Day 2.65: Philadelphia, PA to Katonah, NY

We woke up for the final day of our trip, saying goodbye to Becca and Max before loading up our car for the last time. Our most crucial stop of the day was at a Wawa after we crossed into New Jersey, where we filled up on gas and purchased a few items for lunch. Arielle was delighted to get her iced coffee, and we used a free drink reward to get a lemonade. She got a hoagie with egg, cheese, and tomato, and Abe got a quesadilla to go with the banana cream smoothie he so enjoys.

We opted against taking the George Washington Bridge and instead followed our directions up to the Tappan Zee Bridge. The drive was very pretty, and we stopped for a bathroom break and to take in the view right at the New Jersey-New York border.

It only took another forty or so minutes to reach Abe’s parents’ house in Katonah, where we returned after last being there back in November. We brought in some of our stuff and enjoyed a leisurely evening adjusting to life off the road. We had a great dinner with Abe’s parents at Tengda, where Arielle split a sweet potato tempura roll with Nancy, in addition to getting a California Roll and garden salad, and Abe enjoyed the Thai Red Snapper with soy ginger broccoli on the side.

Thoroughly exhausted, we went to sleep, looking forward to staying in one place for at least a couple nights.

Approximate number of miles covered: 255

Day 2.64: Philadelphia, PA

We got up and talked a bit with Becca before heading out for the day to explore the city and take advantage of the nice weather. It only took about twenty minutes to get to Rittenhouse Square, which includes a beautiful park. Our first stop was at Goldie’s to try the famous tehina milkshakes. Arielle ordered the banana flavor, which she quickly got used to, though Abe discovered he didn’t like it after just two sips. Abe was excited about using his birthday credit from Sweetgreen, which was set to expire that day. His standard bowl with arugula, wild rice, tomatoes, sweet potato, raw corn, tortilla strips, and avocado was fantastic. Arielle got two pretzels and a dipping sauce from Philly Pretzel Factory to go along with her milkshake, and we sat and ate in Rittenhouse Park.

After lunch, we sought out a Smoothie King since Abe had seen signs all over nearly every restaurant about Ritual, with Smoothie King offering a discount option that would make a smoothie free! Unfortunately, we got pretty lost looking for it since it was in a mall and finally found it after about half an hour. Luckily, the people there were very nice and had stored it in a cold place while we were searching (which was especially great considering the Ritual app detected where we were and only transmitted the order when we were allegedly five minutes away so that it would be as fresh as possible).

We stopped to get a plain tehina shake to bring back for Becca and Max. Upon our arrival, we decided to go out to keep enjoying the nice day together, and sat on a rock right by the water with Becca and her dogs, Pippa and Paul, for a couple hours while Max went for a bike ride. Highlights included a girl who came over to ask about breeds for adoption and excitedly spent at least ten minutes going crazy over the dogs, thanking us repeatedly in a way that sounded like she was going to walk away, but remained; and Pippa wildly barking every time another dog came close.

We walked back to their apartment, changed for dinner, and took an Uber to Buddakan. This moderately upscale restaurant was a formidable experience. Our favorite part was the fire roasted edamame appetizer (hold the shellfish sauce). Arielle got the wok cashew chicken with tofu instead, and Abe got the black pepper beef. Everything was delicious.

We had a great time and then capped off the night by walking a few blocks to the Franklin Fountain to get ice cream. Abe got the Hydrox Cookie and Arielle got the Mint Chocolate Chip. It was great to be able to sit outside and eat.

We took an Uber back to the apartment and hung out for a bit before heading to bed.

Approximate number of miles covered: 8

Day 2.63: Pittsburgh, PA to Philadelphia, PA

We got up, loaded our car, and said goodbye to our wonderful hosts, hitting the road for our last big drive of this trip.

We had hoped that Arielle would drive so that she could finish listening to Big Little Lies and Abe could catch up on a few TV shows, but the drive along I-76 proved to be so windy that it wasn’t feasible at all. It was nice to be back in EZ-Pass territory, though we later discovered that driving along the route that saved us about an hour and a half did end up costing us a fair amount of money. The most crucial stop of our drive was at a Bruster’s, which we found just ten minutes off the route in Harrisburg. We sampled a number of flavors and didn’t end up getting the flights, opting instead for two scoops each: chocolate mousse and mint chocolate chip for Abe and black raspberry chocolate chunk and white chocolate for Arielle.

We hit some traffic once we started getting close to Philadelphia, but managed to arrive easily with about an hour before we had to head out to dinner. We got to catch up with Becca, a Hebrew school friend of Arielle’s, and see her fiancé, Max, for a few minutes before we left. We had last visited them – and met Max for the first time – when we came for one night in November. We left to walk about fifteen minutes to the apartment of Shayna and Brandon, college friends of Arielle’s who we used to see much more frequently when they lived in New York. It was great to see their place, and we walked together to Continental, a cool restaurant which we enjoyed very much. We shared the Szechuan Shoestring Fries and Brussels sprouts, and Shayna, Brandon, and Abe all got the seared tuna, which was delicious. Arielle ordered the grilled kale pizza, which she thought smelled like truffle oil but ultimately tasted great. We decided to share the Deep Dish Cookie dessert, which was fantastic.

We walked a few blocks with Shayna and Brandon, said goodbye, and headed back to Becca and Max’s, where we spent a long time chatting before heading to bed.

Approximate number of miles covered: 310