Leg 2 - Philadelphia

 Our second stop on Leg 2 was in Philadelphia to see the Phillies play the Red Sox.  As this was a night game, we had the day to spend in Philly - which we're familiar with since my parents lived there for a number of years, but we hadn't been there in over 20 years.

We went to the Philadelphia Art Museum although we did not go in.  It was a nice morning, so we wandered the grounds and the multiple statues as well as the trail along the Schuykill River near the boathouses.  Besides the art (which we did not see) the Art Museum is well known for 1) the great views of center city Philadelphia from the top of the stairs and 2) for the Rocky statue.  For those who have never seen Rocky I, Rocky runs up the Art Museum steps as part of his training routine.  We did not run up the steps, but we did watch others "recreating" the scene while being filmed on mobile phones.

After leaving the Art Museum we went to the Reading Terminal Market for lunch.  Philly, along with other northeast cities, have markets like these that sell fresh seafood, meat, vegetables, etc.  They also have many places to buy prepared food - it's like a giant food truck rodeo indoors and it was packed with people at lunch time.  I had shrimp and crawfish etouffee and Melinda had a salad (?!?).

On our way back to the hotel we stopped by the Philadelphia Union League club on Broad St.  My dad was the General Manager of the Union League for more than a decade in the 80's and 90's.  It still looks the same - I didn't try to go since I wasn't dressed properly.

As for the game - it was crowded.  More than 43,000 were at the Phillies game and there were 20,000+ at the Sixers-Celtics playoff game that started 30 minutes after our game.  If you don't know, the Philadelphia baseball stadium, basketball arena, and football stadium are co-located in south Philly and share common parking lots.  Not a problem when we came in, but a zoo when we left as both games ended about the same time.  

In an "only in Philly moment", a fan fell over the rail into the Red Sox bullpen in center field when the second batter of the game came up.  The game was delayed 15 minutes while medical crews came out to take the fan out on a stretcher (turned out to be only minor injuries).

As for the game, the Red Sox won 5-3 (their 7th straight win).  This was the first home game for Bryce Harper since his return (in record time) from Tommy John surgery.  He looked pretty rusty but the crowd went crazy his first time up.  As per the picture to the left, we had a beautiful sunset.  It was in the low 50's by the end of the game, and we had a surprise 10 minute rain shower in the 8th inning.  After the nearly deserted Nats stadium on Wednesday it was fun to be a well attended game with lots of fan noise (BTW, I did not get any grief for wearing a Cleveland hat to the game).

We're off the the Big Apple for a Mets game on Sunday and a Yankees game on Monday