again sometime in the fall.