Fashion: Magic Midi (Day 2 Philadelphia Trip)

Untitled collage-5 — Dress (Zaful); Shoes (DSW – Kelly & Katie)

Day 2 of my Philly trip was jam packed with activities and food!

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(The photos of me are taken by Doug Pearson and all the rest are taken by me)

The weather was temperate, but I knew we were going to walk a lot. I wore this Zaful dress, which I saw my friend Mary wear (in a different color) and I had to have it! I honestly brought two pairs of shoes, one for walking and one for photos. The brown sandals (pictured in some of the photos below) were a gift from my mom and are super comfy; they were my walking shoes. The picture shoes were a Kelly & Katie block heel sandals, which I got on sale at DSW.

Our day started with a cute stray kitty walking in between my boyfriend and I purring

and asking to be petted (check out the video at the end of this post). Unfortunately, we had to walk away to go get breakfast.

We went to the The Gold Standard Cafe, which was only 3 blocks away from the Airbnb. We sat outside because of the beautiful weather. My boyfriend had the Huevos Racheros, while I had a more basic breakfast with pancakes, eggs, and toast. We both enjoyed the food, with the exception of the maple syrup (spoiler alert we went the next day and the syrup was better). The food was priced just right the total for both us was a little over $20 and the service was pretty good. Most importantly expect a lot of dogs!

Note: We took Uber Pool everywhere because it was so cheap. On average our trips were $5-$6 with our most expensive one being $8.

We made our way to South Street to the main attraction of the day, which was the Philadelphia Magic Gardens. If you’re ever in Philly forget the Rocky Steps and the Liberty Bell this is the place you must go! Admission was an affordable $10 or $8 if you’re a student. From the moment you get your tickets to time you walk through gate everything is done in mosaics (even the bathroom). Each area was breathtakingly beautiful. I took tons of photos and fell in love with the art. The art museum/gallery space was completed by artist Isaiah Zagar.

“Zagar has devoted himself to beautifying the South Street neighborhood since the late 1960s, when he moved to the area with his wife, Julia. The couple helped spur the revitalization of the area by renovating derelict buildings and adding colorful mosaics on both private and public walls. The Zagars, teamed with other artists and activists, transformed the neighborhood into a prosperous artistic haven and successfully led protests against the addition of a new highway that would have eliminated South Street. This period of artistic rebirth was coined the “South Street Renaissance.” After the street was saved, Zagar continued creating mosaic murals, resulting in hundreds of public artworks over the next two decades.”

– Source: https://www.phillymagicgardens.org/about-us/

As an artist I felt so inspired just walking through each area. I wished I had brought a sketchbook to just sit and sketch the interesting shapes and colors. The Magic Garden reminded me of Park Güell by Antoni Gaudí in Barcelona, which was my favorite place when I visited as a high schooler.

After spending nearly two hours there we started to get hungry and my boyfriend couldn’t leave Philly without having a cheesesteak. We went to Pat’s Steaks and this is my boyfriend’s review since I only had their hot dogs.

“We approached Pat’s, right down the road from their rival cheesesteak place Gino’s, and I couldn’t help but notice the stark differences between the two. Gino’s looked very polished and had a tremendous amount of people congregating about, while Pat’s looked a fair bit more humble. I decided to go with Pat’s because of the line, the more “authentic” tin roof feel of the place, and because they chop the steaks instead of putting a whole steak on the sandwich. When you enter the line at Pat’s you’ll notice a sign giving you exact instructions on how to order your steak quickly (“wit or witout”) and efficiently. If you order wrong, you’re encouraged to head to the back of the line and try again. While this was a funny touch, it did keep the line moving along at a quick pace.

I had a pepper steak wit cheese, and me and Karina split fries. My steak came out to $11, which I thought was a bit expensive. The steak itself was just alright. It tasted decent, but I really didn’t feel it was worth the price. The fries left a lot to be desired. Overall, both Pat’s and Gino’s felt a bit like tourist destinations, though I should have been expecting that. I’ve had better and cheaper cheesesteaks elsewhere. If you’re looking to get a good cheesesteak in Philly, you’ll probably have to do a bit more research than I did.” -Doug Pearson

Processed with VSCO with kk1 preset Next stop was Spruce Street Harbor Park. They had a little pop up market, which reminded me of Bryant Park in New York. I snagged an original painting from a local artist, Carol Stamper, of a kitty eating an ice cream “cone. Of course I had to have it because if you know me you know that I LOVE CATS! We walked around the park and if you are over 21 you can buy a refreshing beer or mixed drink and openly drink. (I didn’t take many pictures there)

The final stop of the day was Federal Donuts in the heart of downtown, which was recommended to me by both my best friend Carol and friend Pauline. Our Uber driver and person who we were uber pooling with both said the line is usually out the door. We were lucky enough to have missed the rush and were 2 of 5 customers in the shop. The shop sells fried chicken and freshly made hot donuts. Since we were still full from Pat’s Steaks we didn’t have room for the fried chicken, which I was extremely upset by because I love fried chicken. We both had the cinnamon donuts and had to wait a while for it to cool down. Once we had them they were DELICIOUS!
Makeup:

First of all excuse my photo! It was taken after a long day of exploring in bad lighting.

I created this look using both ColourPop ‘Yes, Please!’ Palette ($16) and the Juvia’s Place The Nubian 2 Palette($28); they are my two must take eyeshadow palettes when I travel.

On my crease I used ‘Spolied’ and to deepen it I went into ‘French Kiss’ both from the Yes, Please! Palette. On my lid I used ‘Cleopatra’ and as an overall highlighter I used ‘Zuri’