By the time I took this trip, my sojourn in Maryland had lasted over a month. I had visited Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. I had another New York trip lined up for Labor Day Weekend, so the weekend between the two New York trips I set aside for our nation's capital, Washington, DC.

The weekend of August 20-22, 2021 was not at all my first time in New York City. I'd been there more times before than I could count. After all, I've always had relatives in neighboring New Jersey and even lived in that state for a short time, so it's inevitable I'd visit the biggest city in the country more than once. I'd seen the Statue of Liberty up close, walked through Times Square several times in different decades, watched Fourth of July fireworks over the East River, I'd even been to the top of one of the late Twin Towers when I was only five years old during my first ever trip outside of Ohio. But these were nothing more than day trips to Manhattan; I'd never really experienced New York City the way I'd experienced Philadelphia or Berlin or Toronto or any other city I've blogged about here.

This was the second half of my weekend spent in Philadelphia, Sunday, August 15, 2021, in which we see the famous "Rocky Steps," the Museum of the American Revolution, and an ill-advised two hours in nearby Trenton, New Jersey.

For some reason I'd never been to Philadelphia before the weekend of this trip. One would think I would have during all those years living in New Jersey in the early 2000s, but the closest I ever got was a visit to the museum ship USS New Jersey across the river in Camden, NJ. Of course I was still living with my parents then so any trips I went on back then were all their ideas. So of course, when thinking of weekend trips I could take during my temporary stay in Maryland, Philly was one of the first places that came to mind, and that's where I spent the weekend of August 14-15, 2021.