Philadelphia in 5 hours: Cheesesteaks and Baseball

Goal: See Philadelphia- grab a cheesesteak, and catch a Phillies game. (Check).

Sure, I skipped Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, Reading Terminal Market, and countless other Philadelphia attractions. In my defense, I had about five hours- including time spent at the ballgame.

I. Getting There.
Discounting a layover at the Philadelphia airport, this was my first visit to Philly. We were traveling from Baltimore, so we took 95 & 495 for a short trip up the freeway. Friday holiday traffic caused some delays, but not terrible. Around two hours or so.

II. Food.
Step One: Figure out what to eat. Simple. It's philly. A cheesesteak. Done.
Step Two: Figure out where to eat (a cheesesteak). So who has the best cheesesteak? At first glace Pat's and Geno's seemed to be the two top contenders. Digging further though, it seemed that these two places might cater more to tourists- perhaps I should look elsewhere for the best philly cheessteak. Ultimately, I decided on Tony Luke's, and I was pretty happy.
Step Three: Execute! Getting there was pretty easy. (Hello, GPS.) Further, their location was pretty convenient to the ballpark (but maybe not as close as Pat's or Geno's.)

Tony Luke's actually has two buildings: An outdoor stand on the North side of Oregon, and a bar/restaurant on the South side. (Tip: no bathrooms in the former. Available at the latter.) The outdoor stand has some covered seating, and had a 30 minute line when we got there about 90 minutes before the game.

So we are in line, what do we order? (Cheesesteak.) I am not disappointed we did not have to learn how to say our order. In fact, I think it is ironic that those other places have "speak English" signs, but then apparently force people to not speak proper English when ordering. Go figure. No problem here.

Moving on. Cheeseteak. Cheese Wiz or Provolone? Onions? Anything else? My wife went with the wiz, no onions; I went with sharp provolone, no onions. My wife had the better sandwich. On both sandwiches, the meat was on point. To me, I think this probably is the base of the sandwich's reputation. Without strong steak, the sandwich would be just another sandwich. As for the cheese, the heat of the steak really works well with the wiz, which wasn't really messy at all. The provolone was fine, but didn't quite give the sandwich a good cheesy complement to the meat.
Rating: B+.

III. Entertainment.
Step One: Get tickets. Despite a recent slump, the Phils still clung to first place heading into the Independence Day weekend- and their I-95 division rival the Mets were in town, only a few games behind in the standings. Translation: the tickets were not cheap. I decided to spend about $60/each for two tickets in the outfield from Stubhub- about midway up, right field. They might have been cheaper had I not waited until the day before, but fortunately I was able to print the tickets out at home right after buying them. Tip: try not to buy seats right below the scoreboard. I made that annoying mistake when I saw the Nats "play" in DC at their new ballpark.

Step Two: Getting to the game. The (relatively) new home for the Phillies is Citizens Bank Park, located in South Philadelphia in a sports complex including the Eagles stadium, the Flyer's stadium, and a basketball stadium.
The Phillies won. Parking was pretty simple- probably because we got there right at gametime. We paid $5-$10 to conveniently park in one of the stadium lots. (A great option for folks with little folks.)

Step Three: Fun! We got there a few minutes into the first inning, and hadn't really missed much. The entire stadium was pretty packed, which usually makes for a fun atmosphere. When one or two fans near our seats three food at a Mets fan (who seemed to be enjoying himself and soaking it in) Katie and I were surprised at the speed with which the stadium officials descending upon the section and ousted the unruly fan. Snowballs might be o.k. for throwing (at least in the old days), but these days that might be as far as you get, if that. The folks around us seemed pretty nice, and didn't mind the extra load I had on me for most of the game- I was carrying my son with the baby bjorn.

Since we bought the traditional Philly dinner a few minutes beforehand I uncharacteristically avoided the stadium food at Citizens Bank Park for the most part. As it turns out there was a line for Tony Luke's inside the stadium too, although it was eclipsed by the line for 'Crab Fries' from Pete's. (Hint: nothing but fries with Old Bay seasoning. Not even a hint of crab meat!) Of course a slew of other places sold cheeseteaks and other traditional ballpark fare inside 'the bank'.

I enjoyed my traditional walk around the park, particularly the wall of fame. We left a few minutes into the 9th, and had no problem getting onto nearby I-95. As for the game itself, the Phils won going away.

Maybe next time I will have a few more hours, and can spend time outside of South Philly.