HUGE fountain in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Sunday morning, hubs and I set out to the Museum of Art – about a 1.5 mile walk from our hotel. The temps were on the rise, but since I am such an excellent navigator, we reached our destination in no time – after all, I excelled in land navigation back in High School ROTC class…
Hah…NOT.
The Kelly Drive loop path
The only reason I was able to successfully steer hubs and myself to the museum district area was that I had traversed that path just hours before. Around 6 AM, I had set off from our hotel to the highly recommended Kelly Drive loop behind the museum (thanks FitFluential running group!) As you can see from the photo above, it was still a little gloomy/dark, but it was keeping the temps down for the most part, which was nice.
I was running a pretty easy pace, right under 9 minutes, enjoying the river views and such – when it began to sprinkle. It actually felt really nice at the time, so I chugged along…then the raindrops started getting a little fatter…and started coming down faster…before long, it was POURING!
I sprinted up to a bridge that offered some cover and quickly removed my iPod from my belt clip and stowed it in my running belt – didn’t want that to get damaged! Then, I readjusted my ponytail and continued on…until I leaped right into a puddle! Rats. I sought out cover again, this time under a big tree, where a cyclist was also waiting out the big drops.
I pulled out my iPhone and called hubs – just to give him an update. I was about 4 miles in at this point (and had considered taking the trail straight out toward Valley Forge (which is about 20 miles from the city)) but since my feet were soaked at this point, I realized it would be kind of miserable to do so. I let hubs know that I’d be making the loop back and headed back to the hotel as soon as the rain slowed a little – and sure enough, about 5 minutes later, it was much more manageable!
Running through Falls Bridge.
I crossed the Falls Bridge and made the journey back to the Art Museum. This side of the river was just as tranquil – I enjoyed that the road was closed to traffic (though I stayed on the trail for most of the run anyway) and was surrounded by fellow runners and cyclists.
The Home stretch….and a glimpse of the Philly skyline!
The end of the loop was awesome – coming up around the corner, it was great to see this view of the skyline – this is the kind of city running I am definitely a fan of! 
I ran about a mile back to the hotel, then walked the rest, as a cool-down. Total Sunday morning mileage: 10 rain and swet-soaked miles! Weeeeee! I was feeling energized…and HANGRY.
Stuffed Challah Bread French Toast!
Fortunately, hubs had a plan – he had consulted our good friend Yelp and wanted to try out Sabrina’s Cafe for brunch – sounded fine to me! We walked over and saw that their high rating HAD to be well-deserved…there were people all over the outside waiting to get in and the hostess told us it was a 45 minute to 1 hour wait – or we could try and grab counter seating and BAZINGA! Lucky us, we got seats in about 10 minutes – and let me tell you – Sabrina’s is WORTH IT. I had that fantastic looking dish above – THICK slices of challah bread, stuffed with cinnamon cream cheese and topped with banana & vanilla bean syrup. MMMMMMMMMM – with dark, strong coffee. YUM!
Next stop: Art Museum!
Atop the ‘Rocky’ stairs! Can you spot hubs?
Yes, I did run up the stairs…but NO, there is not photographic evidence 
Definite wow factor!
This ^ is my only picture I took at the art museum. See, the guide said that you could take photos (as long as you didn’t use flash) for the most part (certain rules applied for specific exhibits) so of course the ONE picture I tried to take inside, I was scolded over by a security guard, so I stowed my camera for the rest of the visit.
We spent a few hours at the museum, before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the fun event that hubs planned for us that evening…a trip to the Walnut Street Theater (the OLDEST THEATER IN AMERICA! Check out these fun facts!) to see The Buddy Holly Story!
Oh boy!
IT WAS INCREDIBLE! I loved this show! We had great seats, off to the right but only about 10 rows back or so and the production was definitely awesome. Sure, we were the youngest people in the audience (by decades) but it was just so timeless – if you ever get a chance to see this amazing production – or visit this historic theater – PLEASE do! AMAZING. I didn’t want it to end!!
(not the one we saw, but a good ‘preview’)
After a LONG standing ovation and encore performance, the show ended, but our feet were still tapping! What a great show…we were chattering about it all the way back to the hotel, only to be interrupted by a voice yelling from across the street, “Hey, Kristina Higuchi (my maiden name)!!!” Talk about a small world! Right there, on the streets of Philadelphia, I ran into a classmate from HIGH SCHOOL! (Pssst, I went to HS in Japan, so this makes it even crazier)
Turns out, Joseph (dressed in white) was on the way to pick up a friend – he was in the process of moving to New York from Philly! He introduced me to his fiance – they’re getting married in June! Congrats to Joe + Chau!
Sunday sure was an action packed day…I didn’t know if our trip could get ANY better…but Memorial Day was on our heels, and I had a rundate scheduled with Krissie @ 6:30 AM , so the outlook was BRIGHT!
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Coming up next: our last day in Philly!
