You know it will be a good day when you start off with a kilo of barbacoa for breakfast! When researching Philadelphia, South Philly Barbacoa kept showing up on lists and any place that is only open Saturdays and Sundays from 5 am to 3 pm, has long lines, and sells barbacoa by the kilo - well, consider my interest piqued. It was also within walking distance of our AirBnB - count us in! We were properly fueled for our historical Independence Walking Tour (we did a private tour with Free Tours By Foot). The tour was 2.5 hours long and we had a terrific guide - it was clear she was passionate about history and she had a lot of interesting info to share about Philadelphia’s history and the historical sites we walked by. We mostly were outside (for instance we could see the Liberty Bell from outside), but we did go into two buildings. We saw the Supreme Court chamber in Old City Hall and watched a cool printing press demonstration in the Franklin Court Printing Office (operated by NPS). This was a great tour and I enjoyed all the history and tidbits.

We had a late lunch at Reading Terminal Market and some downtime at the Airbnb before a twilight tour at Eastern State Penitentiary. Norah and I had previously visited ESP and were happy to return - it is a fascinating place to visit. We started with the audio tour narrated by Steve Buscsemi and then wandered around to peer into old cells, see the various art installations, and visit what I think is one of the best exhibits I’ve seen at a museum: Prisons Today: Questions in the Age of Mass Incarceration. We finished off the visit with a cold beverage at the Fair Chance Beer Garden set up on the old baseball field. It was a great evening! We had plenty of charcuterie and pastries left over from the night before and returned to the Airbnb for good food and good company. Our second day was a success!

We were all returning to the Hudson Valley on Sunday, but had one more tour before we departed. We did another tour with Free Tours by Foot, this time the Chinatown Food Tour. The tour was three hours and a combination history/food tour. We stopped at four places for snacks and food and in between learned about the history of Chinatown and information about the neighborhood. We started with bakery goods at Bread Top House, purchased some snacks from a grocery store, had bubble tea at Mr. Wish, and finished with a sit down meal at Dim Sum Garden (soup dumplings figured prominently in our meal, yum!). It was fun to visit a different area of Philadelphia and sample more of the local food. Overall we had an awesome weekend exploring Philadelphia with friends!