In the church choir I direct, the week after Easter we cancel the mid-week rehearsal. That gave me a lovely open week to take a trip.
I was visiting Clayford, in yet another new location for him, which has been the rule rather than the exception, given how much the Army moves him around. He has a new gig, though, which should keep him in the Baltimore/D.C. area for some time to come. I hadn't been up there yet, so it was time to see the new digs.
Since there's so much in that area of the country, though, I suggested we roadtrip to some nearby locales while I was there, to which he agreed. And thus it was that I arrived Easter Sunday evening, spent the night in Baltimore, then headed out the next morning for points northeast.
The first stop was Dover, DE. You know me and my capitals, and this one was so close by that it felt silly not to include it. It was a charming little area around the State House, with plenty of old colonial buildings to see.
I think we were the only ones touring the capital of Delaware that day.
The other side of the State House was more impressive:
We also ventured into the Delaware Public Archives for a second:
And poked around the outdoors:
before heading out.
It was unfortunate that the weather, this far into spring, was still chilly and rainy the first few days of the trip. I imagine there would have been a lot more outdoors exploring otherwise. It didn't ruin the trip, but it put a damper on the first bit of it. In Wilmington, we stopped for lunch, saw approximately one (1) street, and then a small park, before moving on.
There was a state history museum I'd have loved to see, but it was closed. My curse continues.
Finally, we arrived in the late afternoon into Philadelphia, the main event for the first half of the week. As mentioned earlier, it was chilly and rainy, so we took just a brief look at Independence Hall, my main interest and a spot luckily right outside our hotel:
We then got dinner at a little hole in the wall pizza place that felt very New Yorkish to me, and ended the night.
But it's a small place, so that's a perfectly good length. It was neat to see the room where the Declaration was debated, composed, and signed.
Across the street was the building housing the Liberty Bell, which I dashed in to see.
Then, it was off for the main event of the day. Clay and I had elected to do a hop-on-hop-off bus tour, both to avoid having to drive and as a way to get a comprehensive overview of the city. These tours are frequently a good idea, for these very reasons. It's an easy way to make sure you don't miss anything big in a city like this.
a church so mega, it had a side chapel bigger than the church I grew up going to:
Next, we crossed Logan Square, seeing the fountain along the way:
To get to the Franklin Institute, a science museum kind of akin to Discovery Place, but bigger.
There were a great many fancy exhibits and areas
and a Planetarium show with sarcastic pre-show disclaimers:
Our plan next was to take a stroll up a major road to a park area where the Philadelphia Museum of Art was, walk around for a bit there, then hop-on our bus and make our way back to the hotel. We weren't planning to go into the Museum because, guess what: it is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Those are the two days we were there.
On the way there, we stole into the Philadelphia Library, which definitely puts my tiny branch back in Louisville to shame:
We saw the front of the Rodin Museum, also closed:
Then the art museum, made famous by the film Rocky. Yes, these are those steps:
Around back of the museum was a park, but the rain began to sprinkle again around this time, so we spent less time than I'd have liked to:
We caught the bus in front of the art museum then finished out the route, returning to Independence Hall where we'd departed from, and went back to the hotel. A bit later, we set out for dinner, and decided since we were in Rome, it was time to do as the Romans do: it was time to get a Philly cheesesteak.
The tour guide on the bus had piqued our interest, pointing out a place called Sonny's a short walk from the hotel, and swearing that theirs were the best in the city. I'm sure it's one of those things like Chicago deep-dish pizza that, A), is probably fine everywhere you can get it, and B), isn't even that delicious of a delicacy in the first place. That said, the cheesesteaks we got were stupendous. It's hard to screw up a glob of meat and cheese, but still.
Last, as the daylight set around us, we made our way to Benjamin Franklin's grave, where one is encouraged to throw pennies for good luck. You know, because of how Franklin is on the penny.
Wednesday was mildly warmer, so that day was zoo day, as well as the day to do more extensive walking within the city. Zoo was first:
This was the one use of the car while we were there, and traffic was a nightmare.
From the hotel, we then walked to an Italian restaurant that Clay'd been to on his last trip up here, and we had a very European style lunch with cheese board, light entree, and gelato paired with a shot of espresso for dessert. Simply exquisite.
City Hall was the main point of interest on our afternoon stroll through downtown, though the ride through Chinatown on our bus tour had piqued my interest to go there as well. City Hall is a massive building topped by a 4-story statue of Penn Badgley, for whom Pennsylvania is named:
I mean, William Penn.
We strolled through and sat in the adjacent park for a bit, then moved on. We made our way to Love Park, where the famous Love statue is:
and then the Reading Terminal Market, a super hip indoor market where we got a quick snack:
the aforementioned Chinatown:
and Elfreth's Alley, which is still lined with authentic colonial homes:
It was properly warm outside now, so I was up for one last hike up to the Benjamin Franklin Bridge which, if we had crossed the entire 1.8 mile span, would have taken us to Camden, NJ
but we didn't. We got just up to being over the water, then returned to the hotel.
And that was it for Philly. A fine visit, even though everything was closed, but frankly I'm used to it by now. There was still more to the trip, though, as the next morning we set out to swing back through Baltimore and then further south, to a place we'd been to before...
