The Philadelphia Story

No, not the movie. I've never seen any of them. It's a day trip that we took today.

My daughter managed to secure a free ride from her school in Allentown, PA to Philadelphia for the day and we met her there at 10:30 this morning. The one thing that I've always liked about that city was that while it is only 1.5 hours from New York City it has it's own distinct character. You'd never wake up in Philadelphia and think that you were in New York City.

We mostly spent the day wandering around. We started out in a very nice neighborhood coffee spot called Mugshots. We then visited the waterworks behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art and walked over to the Franklin Institute. There was a surreal scene in front of that museum. A Star Wars exhibit was opening today and Imperial Storm Troopers (or people dressed like them) were arrayed in front of the museum. They were chasing kids, posing with people, pointing their guns at others, giving their guns to people for pictures. It was quite amusing. Yoda and Darth Vader were on hand too.

We visited the Philadelphia Free Library where there was an exhibit by blind artirsts. It was as amazing as you might expect. We lunched in a very busy restaurant in a bustling Chinatown and then wandered slowly back to the bus's pickup spot to take our daughter back to school admiring the many murals along the way.

Tonight we're making a fire in the wood stove and trying to get through as much of the weekend newspaper as I can before turning in.