I’ve finally crossed Philadelphia, PA off of my travel bucket list.
Back in April, I took my mom and Kaiden on a road trip down to Philadelphia, PA because I wanted to get a tattoo done by a specific artist.
As the road trip from Toronto to Philadelphia is about 7.5 hours, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do the drive and the tattoo all in one go, so why not make a bit of a vacation out of it? I planned two driving days and three days in the area. One of the days would be spent getting my tattoo. That made two days for sight-seeing!
The drive itself was really nice. Of course, the morning that we planned to leave Toronto was knee deep in a snowstorm – because April, right? Makes total sense. But the weather got better the further south we got. Mainly just a little rain. I did make a slight detour because I missed the exit (oops) so by the time we arrived at our hotel it was 8 pm. Kaiden was amazing during the whole trip, only really getting fussy during the last 45 minutes since he was just plain tired of sitting in a car seat. I couldn’t really blame him! Almost 11 hours in a car is just not a fun time.
Since the Monday was slightly rainy, it made the most sense to spend the day doing some shopping.
Learning from my map reading bungle the day before, I called up my OnStar and got directions to the Pennsylvania Outlet Malls. It was mainly just grey and overcast when we arrived which was nice since it’s an outdoor mall. I don’t know about you, but when I don’t have a specific place that I want to check out, I’m the type of person that will do the whole place first and then go back to a store to make my purchase. I definitely don’t buy at the first place I visit! We had pretty good luck with the weather, as soon as we decided to sit down for lunch it started pouring outside! And it was finished once we were done with lunch.
I actually really enjoyed the King of Prussia Mall – it was really fancy! The thing I love about going to the US is that while a lot of the stores are in Canada they still have a ton that hasn’t crossed the border yet. I really liked the Altar’d State store – it was so pretty!
I did a more in-depth post about what I all purchased while at the malls, check it out here.
Time to head to Philadelphia!
The day was so nice and sunny, while still being a little cool which is nice for walking around. I won’t lie I had no idea that Philly had so much history! I’m not a history buff (by any means), especially not of American. It was quite neat to learn more about America’s history.
I clearly did no research about what’s in Philly: is that a good thing? Makes everything a complete surprise! I did a little Google while at the hotel the night before heading into the city and made note of a couple things that we should check out.
The thing I love about the US cities that I’ve been to is that they are super easy to walk around. Everything is labelled really well, and you can’t really ever get lost. I was most content reading the signs and just wandering around aimlessly.
You can find the sweetest spots that way!
We found this adorable bakery that we stopped for lunch that had a delicious soup and croissants. J’aime French Bakery – it was the perfect place to stop for a pick me up after walking around for a long time. And it was baby friendly!
It was such a pretty day out – I loved walking through the parks. Philadelphia has a bunch of little courtyards with benches and gardens. I wouldn’t mind spending my lunch breaks there!
This actually had a greenhouse in it!
I was pretty silly and completely forgot to check out the Rocky statue and run up the steps and all that. I’m not a huge fan of the movie franchise, but do what you gotta do!
I’ve already done a whole post about what I’ve already purchased. I should have the tattoo post will be up in a week or so (I hope).
Have you been to Philadelphia? What places should I have checked out? Let me know!
J x
