Philly, 2025
When you get down to it, Pennsylvania only has two cities- Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
Pittsburgh is a smaller and more rural city I’ve come to know and love. Philly, on the other hand, is twice the size, much older, and the home of close family members.
I’ve visited Philly when I was younger; but, for several years, my cousin Alexis has lived there. I have yet to visit her… UNTIL NOW!
By Plane, By Train
With my attempts to have her move to Pittsburgh exhausted, I visited her to see what the Philadelphia hype is all about.
I’ve driven across Pennsylvania before, and it takes about six hours. The plane ride is less than one hour and the round trip costs ~$125. So I fly.
On Thursday afternoon, as the work day ends, I land in the PHL airport. I take a train into Center City, where Alexis is working, and we split a ride home to Manayunk.
I recognize a few landmarks on our drive, but I’m taking it all in like it’s my first time. The sun is shining, birds are chirping, and there’s greenery everywhere. The city scape feels big, but not unmanageable.
Just as I’m thinking “maybe Philly isn’t so different than Pittsburgh after all,” Alexis tells me there’s big piles of trash looming on their sidewalk! The trash collectors have been on strike for a few weeks- upon arrival, there’s no questioning it.
I get a tour of her place, and she shows me a spare upstairs bedroom I get to call mine for the next three nights. Once settled in, we stroll a few blocks down to Main Street to meet up with some of Anthony’s friends for dinner.
Manayunk by Night
For those who know Pittsburgh, Manayunk is like the Lawrenceville of Philadelphia- a place for young professionals to experience what fun city life is all about. As we move through the heavy flow of people, we discover it’s a "Summer Thursday" night, which means live music, food, and art cover the streets.
We walk into their favorite burger place- Lucky’s Last Chance. Alexis and her husband Anthony are both known for ordering the Mak Attack, a burger topped with mac and cheese. I order “as the locals do” and it’s delicious!
We have the whole night ahead of us, so we start walking to the PHS Beer Garden. It’s a spacious, historic, rusty industrial building with immaculate vibes. What the garden produces gets donated to the North Light Community Center.
From there, we pass a sign that says “karaoke night” in front of Fat Lady Brewing. There’s passionate musicians and singers performing. We go inside to play cards and jenga, singing along, and cheering them on. Towards the end of the night, our very own Anthony goes up and plays a few songs on the keyboard.
Anthony transforms the room, jumping into the solo of Lynard Skynard’s Free Bird- the crowd loves it. We sing along with him as he plays a few more of his favorite songs, including two by his favorite band, ACDC. Time flies. The last song is “Teenage Dirtbag,” and we sing along as we file out the door.
It’s a short walk back, but we’re still filled with energy. We set up on the front porch and begin reminiscing about our intimately shared childhood experiences. We remind each other of our times spent at summer camps and doing community service at the old-folks home- just to scratch the surface. Eventually though It gets late- reluctantly we head off to bed.
Manayunk by Day
Friday morning has both accountants (Alexis and Anthony) working from home, but we manage to break away for a short trip to Volo Coffeehouse.
Coffee drinks secured, Anthony returns home. But it’s a beautiful morning, so Alexis and I take a walk along the Schuylkill River trail. It's a popular spot as we’re passed by dog walkers, runners, and bikers.
Alexis has a meeting this morning at 11 am, but it’s one that almost always get pushed to a later date. Nevertheless we keep walking, anticipating the sweet release of one less meeting to have to sit through.
But 10:50 am rapidly approaches, and there’s still no word from her coworkers. The bigger issue is that we’re now a 15 minute walk back to her house! I tell her to jog ahead so she can make her meeting in time.
I meander around on my way back, spotting some nice murals, plant shops, and cafes. Then I get a call from Alexis- “They just cancelled it- 4 minutes before it started!” I laugh, tell her my location, and once together, we head to a plant shop for the upcoming Farmer’s Market….
GND Meets PHL
A month prior to visiting, I proposed the idea of visiting to Alexis in Philly. Immediately Alexis’s brain started planning. She likes to plan ahead, and she always has the best intentions.
A few days go by, then she hits me with this idea…
“Let's set up your business, Gage’s Natural, to be a vendor at the Pretzel Park Farmer’s Market!”
