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On Friday August 29, 2008 Ellen, Eileen and I headed off to Philadelphia. We had not been in the area since 2001 when we went to a wedding of a second cousin of mine (in Horsham). The last time I was in the city itself was in January 1974 when I visited a friend on mine who was a student there.

This time we hoped to visit a nephew who is a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, and perhaps take in a baseball game. However, fate intervened and my nephew came home to New York for the weekend to visit and see a Yankee game. The Philly teams – the Phillies and the Camden RiverSharaks – were both on the road over the Labor Day weekend. So that meant that we had to find other things to do (and we did). Not long after we checked into our hotel on the Ben Franklin Parkway then we walked to Broad Street and headed to the Race & Vine Streets station on the Broad Street Subway. We were heading to South Street to have dinner at Ralph’s on South 9th Street. It’s the oldest Italian restaurant in continuous hands of the same family. When we got to the South Street station, we decided to ride to the last stop (Pattison Avenue) and then head back up north. Once we got out we walked along South Street to 9th Street and passed numerous hip boutiques and restaurants. After we had dinner we continued walking to the river, including past Philadelphia Eddie’s tattoo parlor, which was featured on the History Channel. I passed on a tattoo, since Ellen would have killed me. But we walked to the end of South Street and took pictures of the Delaware River and the USS New Jersey on the Jersey side. We then walked up Front Street to Market Street and boarded the Market Street subway to go back to the hotel. We decide to ride to the last stop – 69th Street – and got an elevated railroad rider’s view of Philly. Parts of this part of town reminded me of Queens. At 69th Street we boarded an eastbound train to our station (15th Street).

On our first full day in Philadelphia, August 30, we walked past City Hall along Market Street to the Independence Visitors Center to get tickets for a 12 noon tour. Once the tour started the guide told us that Independence Hall was actually the Pennsylvania State House in the 18th Century. The State “loaned” it to the delegates in 1776 and 1787. We were shown the room that served as a court room in the 1700’s and then across the hall is the room in which the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were drafted and signed. We then went upstairs to where the governor’s office was, as well as the banquet room. When the tour was over we walked along Walnut Street to Bookbinder’s and made reservations for the evening. Then it was the Market Street Subway back to the hotel to rest and plan our afternoon activities. I had promised myself a genuine Philadelphia Cheese steak and headed over to Jake’s in Liberty Place (at 17th & Chestnut) for a taste of heaven. I must admit that they know how to make them there.

I knew that the Phillies were on the road in Chicago, but I wanted to visit their ballpark and get a few team items. So I hopped the Broad Street Subway at City Hall and rode it south to the end. Pattison Avenue, the name of the station, is also the street that bisects the properties in which the Eagles’ Lincoln Financial Field, the Wachovia Center (Flyers & 76’ers) and the Wachovia Spectrum (music, Arena Football’s Soul, and the American Hockey League’s Phantoms play there). The Veterans Stadium (the Vet) was on Pattison Avenue just east of Citizens Bank Park. There are plaques honoring the nation’s veterans, as well as a pair of statues of football and baseball players doing their stuff. I walked to the Phillies’ Team Store in Citizen’s Bank Park and ended up with a DVD about baseball in the Vet, a coffee cup for my neighbors, and a Phillies lapel pin for me. I then hopped the subway back to the hotel. Later we got dressed up a bit to head to Bookbinder’s, and headed along Market Street again to the restaurant. I enjoyed a red snapper soup and a fried seafood platter, and washed it down with a local Philly brew. I thought that the food and service was A-1, and recommend it to all. After all, presidents, celebrities and sports heroes have been going there since the 19th century. One of its former waiters in Jack Klugman, a Philly native who became one of the 12 Angry Men (and as of today, the only survivor of the cast) and one half of The Odd Couple.

August 31 was our last full day in Philly. Since it was a Sunday, I went to church at the Cathedral of Sts. Peter & Paul, which was about a block from our hotel. Then I met Ellen and Eileen at the Academy of Natural Sciences so that we could take in the butterfly exhibit and the other more permanent displays. The first stop was the Dinosaur Hall on the first floor with the fossil skeletons of several species of dinosaurs, marine lizards, and flying lizards. The other floors have dioramas of the various wildlife of North America, Africa, and Asia. The top floor has an exhibit of some of the extinct birds from around the world, such as moa, great auks, Labrador Ducks, and passenger pigeons. The temporary exhibits included a room with live butterflies and moths, and a hall dedicated to genetics, a science started in the 19th century by an Austrian priest named Gregor Mendel. After that we walked up the Ben Franklin Parkway to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see their exhibits. It’s the same museum whose steps Sylvester Stallone runs up in the “Rocky” films, but his statue is on the western side of the museum; we came in through the eastern side. The Museum has a large section of Impressionists works, including Renoir, Cezanne, Pissaro, Couture, and a few van Goghs. Several of Mary Cassatt’s works are also on display, as she was a Philadelphia native. The second floor has a series of tapestries of the life of Constantine the Great, and a large collection of arms & armor from the Dark Ages through the 19th century. My favorites are the antiques firearms, especially the Wheelock firearms. This exhibit is as impressive as its counterpart in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The second floor also has a large collection of Medieval European art, much of which is religious in theme. Another floor has the American artists, and its featured star is Philly native Thomas Eakins whose works include Between the Rounds – at a boxing match, rowers on the Schuylkill River, and Portrait of Dr. Samuel D. Gross (The Gross Clinic) – a work not for the squeamish. The American Wing also featured works by Winslow Homer.

After this we went back to the hotel to rest and then head towards City Center to enjoy a dinner at the City Tavern, located around the corner from Bookbinder’s. The City tavern dates from the 18th Century and featured several recipes from that time. After dinner we walked to the Delaware River to take a few pictures and admire the waterfront. Then we walked back to Market Street to get the subway back to the hotel.

We left at 10 AM on Monday to head back to New York, but hope to go back to Philly soon.


	Windsor Suites - where we stayed 150 North 17th Street Philadelphia, PA 19103


	Ralph's Italian Restaurant 760 South 9th Street Philadelphia, PA 19117