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Back on the road
For the second time in six years, we found ourselves beginning our journey in the airport. This time, we were flying into Newark, N.J., bags stuffed to the seams and bodies full of cold, airport beer and dramamine.
The flight, which was through United, was quick and we were thankful to not have a layover. Yours truly scored an extra bag of pretzels on the flight while Ben was able to talk his way into a second beer. Contrary to previous flights we’ve been on, the beers on this flight didn’t cost us anything — a service we were big fans of.
We arrived in New Jersey around 10:30 p.m., and after picking up our bags we scheduled a Lyft and went outside to meet our driver. The passenger pickup area was packed full of people with a seemingly endless stream of cars flowing in front of the travelers. It helped having a little bit of distance between the three of us so we could spot our car as it pulled up and still have someone ready to run to wherever he was able to park and make sure we could flag him down.
Cheldon was our Lyft driver, and he was a great traveling companion. He let us relax in the car and listen to music, and when we struck up conversation he had plenty of information to contribute. (This will be a common theme for us while in Philadelphia; we really hit the jackpot on our Lyft drivers)
We were very thankful Cheldon was willing to take us from the airport in Newark to Philadelphia, which was about an hour and a half trip. We chose to go that route because it was still cheaper (split three ways) than it would have been to buy three tickets on the Amtrak.
The hotel we booked at was on the pricier side, but it was in a great location right off of the Delaware River. It was after midnight by the time we got to our hotel and we had thought about walking around the area to explore, but, knowing we had a day game looming just 12 hours away, we called it a night.
The flight, which was through United, was quick and we were thankful to not have a layover. Yours truly scored an extra bag of pretzels on the flight while Ben was able to talk his way into a second beer. Contrary to previous flights we’ve been on, the beers on this flight didn’t cost us anything — a service we were big fans of.
We arrived in New Jersey around 10:30 p.m., and after picking up our bags we scheduled a Lyft and went outside to meet our driver. The passenger pickup area was packed full of people with a seemingly endless stream of cars flowing in front of the travelers. It helped having a little bit of distance between the three of us so we could spot our car as it pulled up and still have someone ready to run to wherever he was able to park and make sure we could flag him down.
Cheldon was our Lyft driver, and he was a great traveling companion. He let us relax in the car and listen to music, and when we struck up conversation he had plenty of information to contribute. (This will be a common theme for us while in Philadelphia; we really hit the jackpot on our Lyft drivers)
We were very thankful Cheldon was willing to take us from the airport in Newark to Philadelphia, which was about an hour and a half trip. We chose to go that route because it was still cheaper (split three ways) than it would have been to buy three tickets on the Amtrak.
The hotel we booked at was on the pricier side, but it was in a great location right off of the Delaware River. It was after midnight by the time we got to our hotel and we had thought about walking around the area to explore, but, knowing we had a day game looming just 12 hours away, we called it a night.
Game day
The Phillies were hosting Nate’s favorite team, the St. Louis Cardinals, so he was not shy at all going into enemy territory donning the “wrong” kind of red in support of his Red Birds. The game was set to start at 1:05 p.m., but we wanted to get there in plenty of time to explore.
Citizens Bank Park is in the same area of the city as the NFL stadium for the Eagles and the NBA arena for the 76ers. In between all of them: XFinity Live!
XFinity Live! is a building full of bars and restaurants, very similar to Busch Stadium’s Ballpark Village. The three of us arrived shortly after 10 a.m., only the main commons area was open at that time — as most of the other establishments didn’t start doing business until 10:30.
A few staff members had a surprisingly hard time unlocking the entry doors, so a small group formed — us included — waiting for our chance to pregame before the contest!
Beer was not terribly expensive, six bucks for a draught of Summer Shandy. But the real beer special was being saved for after the game, as posters all over advertised $3 Miller Lite. We stayed at XFinity Live for about and hour and a half and headed to the stadium a little after noon.
Citizens Bank Park is in the same area of the city as the NFL stadium for the Eagles and the NBA arena for the 76ers. In between all of them: XFinity Live!
XFinity Live! is a building full of bars and restaurants, very similar to Busch Stadium’s Ballpark Village. The three of us arrived shortly after 10 a.m., only the main commons area was open at that time — as most of the other establishments didn’t start doing business until 10:30.
A few staff members had a surprisingly hard time unlocking the entry doors, so a small group formed — us included — waiting for our chance to pregame before the contest!
Beer was not terribly expensive, six bucks for a draught of Summer Shandy. But the real beer special was being saved for after the game, as posters all over advertised $3 Miller Lite. We stayed at XFinity Live for about and hour and a half and headed to the stadium a little after noon.
