The Philadelphia Trip -

The Food Part I: Breakfasts

Looking back over my thousands of pictures,

I noted that I had not taken any photos

of our hotel buffet breakfasts.

Oh well.

You know the drill.

Dry overcooked or undercooked runny scrambled eggs,

fruit,

cold cereal,

waffles,

fatty bacon,

sausage,

muffins,

pastries,

juices,

milk,

coffee.

In other words,

same old, same old.

What follows is a little bit of different.

My first morning in Philadelphia I didn't have much time

before I had to be on the bus headed for

Longwood Gardens and QVC Studios.

Fortunately, I remembered seeing food carts

on the streets the day before.

The kind lady at the hotel was nice enough

to tell me where I could find the nearest food cart.

These food carts park on the sidewalk,

not the street.

The gentleman quickly and efficiently

whipped me up an egg and bacon sandwich on

wheat bread.

Cost? About $2.75.

I took this back to the hotel lobby to eat while I waited

for our bus to arrive.

Simple, but delicious.

The next morning I didn't have to be out quite so early.

That meant that I had time to go across the street to

the Reading Terminal Market to eat breakfast.

I was also able to convince my husband to come

along for the experience.

We decided to eat at Profi's Creperie.

We got there just before the rush.

After ordering our crepes,

we grabbed a couple of bar stools and watched them

go to work.

They have this art form down to a science.

My crepe arrived.





I ordered the egg, sausage and cheese crepe.



Good and filling.




I am so glad that we got to do this

in historic Reading Terminal Market.










Wednesday morning we headed out of Philly.



On our way to Gettysburg, our bus stopped

at Ray's Diner and Malt Shop

in East Norriton, Pennsylvania.

Some members of our group loved these mugs

and wanted to purchase them.

Lew, our wonderful tour coordinator,

purchased a case of mugs for us so that we

could each have a memento of this stop.

The restaurant had set up a buffet for our group.

Let me tell you;

this was not bad for a buffet.

Other than the fact that they ran

out of maple flavor syrup at one point,

I had no complaints.

I did go back for seconds for the sausages.

These sausages were dense, but not dry.

In the Midwest we don't usually have

natural casing sausages.

I wish I knew what kind of sausages these were.

In the end,

I am extremely glad that I chose

to do different options for breakfasts

while in Philly.

After all,

I had never seen, never mind

ordered, from a food cart before.

And I never hoped to be eating in

Reading Terminal Market,

either.

And that is why I instigated

my "No National Chain" restaurant rule

when we travel.

How else are you going to get these kinds

of experiences?