After living in Philadelphia for four years for college and then three years full time now, I’m amazed how much there is still to do here! Recently my parents came to visit and we wanted to see as much as we could in Philly because we are all finally vaccinated. I thought it would be fun to share what we did on my parents short visit because I feel like we did so much in just a few days to get the full Philadelphia experience!

My parents got to Philadelphia late Sunday afternoon so my cousins nearby came over to my house for a little happy hour before we headed out to dinner. The one struggle right now after not being fully comfortable to dine at restaurants the last year is that we have so many options of places to go to! We decided to go to Sally’s down the street and I am so happy we went because it was so delicious! Everything on their menu sounded delicious so we got a bunch of small plates and four pizzas to try. The staff was so friendly and the food is so good so I highly recommend!

The next day we walked over to Rittenhouse Square which is one of my favorite parts of the city. Since I live nearby and go so often, I wanted to take my parents on the route I walk to run errands since I’m usually on the phone with them catching up while I’m walking there and back! I took them to my favorite streets to walk past and pointed out my favorite houses with the best architecture. Even though we have been in this house for a few years now, I am still in awe of this city. We browsed at books at Shakespeare and Co. after walking through the park and walked up and down Walnut and Chestnut. My parents lived in Philadelphia for 4 years in the 80s so it is a little different than what it looked like back then! When Jake got off of work, my parents drove us out to Ardmore to buy a car and we met up with them for dinner and drinks at the Iron Hill Brewery after. I love living in Philadelphia because the suburbs are a short drive away so we really do get the best of both worlds!

On Tuesday morning, my dad woke all of us up early to go to Reading Terminal Market because he really wanted a Pennsylvania staple, scrapple. If you do not know what it is, you are not missing out! We had breakfast at a cute little diner inside Reading Terminal Market and then walked around to look at all of the different food stands. The market has some of the best local food in the city and you can try a bunch of things in one visit just by walking around. We picked up some sweet treats and I picked up some fudge to bring home to Jake so he didn’t feel left out while he was at home working. We had some time to walk around in that part of the city so we walked through the new Fashion District Mall. It opened up just before everything shut down with the pandemic so we got some relief from the heat outside by walking around and did some window shopping. They really have everything in this mall without having to drive far out of the city to shop.

We drove past my old apartment closer to Center City and circled City Hall which is one of my favorite buildings in the city because of the architecture. In the car I pointed out where we go grocery shopping and other places we run errands. My parents were shocked by how much walking we do in the city but I love any excuse to walk around the city ❤

That weekend after my parents left, Jake and I went to the Philadelphia Zoo to celebrate both of us being vaccinated. It’s a short drive from our house and it was so much fun to walk around and look at all of the exhibits. It has been on our list of things to do for so long and right now they have a dinosaur exhibit that is similar to the Jurassic Park attraction at Universal.

There is so much to do in this city and after a year of staying home, we have a very long list of things we want to do this summer! It’s the perfect city to walk everywhere and be able to try lots of restaurants. Even with a short visit with my parents we did so much and they were exhausted when they went home!