The game
Before heading to our seats in Citizens Bank Park, we explored the inside of the stadium. And if there was one thing that stood out, it was the Phillies’ emphasis on food. Vendors stretched nearly the entire 360 degrees of the ball park with different varieties of cuisine.
Our seats were near third base, 11 rows up from the field. It was a great sight for the first game of our trip.
We sat down for a couple innings before deciding to get some food and a drink — and find some shade for a bit (the sun was scorching us!).
Nate and I went in search of a food item that had been suggested to us from the Twitter account @philliesphood: the donut burger. The incredible culinary creation is exactly what it sounds like, a hamburger with a halved glazed donut as buns and sweet peppers and bacon as toppings.
One thing we noticed about the prices at Citizens Bank Park was that the beer ranked up there on the more expensive side for beers. A tall can of Bud Light and Bud Light Lime cost $14.
One of the nicest aspects of the stadium was the standing bar at the top of nearly ever section. It allowed us to set our food down on it and eat rather than dealing with the awkwardness of eating with your food in your lap. This was especially pleasant since our donut buns provided a very sticky surface; it was much more enjoyable since we could use a fork and knife to eat our delicious burger.
While we were getting our food, the Cardinals got a pair of home runs from Marcel Ozuna and Matt Wieters in the second inning to take a 2-0 lead. The Phillies cut the advantage to one, but St. Louis got two more homers from Jed Gyorko and Matt Carpenter.
Philadelphia attempted to stage a rally, getting RBI hits from Bryce Harper and Rhys Hoskins in the eighth inning, but the Cardinals brought in fireballer Jordan Hicks — who consistently lit up the radar gun at 101 mph — and he closed out the game.
Our seats were near third base, 11 rows up from the field. It was a great sight for the first game of our trip.
We sat down for a couple innings before deciding to get some food and a drink — and find some shade for a bit (the sun was scorching us!).
Nate and I went in search of a food item that had been suggested to us from the Twitter account @philliesphood: the donut burger. The incredible culinary creation is exactly what it sounds like, a hamburger with a halved glazed donut as buns and sweet peppers and bacon as toppings.
One thing we noticed about the prices at Citizens Bank Park was that the beer ranked up there on the more expensive side for beers. A tall can of Bud Light and Bud Light Lime cost $14.
One of the nicest aspects of the stadium was the standing bar at the top of nearly ever section. It allowed us to set our food down on it and eat rather than dealing with the awkwardness of eating with your food in your lap. This was especially pleasant since our donut buns provided a very sticky surface; it was much more enjoyable since we could use a fork and knife to eat our delicious burger.
While we were getting our food, the Cardinals got a pair of home runs from Marcel Ozuna and Matt Wieters in the second inning to take a 2-0 lead. The Phillies cut the advantage to one, but St. Louis got two more homers from Jed Gyorko and Matt Carpenter.
Philadelphia attempted to stage a rally, getting RBI hits from Bryce Harper and Rhys Hoskins in the eighth inning, but the Cardinals brought in fireballer Jordan Hicks — who consistently lit up the radar gun at 101 mph — and he closed out the game.
Postgame
After we got our souvenirs from the stadium, we went back to XFinity Live! for our $3 Miller Lites. We enjoyed ourselves for a couple of hours, visiting a couple of the bars inside, and then headed back to our hotel.
By this time, we were getting hungry, and we knew we couldn’t leave Philly without getting a cheesesteak. Lucky for us, there was a neighborhood that had plenty of food choices, just a few blocks from our hotel. We walked by the string of establishments and elected to try one called Oh Brother.
It was a unique setting; customers were allowed to bring their own alcohol and forms of entertainment. Some were playing what appeared to be the board game Risk while others were playing cards. Some others brought ingredients needed to create their own alcoholic concoctions.
All three of us got cheesesteaks — despite there being other options on the menu, including burgers and chicken sandwiches. We also got bacon cheese fries and truffle parmesan fries, which came with a French onion dip.
The meal was extremely filling. Nate got his cheesesteak with American cheese while Ben and I, inadvertently, stuck with cheese wiz as our option. Now, we understand most of the places in Philly say the original cheesesteak is supposed to have cheese wiz, but Ben and I both agreed we’d probably prefer a different kind of cheese.
Stomaches as full as can be, we walked back to our hotel to regain our strength. Ben and I headed out to the casino for a short time, leaving after losing only the smallest bit of money — $1 and $17 — so we considered it a success.
We went back to the hotel to join Nate in resting up for our second day.
History lesson
Obviously, a huge part of what Philadelphia has to offer involves its key role in the founding of our country. There are many historic sites in Philly, which was the nation’s capital from 1790-1800 while Washington, D.C., was being built.