Registration is only $15, the market is super close to her house, and all I need to do is show up with my products! She’ll take care of getting a table, chairs, and canopy required for setup. In fact, she tells me the director of the farmers’s market has already sent me an email to apply!
Feeling aligned to this calling, I gather all the soap, lip balm, candles, deodorant, and t-shirts that I can squeeze into a backpack-and-a-half’s worth of space.
As the trip quickly approached, we had more and more ideas to spruce up our setup and make it as much of a Ground Yourself experience as possible. Decorating the table with plants was just one of our many ideas…
Plants, Yoga, Arts and Crafts
We walk into Safa Plant Company, looking for some nice budget-friendly plants. With a great variety to choose from, we look for a snake plant and a spider plant. They’re adaptable, look nice, and they’re good at cleaning air.
With empty stomachs we stop at Sorrentino’s Deli on our way home. I order Anthony’s usual- a bacon egg and cheese sandwich with a hashbrown on it. We have to eat quick though- at noon, we have a yoga class scheduled at Unity Yoga. Luckily it’s not far.
We walk into the lobby which has cubbies, blankets, pillows, support blocks, tea and kombucha drinks, and most importantly, spare yoga mats.
We enter the studio to find only one other yogi joining us. The teacher walks in and begins our Vinyasa Level 2 Yoga class.
Our teacher Denise Charlton is good, and she invites us to find comfort in testing our boundaries.
Feeling refreshed after some deep stretching, we head back home. Our yoga session is a nice hiatus from the morning madness, but we still have a busy schedule ahead of us.
Most importantly, our farmer’s market table needs figured out. So we take a short drive to Dollar Tree to pick up markers, posters, paper bags, table cloths, and anything else we might need to create the vibe.
We get home and immediately I start on the poster. Getting the letter spacing down, coordinating colors, and coloring takes much longer than I expect. After two or three hours into the project I take a break- my cousins Braden and Nick just arrived, and we’re leaving for dinner.
We walk a few minutes to a sushi restaurant called New Leaf 2 Chinese & Japanese Cuisine. The atmosphere is accented with an ever-changing geometric pattern projecting on the wall near the table we sit.
The meals come out quickly, and the food is delicious. It’s a much needed raw-food meal for me, and it hits the spot before we head out for the night.
The Rocky Statue
We get a ride to one of Anthony’s friends' apartments near the Fairmount area. Here we have a drink or two, but then realize we’re only about a 10 minute walk to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, home of the Rocky Statue.
A few minutes later we’re striking the iconic pose in front of the Rocky Statue. But just as we’re finishing up, a man walks up to us. He tells me to strike another boxing pose. Going along with the bit, I put some fists up.
Then it gets interesting.
He walks up to me, leans back with a contorted face, and says “Pretend like you’re punching me!”
Hesitantly I reach my fist out, hoping to not get caught off guard in any way. Alexis hurriedly snaps a video, and we thank him for his inspirational ideas.
Climbing up the legendary art museum steps, we find a second Rocky statue! We get pictures in front of this one (of course) and turning around, we see the Philadelphia skyline reaching up into the night sky. I grab a vanilla ice cream cone from Mister Softee at the bottom of the art museum steps before we head back to rejoin the group.
Upon returning, we find everyone ready to head to Urban Saloon. I’m told sometimes the seating area here gets cleared out for a dance floor, but tonight the tables remained. Once midnight creeps up though, we bid our friends farewell.
Again we find ourselves hanging out on the front porch late into the night. We’re reminiscing again, but this time with the addition of Nick and Braden’s stories. Alexis remembers playing football with all her male cousins and always being last to get the ball thrown to her. Once she had it though, we’d all be surprised when she ran it in for a touchdown!
It gets late though, and we have to wake up tomorrow morning for the Pretzel Park Farmer’s Market!
Pretzel Park Farmer’s Market
Bright and early we wake up at 7:45am- Alexis (and I) like to be proactive. We can start setting up at 8:30 am, but it doesn’t start until 10 am. Besides, the poster still needs some finishing touches.
At 8:30am we hop in the car for a quick 30 second drive. We’re the first ones here, but a few minutes later the director and a few other vendors arrive. They describe the U-shape layout of the market and have us set our tent right beside Walnut Run Farm, which turns out great for us…
It was a wet morning for the Pretzel Park Farmer’s Market, but that didn’t seem to temper the crowds. Around 10:15am, there’s a long line of loyal customers picking up their groceries from our “neighbor.” I’m fascinated this farmer can command this number of customers, and I’m grateful our tent is right beside his checkout line!
