Game #10 - Marquette vs Villanova- Philadelphia Visit

The final game on our Big East Tour was Villanova and we finally knocked it off this weekend. Villanova proved a challenge as the game has been played almost exclusively on a Wednesday night in Philly for the past several years (e.g. mid week or holidays)

• Tuesday, Jan 30, 2024

• Saturday, December 31 2022 (New Years Eve)

• Wednesday January 19, 2021

• Wednesday, February 10, 2020

• Wednesday, February 12, 2019

• Wednesday, February 27, 2018

• Saturday, January 7, 2017

• Wednesday, January 13, 2106

In hindsight we could have chosen the 2017 game but we simply didn't expect the long run of mid-week games that would have required missing work/school which violated our "miss no school" rule!

This trip was more of a logistical planning test for Erik and I as Erik flew out of Appleton, WI and Tim flew out of Orlando, Florida. Luckily we had flights that arrived 15 minutes apart in Philly. We found a train running from the airport to downtown Philly where we were staying which worked out great (we had expected to have to take Uber).

The basketball game was on Friday evening and since we arrived late Thursday, we had a chance to begin exploring Philadelphia Friday morning. We squeezed a fair amount in on Friday before the game:

• Reading Terminal Market - https://readingterminalmarket.org/ - We had an awesome Amish Breakfast

• Liberty Bell - https://www.nps.gov/inde/learn/historyculture/stories-libertybell.htm

• Independence National Historic Park - https://www.nps.gov/inde/planyourvisit/basicinfo.htm

• Independence Hall / Pennsylvania State House - https://www.nps.gov/inde/planyourvisit/independencehall.htm

• Betsy Ross House - https://historicphiladelphia.org/betsy-ross-house/

• Penn's Landing - https://www.visitphilly.com/things-to-do/attractions/penns-landing/

• Check out both of the competing Philly Cheesesteak rivals that sit at the intersection of South 9th Street and Passyunk Avenue, where rivals Geno’s Steaks and Pat’s King of Steaks feed the masses daily, and do your very own taste test

We found Philly easy to navigate and with a SEPTA pass (Southeastern Philadelphia Transit Authority), we used the subway to zip around the city and get to the game.

Saturday was wide open for us to visit a few more things which included:

• Visited the Villanova Campus which is what we like to do on these Big East visits to get a feel for the various schools

  
  

  

  Villanova is a beautiful campus located quite a distance from downtown Philly. Thankfully our SEPTA passes got us on subway/high speed rails to get there for a visit.

  
  

• Ran up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art called the "Rocky Steps" - https://www.visitphilly.com/articles/philadelphia/most-essential-things-to-do-in-philadelphia/#pose-with-the-rocky-statue-run-up-the-rocky-steps

• Did the walk down The Benjamin Franklin Parkway, modeled after the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris, https://www.visitphilly.com/articles/philadelphia/most-essential-things-to-do-in-philadelphia/#visit-the-awesome-museums-on-the-benjamin-franklin-parkway

• Revisited Reading Terminal Market to check out the AWESOME Miller Dog Pretzel Roll-up!!!! We wish we would have found this earlier!!!!

• We met up with a high school classmate of Erik (Seth Maertz) for dinner at Steak 48. Seth lives in Philly so of course, he took us to a great little Irish Bar afterwards. Seth and Erik continued "seeing sites" after into the night.