This is beginning a series of posts that are purely for posterity so I don’t forget where I’ve been or something.  My picture archives aren’t great, so you’ve got to deal with what I’ve got.

Now that my brother lives in Maryland, we went to visit him and went to Philadelpha, Wilmington, and Washington DC in the process.

We didn’t do much other than walk the boardwalk in Wilmington, so I’ll just give you he coffee shops to work from should you ever be in the great metropolis of Elkton.

Saxby’s Coffee – Small coffeehouse with seating and WiFi on the University of Delaware campus.

Whereabouts Cafe – Really liked this place.  Very spacious, great breakfast and lunch bagels, and pretty good coffee.  Not terribly busy, and I didn’t feel like I was imposing by sitting down on the computer for a couple hours.

Other than that, we walked around the reservoir a bit, but the primary benefit a place like Elkton is its proximity to Newark, Wilmington, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.

Philadelphia, PA

While Joyce and Dad went to Washington, I decided to spend a couple nights in Philadelphia.  I did a lot of walking around from coffee shop to coffee shop, so I got to see a good bit of the city.  Here are the ones I had written down:

Elixr Coffee Roasters – Nifty shop with wood tables.

The Book Trader – I stayed just around the corner from this used book shop, which was cozy and had a huge selection.

Free Library – The Philadelphia Public Library is pretty amazing, although I couldn’t get my WiFi to work for whatever reason.  Probably just not following the instructions.  But if you’re looking for a place to work while you travel, the public libraries should be your first stop.

McGillin Old Ale House – I had a beer and some lunch here.

Good Karma Cafe – I don’t remember much about this one, but I assume good things happened to me after going here.

Menagerie – More modern wooden tables with good WiFi and coffee.

Chapterhouse Cafe – Don’t remember, but I went here and apparently it was worth writing down.

Campos – A famous Philly Cheesesteak deli in downtown I went to for lunch one day.  Of course being a vegetarian I didn’t exactly get the full experience, but I still got a pretty good vegetarian cheesesteak, so I would bet the real thing is pretty good too.

Below is a picture of Spruce Harbor Park, where I hung out for a bit one of the nights.  You can grab a beer and hang out in a hammock, play some giant chess, or walk around he waterfront.  The lights changing colors is pretty cool.

When the whole family was here we went to the Liberty Bell and some of the other famous historic stuff.  Ben Franklin’s house I think.  Other places that were in National Treasure too.

Washington DC

Now I’m not a huge DC fan, but we went down to help my sister move in to her apartment for a day.  That went pretty smoothly.  We went to the zoo and saw the pandas, and also my friend from college.

Cleveland Park Bar & Grill – We went to this bar afterward to catch up and bought some beer that cost a fortune and watched some of the Penn State game with Penn State fans.  We got to sit on the roof though, which was fortunate because it was a nice day.  But the beer got warm kind of fast sitting in the sun.  Overall rating = meh.