Philadelphia. Day 2. Saturday. It was a lot of beets.
We woke up around 8:30 and laid in bed for a while. Don’t tell Hallie, but it was pretty nice not having her climb on top of us at 7:00 AM on a Saturday morning.
We got up, got dressed, and made it to breakfast around 9:00 AM. Breakfast was at Jean Georges. Again we got a great a table with a great view. I had a blueberry bowl with “jungle peanut butter” (sorry Tzvi) and fresh and dried fruits. Tzvi had baked eggs with cheese and broccoli. We also had a croissant and lots of good toast and jams. Delicious breakfast. On the way back up I picked up some free coffee and a free coffee cake muffin, because why not.
After breakfast we changed and made our way to the spa for our 10:45 AM couples massage. The relaxation room at the spa is great. They have those zero gravity chairs and then water, tea, dried fruits, and chocolate. Before the massage they asked if there was anything that was bothering me. I told them, “well, I’m pregnant, so everything.” They had a pregnancy pillow which was nice, but I was never really on my stomach (like I was at the Four Seasons Orlando). Also, she wouldn’t go that hard because she said she wasn’t allowed. It was a good massage, but I’m looking forward to a post pregnancy massage. Tzvi said his was fantastic, though.
After the massage we lounged around, read and swam for several hours until we were hungry. Then we changed and went to JG SkyHigh (the Jean Georges bar upstairs) for lunch. We shared green chickpea hummus with pita and crudite. I had a broccoli and kale salad, and Tzvi had an escarole and apple salad with a beer vinegar dressing. They also gave us really good bread. After lunch we changed back into our bathing suits and went back to the pool. When we got back (around 3) we found the scene wildly different from when we left it. Since we’d left, at least six kids had gotten into the pool. We took back our same seats and sat reading for a while. I was pretty engrossed in my book, and when I next looked up there were a dozen kids in the pool all splashing and jumping and screaming. They just kept coming. I don’t know from where. Somehow it was still a very relaxing afternoon, though they were a little annoying. As our friend from Los Angleles once wisely said “it’s starting to feel like a Denny’s in here.”
Around 5 o’clock we went back to the room to shower and dress to go out. Shabbos ended at 5:40, and we got an Uber and headed to the movies. We had bought tickets to see Knives Out at an AMC about 10 minutes from the hotel. It may not have been the best neighborhood, but the theater was nice and the movie was really fun.
After the movie we took an Uber and had a late dinner at Parc Brasserie in Rittenhouse Square. The restaurant is a French style bistro that’s apparently been around for a long time. It was kind of like a massive and lively French Roast. We weren’t super hungry so I had a beet avocado salad and Tzvi ordered trout almondine. My salad was good, but it was a lot of beets. Like a whole lot of beets. I thought it would be a salad that had beets. It was beets that had some avocado. They also had great bread, although we had to ask for it more than a few times. At one point a waiter dropped a glass and it broke. There was no glass anywhere near us and the whole event was barely noticeable, but they were very apologetic and brought us a basket of complimentary gougieres, which would’ve been really nice if gougieres weren’t Gruyere cheese puffs. Tzvi ate them though and said they were delicious. We spent a while chatting with the waiter who dropped the glass, who wasn’t even our waiter. He was one of 5 children, all apparently with strong personalities. I think when you’re pregnant people like to give you more information about themselves and their family because, you know, you’re creating family. He was nice. For dessert we shared a creme brulle and Pot De Crème with chocolate cremeux, coffee anglaise, flourless chocolate cake, and Tahitian vanilla foam. Both were delicious.
After dinner we walked back to the hotel, watched some TV and fell asleep.