I wasn’t able to walk around and check out the other vendors much because we were getting so much traffic ourselves. I was told afterwards we might’ve been the second or third most trafficked booth out of about 12 different vendors! One gentleman came over to check out our table simply because “it had the best vibe!”
Alexis and Anthony invite nearby friends and family to the market, and I’m thankful for all the support everyone gave me!
At some point Anthony picks up Dallesandro’s cheesesteaks for us. We chow down and sell the last few sticks of lip balm through bites of delicious Philly cheesesteak.
Once it’s all said and done around 2 pm, I evaluate the aftermath. After selling out of candles, deodorant, and lip balm, several bars of soap, and a few “Ground Yourself” t-shirts, our booth made almost $300!
I didn’t know my expectations going in, but whatever they were, they were definitely blown away! The first Gage’s Natural farmer’s market was a smashing success, and I have Alexis and Anthony to thank for it! The success of this market gives me the confidence and momentum to set up at other farmer’s markets in the future, and for that I’m grateful. :)
The Philly’s Game
We spend some much-needed time relaxing back at the house. A few hours away though is a Philly’s baseball game. The tailgate just started, so once we’re fully recouped, we ride out to Citizen’s Bank Ballpark, where the Phillies are hosting the Los Angeles Angels.
We spend some time at the tailgate hanging out and drinking some of Nick’s first batch of new craft brews. I’m not one to enjoy IPA beers, but it was his first time home-brewing beer, and I was pleasantly surprised how well it turned out!
As we start walking towards the stadium, Alexis tells me “we should have a nice view of the Philly skyline from our seats.”. We climb up to the top section, and as promised, we have the best view in the house!
Later in the game, as Alexis and I are standing in line for ice cream. Suddenly the crowd goes wild. As we look up at the screen overhead, we see Kyle Schwarber just hit a grand slam! The crowd loves it as it gives the Phillies the lead (and eventual win!) over the LA Angels. It’s definitely a different experience compared to Pirates baseball!
In Pittsburgh, the stadium is in the prime location of North Shore. Citizens Bank Park (the Phillies stadium) is outside the city, amongst the football and hockey stadiums where there’s lots of parking. This means most people, upon leaving the stadium, head to the most popular (and only) bar around- Xfinity Live.
“Highway to Hell!”
Comparing it to Pittsburgh, Alexis describes Xfinity Live as “the Tequila Cowboy of Philly.” The first indicator is the enormous line to get in the doors. Luckily we find an inconspicuous entrance around the back where the line is much shorter.
There’s a big common area filled with TV and restaurants, reminding me a bit of a small sports book I’d see in Las Vegas. Flanked off the sides are different restaurants and bars, all with their own space and experience.
Braden and I wander off to an upstairs area, and we’re met with a crowd of people all donning headsets with light-up colors. It’s a silent disco! We put on some headsets, make a friend or two, and debate which color we’re all going to sync up to.
Then we head over to the karaoke room with Alexis, where a dedicated group of 10 or so people are ready to belt out whatever song comes on.
The venue fully explored, we look to spice things up a bit. Anthony and his friend want to try their hand at Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia, just a short walk away across the parking lots.
The inside is no surprise- flashing slot machine screens beckon people to sink a few dollars into a chance at winning big. In the adjacent area, tables line up offering Blackjack, Roulette, Craps, and much more.
The table minimums were pretty high, understandably so given it’s a Saturday night. My money stays in my pocket though. I’m already up on the day from the farmer’s market- I’m not risking it! Our group comes away green, we cash in chips, and call it a successful casino run.
As expected, once again we’re up talking late into the night. Alexis jokes that “our weekends aren’t always this filled up with activities!” I’m told that my visit brought everyone together for good times, which I’m happy to hear!
Wrap Up
I’m elated and very thankful Alexis and Anthony had me in Philly for such a great time! Everything went perfectly and having my cousins Braden and Nick there added to the good times we shared.
Alexis and I have a long history together filled with tons of memories and this was one more exciting chapter we got to write together. :)
I appreciate you taking time to read about my adventure! Take 10% off your next purchase at gagesnatural.com with code BLOG READER.
