Brotherly Love

After a lovely week that involved watching two Harry Potter movies a day, a night Latin dancing at Henrietta's, and a day at Six Flags Great Adventure the girls, Mi Cariño and I got on the road to Philadelphia. Like last year, there were Queer movies to enjoy, and good food to be had.
First stop, a repeat, with Cafe Estelle. This time I had the corn and black bean omelette. I forgot to take a picture of pancakes, but believe me, we had them this time too. They were as good as we remembered.

Afterwards we made our way through Old City in Philadelphia, taking it easy and seeing the Liberty Bell from the outside once more, Christ Church, Old Pubs, and just generally enjoying the very hot day. In the afternoon we saw "Jessie and Jamie are Not Together," which was this hybrid of a romantic comedy with musical numbers thrown in. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Parts of it were really funny, while other parts, not so much. The musical numbers? Unnecessary, all of them. None of the songs were catchy or were saying things that were truly advancing the story (since most feelings expressed through song were said outloud before hand anyway), plus, the actors weren't really good singers anyway. That just takes away from that kind of thing. However, there were tons of nice sex scenes, funny date scenes, and the ever present gratuitous sex between best friends that doesn't really get addressed at the end. I'd give it a 3 out of 5 - much better than the disaster we saw last year, but not quite "Kissing Jessica Stein/Saving Grace."

After we followed Cariño's brother recommendation to find some cheesesteaks. We decided for Pat's.

I had me one with onions, peppers and mushrooms, and cheese. It was extremely tasty, but I didn't go crazy for it. It WAS a far better choice than the steaks we had last year. 

After, the girls dropped us off at the hotel before they set on the road back to New York. Picture of my hotel key, which I thought very clever and cute.

Phila, or at least Old City Phila, is chock full of these informative blue plaques. This one is right outside City Hall, by our hotel, and I enjoyed having the knowledge. I took the picture on my way to the bus stop so that I could go to NY.

Monday morning, after arriving in NY at 9:30, I watered plans and changed clothes to then go to work so that I could travel to... Philadelphia. Don't ask me. My co-workers and I drove down and arrived in the afternoon in time to record an interview and then be sent to a cocktail party at this boat/restaurant.

Very cute. Once work was over, Mi Cariño and I went for dinner to Cuba Libre. Very expensive, appetizers not really needed kinda place. Which we didn't realize until after we had the aforementioned appetizers.

The bread was great, though! Not Cuban bread, but close enough, and toasted, which makes a difference. Plus, it came with an amazing Mango Butter.

I had me a Mango Mojito to relax a bit. Once I took out all the extra mint they put on them things, it was not bad at all.

Main entree: Vaca Frita

con arroz blanco y habichuelas negras.

For dessert, Mi Cariño had a coffee and shot of liquor with soy milk concoction whose name I don't remember. Tasty but I wouldn't have been able to drink that whole cup.

The bill came in a very cute cigars box.

Another blue plaque, this one on the way to the place where we recorded. I find it lovely and hilarious that a branch of the U.S.A. Military Services was born in a bar.

View of Philadelphia from the Suite I was working at. Plenty of Memorials in that part of town.

We returned to NY Wednesday night after having had a great time. I wouldn't mind making this trip an annual thing, it was a lot of fun, and the lovely thing is that Phila still has many other things to go see. (Next year the Rodin Museum, for sure.)

Comedy of Errors

So we decided to head to Philadelphia for a weekend getaway - leave Saturday, return Sunday. Simple, right? No, it isn't when you're me! Because I can get you lost inside a ten foot square area. It's a gift, and I shall embrace it as such!

Our weekend began with my reserved car not being available - screw you dollar rent-a-car! - but thankfully we fixed that rather quickly and left for Philly in a beautifuly sunny day. We hit some traffic when we hit I-95 but thankfully mi Cariño had me there to entertain her with my inappropriate questions as she drove. That's right, she drove - because she wanted to see me drive in a Parking Lot before she would let me drive. And I refuse to do that! If the State of New York thinks I'm a good driver everyone should think so! In any case I'm scared of driving so it all worked out.

After some scrambling around, switched theaters and some quick walking we made it to what was ostensibly the reason why we were going to Philly - Q Fest! A queer, week long movie fest, that would include the movie "Leading Ladies." We got there just in time to see the theater lights darken! It was perfect.

Wanna know what wasn't perfect? The movie. OMG I can't even list the amount of things that are wrong with this movie. Should I start with the horrible acting? The atrocious dialogue? The uninspiring storyline? The one good thing I can say about the movie is that it was well shot. As in, it looked pretty. So the money they saved on a writer and an acting coach went to their camera and editing budget, I suppose. At one point, the male lead dances with a random guy at a club - that was pretty. He's obviously a good dancer. The female lead? Not so much. For one, everyone kept going on and on about how she was the one that took care of her family and THAT didn't come across once for me. Oh well, moving on.

After the fiasco that Leading Ladies turned out to be, and after some change of mind on my part, we went to Campos to eat some Cheese Steaks.

These were very VERY good - just not life changing. I guess I'm not that big a fan of beef, unless it's fried. But then again, anything fried is good, no?

After the Steaks we crossed the street to Christ Church. It is a beautiful building, has been around since 1695 and the most interesting part is that the church itself serves as a burial ground - as in you're walking down the center aisle and you'll be stepping over 4 or 5 grave markers. We ran into a couple that was taking pictures of each others posing with bibles and what not. Mi Cariño did not, to my disappointment, suggest we did this too. ;-)

We did some more Old City walking and soon enough it was time to find dinner. Enter "Bar Fernando" otherwise known as Bar Ferdinand, a Tapas place. I had a Valenciana

and we shared el Manchego Frito

Croquetas

Organic Sauteed Mushrooms

And I had the Atlantic Cod with Potatoes and a green sauce made out of I don't remember what.

Bar Ferdinand was not very memorable - The croquetas were horrible, and the waitress was forgetful, but the cod and the mushrooms were simply delicious. As was the Valenciana drink.

Sunday we drove around to North 4th Street to Cafe Estelle. What a find! We had to wait 20 minutes to sit, but it was well worth it. Cafe Estelle sits in the ground floor of an apartment building in what looks like a very industrial area. But it held the most awesome pancakes I've EVER eaten. Seriously. Bar None. I mean like REALLY really really really good pancakes.

Mi Cariño had this concoction called "Shirred Eggs" that I was not allowed to eat. Or take pictures of.

Shirred Eggs are baked eggs - these had spinach, mushrooms, truffle oil and cream. I went for a delicious omelette with red and green peppers, red onions,  ham and cheddar, homefries and toast.

Cafe Estelle made this trip worth it, the food was so good. We made it back to the Old City to see "Oy Vey My Son Is Gay."

It was good - it went a little crazy with the storyline there towards the end, but Lainie Kazan and Saul Rubinek made it totally worth it. They were hilarious. Like I am not. We finished the trip by sightseeing. Here's a statue

And so, that was Philly. It wasn't a very organized/structured trip, and I really enjoyed that aspect of it. It was certainly worth getting lost every other block and the traffic and what not. Except the Leading Ladies part. That wasn't worth it.

Next up: San Diego, CA!