Our first stop was at the Independence Hall Visitors Center where we picked up our tickets for the tour of the Hall. If you’re planning on visiting Independence Hall, you can reserve your free tickets ahead of time (they recommend six months) or you show up the day of and hope to get some walk-up tickets. Being the big planners we are, we went with the latter.
Tickets were available at 8:30 a.m., and we showed up just a little after. There was a small line, but we were able to get tickets to the time slot that worked best for us, which was later in the afternoon. But we had plenty to do before that tour got underway.
We started the morning with a walk to City Hall, where we rode the elevator up the clock tower for an awesome, 360 degree scenic view of the city. While overlooking the city from about 500 feet in the air, we noticed a site made iconic by a fictional movie character. In the movie Rocky, the boxer runs up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and celebrates his feat at the top. There were a couple school field trips waiting to take their photo with the Rocky statue, but we decided not to endure the long line.
We had been told to check out the Reading Terminal Market as a place to find some food, and we are glad that we did. This place was awesome! With more than 80 different food vendors, the scene was mesmerizing and yet a little overwhelming.
We found some Chinese food and a BBQ joint, all of which was delicious. We also indulged in some ice cream and took home a few choice meats from one of the largest beef jerky selections we’ve seen.
After eating lunch, we continued our history lesson by taking our tour of Independence Hall. Our tour guide was Steven, and he clearly had a wealth of knowledge when it came to the early years of our country. We had some elementary school groups with us, so Steven mostly catered to them, but we still learned a lot as we stood in the same rooms as our founding fathers of the USA.
The final historic site we had planned to see was the Liberty Bell, which is right by what is left of George Washington’s house. Spectators go through a building lined with information on the famous bell, culminating with a showroom featuring the bell itself.
On our way back to the hotel, we were pleasantly surprised to find a cool alley known as Elfreth’s Alley. The street was filled with colorful, historic houses on the old fashioned stoned street. It was quite a visually stimulating site.
Beer, games, and space invaders
We ventured out to a place along the river near our hotel called Morgan’s Pier with the intent to grab a drink and a bite to eat. The restaurant was packed, and we ended up waiting at the bar for a table to open. Meanwhile, we had a delicious local beer and soaked up the view of the river. We eventually got a table and continued drinking the beer, but we weren’t really in the mood for the food offered — which was blend of seafood and bar finger foods.
Instead, we walked a block further down the river to the largest Dave and Busters we’ve seen. It took a while for us to get our food — so long they gave us one of our entrees for free — but that (and some Jell-O shots) didn’t keep us from enjoying the night, playing arcade games that made us feel like kids again.
We dominated a large screen version of Halo, a futuristic space invader role playing game, which captured our attention and took us on an intense mission for about 40 minutes.
Our work as gamers earned us some sick prizes: a pop up spider, a sticky hand, and some awesome vampire teeth.
We capped the night off at a bar right by our hotel, called La Peg. It was an outdoor venue with tables and yard games. It was a great finish to a great trip.
Ratings
The biggest positives on this trip were the nightlife and the ease of transportation — which, as we discussed, has certainly evolved since the early days of our trip thanks in large part to Lyft and Uber. The ball park also gained bonus points for its atmosphere and the fun environment of the XFinity Live! area.
Overall, our Philly trip earned a score of 8.3, which sits in a six-way tie for sixth in our trip.
| Rank | Stadium | Rating |
| 1. | Petco Park (Padres) | 8.9 |
| 2. | Sun Trust Park (Braves) | 8.4 |
| 3. | Wrigley Filed II (Cubs) | 8.4 |
| 4. | Marlins Park (Marlins) | 8.4 |
| 5. | Kauffman Stadium (Royals) | 8.4 |
| 6. | Target Field (Twins) | 8.3 |
| 6. | Citizens Bank Park (Phillies) | 8.3 |
| 7. | Angels Stadium (Angels) | 8.3 |
| 8. | U.S. Cellular (White Sox) | 8.3 |
| 9. | Wrigley Field (Cubs) | 8.3 |
| 10. | Busch Stadium (Cardinals) | 8.3 |
| 11. | Chase Field (Diamondbacks) | 8.2 |
| 12. | Miller Park (Brewers) | 7.2 |
| 13. | Rogers Centre (Blue Jays) | 7.1 |
| 14. | Coors Field (Rockies) | 7.1 |
| 15. | Comerica Park (Tigers) | 6.4 |
| 16. | Dodger Stadium (Dodgers) | 6.2 |
| 17. | Tropicana Field (Rays) | 6.1 |
On deck
Next up, we’ll travel to the Bronx and Queens to visit the New York Yankees and New York Mets. Also like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter, @MLBjourneymen, and check out our Instagram account, mlbjourneymen.
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