My Excellent Philadelphia Adventure

Once again I ventured down to the city Philadelphia, this time for a lunch date with my cousin, Lynne. Lynne is in the Philadelphia area on business from Texas and very kindly asked if we could meet up for lunch and of course, I said yes. She is doing some auditing for Dave & Buster's in the area; even though she is working in a restaurant I thought it might be more fun to escape to some place different for lunch. I found out I know nothing about restaurants in Philly nor do any of my friends. I tried googling restaurants in Philly and looking at reviews but everytime I hit on one with a good review I would check and the place would be closed. I guess in big cities a lot of new businesses just don't survive long, good reviews or not. I finally printed off the menus for 3 restaurants nearby Penn's Landing where she was and headed out the door; we would just have to take our chances on whether they were good or not. I plugged the address for Dave & Buster's at Penn's Landing into Ginger (my nickname for my GPS) and was off and set to brave the big, bad, city of Philly. Ginger and I were managing directions quite nicely and I was within a mile of Penn's Landing when she yelled "turn left" and I did. Oops, what she surely meant was the next left not the left right where I was because where I ended up was on the Ben Franklin Bridge heading into Camden, NJ. No big deal though, once we were off the bridge she quickly got me turned around and headed back across the river to PA, but not before paying the $4 toll. The weather was beautiful when I pulled up to Dave & Buster's and picked up Lynne. She chose GiGi's on Market Street from my selection of menus. We found the restaurant and even found on-street parking (which is always iffy in a city) right around the corner. This time my car inspection was up to date; those familiar with my blog know that on a recent trip into Philly to visit my "Harry Potter" potion master, Dr. Rosenzweig, I received a big ole ticket for parking on the street with an expired inspection sticker, oops. As an aside, Gigi's is located right across the street from the original Philadelphia post office that was run by Ben Franklin. I had been by that before on one of the city tours I had taken and had wanted to go back to it but didn't exactly remember where it was. I guess that will be an adventure for another day. Gigi's has both sidewalk tables, where you can enjoy seeing and SMELLING the passing traffic or indoor seating; we opted for indoors. I guess we made the better choice because at some point while we were catching up and enjoying our meal it must have rained, as evidenced by the wet sidewalk on the way back to the car. Lunch was good, not spectacular, decent food with slightly odd service. Our waitress/bartender came to tell us the specials which included a bluefish sandwich. When Lynne asked her what was on the sandwich (besides fish) she replied she didn't know..odd. She went to check and came back and told us it was fish tacos (not exactly a sandwich now is it?) While sipping our tea, another waitress came by and laid 5 packets of Splenda on the table (not in a dish or container, just packets on the table). Neither Lynne or I had asked for them and she didn't say anything just dropped them off, just in case, I guess. Minutes later, our waitress/bartender (she made sure to tell us she wasn't supposed to be waiting tables today which explains why she wasn't clear on those specials) came by and whisked the Splenda packets off the table and deposited them on another table. I am not sure if the other table had asked for them either or whether it was just their turn to have them on their table because no one said why they had arrived or why they were taken away..odd. Anyway, for those of you related to Lynne she is doing well. I heard all about the clan in Texas and it sounds like all are happy and keeping busy. I think it is so nice that they all live so close to one another; my family seems so spread out in comparison. We made it back to the car before the meter ran out (and there were no tickets on the window, whohoo) and I deposited her back at Dave & Buster's so she could get back to work auditing. For the record, she said the food is very good at Dave & Buster's and that she would have been perfectly content eating there (and they have free parking for lunch) but I thought maybe she might have needed a break so we tried something new. Ginger had me out of Philly and back on 76 heading home in no time; I arrived back safe and sound. Thanks for the invite Lynne; I really enjoyed it. I am sorry everyone that I once again did not remember to take my camera so I don't have any pictures to share. I will try and do a better job with that from now on. Till Tomorrow...