Sometimes you have to do things you don't like. For me, something I don't like is going to Philadelphia. I won't even lie, I had never been there before. If it wasn't for this baseball trip, I probably never would go, even if it's pretty close to home. I've been born and raised a Met fan, and I'm a New Yorker. At this point, I think at the very least, a strong dislike of all things Philadelphia is innate at this point. We went to Philly because we had to, we couldn't accomplish our tour of baseball stadiums without a visit. My sister and I decided we'd be picky about who we saw there. We couldn't see them play against any ol' team (even though we'd be rooting for them) we had to see the Phillies play a team we could truly celebrate a win with. Right after Memorial Day weekend, the Phillies were playing a two game series against the Boston Red Sox...SOLD! We wanted to spend the least amount of time in Philly as possible so we left for Philly around 2pm on the day of the game, and were gone within 24 hours.

We left on what felt like the hottest day of year, and of course got stuck in traffic outside of Philly. Anything to make the trip worse, right? We drop our stuff off at the hotel, I proudly rock a Red Sox shirt and we head to the game. The one thing I'm really impressed with is how they've turned that area into a Philly sports complex almost. You get off the train and you have Citizens Bank Park, Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Eagles and the Wells Fargo Center, home of the Flyers and 76ers. As a sports fan, it's both convenient and pretty awesome. Everyone kept telling me how phenomenal Citizens Bank Park is and how much I'd love it. Yea...not so much. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad stadium. It's just nothing special. I'm very willing to admit that my opinion is COMPLETELY skewed because there are few things I hate more than the Phillies. Our seats were not bad, I thought we should've been closer for the price we paid, but I'm accustomed to that since I frequent Citi Field. I thought the fans were going to be worse, and people were going to troll me for wearing Red Sox gear, but they largely kept to themselves. The stadium is also a friggin' bandbox. I'm pretty confident I could hit a home run there. The coolest thing about the stadium is when someone on the Phillies hits a home run, they have a giant Liberty Bell that lights up and rings. Even I can admit that's pretty cool. Other than that, it was an average baseball experience. Wasn't the worst place on earth, but certainly wasn't the best. We got some great pictures, most because we finally figured out how to use the panoramic feature on our phones. Speaking of which, I cracked the screen on my phone at the game. Thanks a lot Citizens Bank Park...

The next day we did nerdy touristy things in Philly. Visited the Liberty Bell, went to the Constitution Museum (so much fun!) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art where they filmed the famous scene in Rocky where he runs up the steps. Collectively, it was more fun than the game itself. Another thing, driving in Philly SUCKS. We thought we were going to die way too many times. We ended the trip by stopping off at Tony Luke's for cheese steaks. I'm not the biggest fan of cheese steaks to begin with, and the best I can say about Tony Luke's is "ehhhh." Anyway, THAT trip is in the books, on to the next one!

Game Information:

May 28, 2013 7:10pm

Dempster vs Lee

Final Score: 3-1 Philadelphia Phillies defeat the Boston Red Sox

W: Lee L: Dempster S: Papelbon

Rankings:

1) Fenway Park, Boston Massachusetts

2) PNC Park, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania

3) Wrigley Field, Chicago Illinois

4) Target Field, Minneapolis Minnesota

5) Citi Field, Flushing New York

6) Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia Pennsylvania

7) Yankee Stadium, Bronx New York

Here are some pictures!

Next stop: Washington D.C. the nation's capital!