Adventures in Gastronomy

I’m back! First let me preface this blog entry with an apology. I did try updating my blog on Saturday afternoon. In fact, it was quite a lengthy description of my adventures. But since my blog program frequently causes glitches, I always Control-C (copy text) before updating. Unfortunately, my friend’s laptop has a function key where my keyboard has the Control key. Needless to say, that was the one time that the blog site malfunctioned and since I didn’t copy properly, I lost everything. arrghhh.

But that didn’t bring me down for too long! This little getaway was EVERYTHING I needed. I’m not going to say that Philadelphia is the most fabulous vacation destination ever, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as what everybody kept telling me it would be. I really did enoy the city, as well as the outlying areas.

I arrived in Philadelphia on Thursday. I grabbed a smoothie after getting off the subway and checked into the Latham Hotel. After settling in, I did what all tourists must do and headed to the Independence National Historical Park to check out that cracked bell and some brick buildings.

Unfortunately, it was a bit disappointing. Because of 9/11, there are chain link fences and riot fences surrounding all of this historic buildings. And since these buildings are spread out over multiple blocks, they line the sidewalks right in front of the historic buildings (which kills the charm, pedestrian traffice flow and good photo opportunities. However, the nearby Betsy Ross house inexplicably has no barricades around it so I was able to check that out quite easily. Further down the street I got some pictures of Elfreth’s Alley….supposedly the oldest continuously occupied residential street in the country. It was very pretty and quaint (the best thing about that part of town).

Oh, and the Liberty Bell has been ensconsed in this nasty post-modern building (which does NOT blend with the colonial brick of Independence, Congress, Old City and Philosophical Halls. And the lines to get in are ridiculously long and require tourists to stand in the blaring sun with no shelter/shade. Who designed that thing?

Anyway, I then explored the Gayborhood (their version of Boston’s South End or New York’s Chelsea/Christopher Street). There weren’t that many shops in this district, but between the main streets I stumbled upon some amazingly charming cobblestone streets.

Then I walked along Walnut Street, got some food at Cosi and explored Rittenhouse Square. Unlike Boston’s parks, this one stays packed well into the night. There was lots of activitity after sunset with punks, tourists, musicians and nearby residents.

I retired to my hotel room and went to bed in anticipation of Chris’ arrival on Friday morning. More on that in Tuesday’s blog posting. But in the meantime, you can check out my “Philly 07/04” page in Karl’s Photo Gallery (see link to the right).

July 12th, 2004
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl

6 Comments

Comments RSS

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.