Geno's or Pat's and Flower Show

For the second year in a row, Alan and I went to the Philadelphia Flower Show. We had fun but our feet were definitely hurting by the end of the evening.

We started out the night with dinner at Geno's. For those of you who don't know Philly, Geno's is one of the two popular places to get an authentic Philly cheese steak. The other is Pat's and both are located on opposite corners from each other.

Know that they're geared mainly to the tourists who come visit. There are better places to get a cheesesteak in the area but we were playing "tourists" that evening. There is debate whether Geno's or Pat's is better. We'd been to Pat's a couple times in the past and I would go again for sure but we wanted to try Geno's. So we did. We stood in line for about an hour and when we got to the window this is how we ordered:

Me: "whiz wit"

Alan: "make that two"

That gave us two cheesesteaks with cheese whiz and grilled onions. We ordered our fries and drink at a separate window and found an obscure table to eat at.

If you visit Philly you have to try that at least once. But, I will say that I think Pat's has a slight edge on Geno's. Not sure what it was but I think maybe they have a little more meat in their sandwiches. Or something. Maybe Alan can remember what that was. The standing room only lines are the same for both though.

We then presssed on to the Flower Show. We got there late so the crowds were thinned which was nice but the live entertainment was done for the evening. I missed that. I go not just to look at the flowers, but for the ambiance the entertainment provides.

Here are some pictures, it had an Italian theme this year:

Pretty statues. I love the tulips growing around the fountain and the fern around the statue.

Having fun with the art:

Flower specimens I liked. The wisteria that had been pruned and trained to grow like a tree. The same for the azaleas and some pretty tulips. I love their petite size!

The ugliest flower in the world! It's ginourmous stamen is black! And the petals down around the stem are mottled dark pinkish and black. You have to see this thing in person to appreciate it.

Flower art that I really liked. The tie has dried, pressed flowers decorating it.

Garden beds. I like the cleanness of raised beds with trimmed grass growing around them.

Trellised grapevines. Since we're planting grapes this year I wanted to have an example to use.

Herbs drying from an arbor.

And my favorite, this tree was painted top to bottom along with all the little tiny branches and twigs also painted. It looks like extremely tedious work. But the effect was brilliant. I call it the Dr. Seuss tree. I didn't catch its actual name.

Someone asked me if it really grew like that. I said "yes, they only grow in the painted dessert! That's why we never see them here." haha!