Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Part 2: The City of Brotherly Love

We spent the second day of our Spring Break in my beloved Philadelphia. I was happy just driving into the city. Sure, we hit more traffic than we would've liked, and finding convenient parking was a bit tricky, but it didn't matter to me - I felt like I was home.

Philly has a Hard Rock Cafe now, so we had lunch there. Then I wanted to walk to South Street - which should have been very easy, but we made it a lot harder than it had to be. We went WAY out of our way, but that was ok, because we got quite the walking tour of all the ethnic neighborhoods in South Philly. When we finally arrived at South Street, I'll admit I was a little disappointed. It was probably a combination of things. First, they were doing a lot of work on the street itself - so instead of the happy buzz of all sorts of people that I associate with South Street, the prevalent sound was of jackhammers and other heavy equipment. Second, I suppose I've never really been there on a weekday afternoon before - I've always gone at night or on the weekend. I suppose that affected the "flavor" as well. Lea and I did manage to do a LITTLE shopping, though. But I'm afraid it didn't live up to the hype I'd given her.

By this time we were all pretty tired and we still hadn't done anything of "historical significance". We get there so rarely, so I really wanted the girls to see some of the more historical aspects of my favorite city in the world. We decided to take a horse and buggy ride through the historical district. Our driver was really knowledgeable and I think we all learned a thing or two. Olivia just liked being in such close proximity to a horse, and Lea really loved taking pictures. As I neglected to bring along what I need to post pictures, I figure I'll just post a little album after we get home.

This would've been the perfect end to a very happy day for me, but then I got an unexpected bonus. We had a hard time finding our way out of the city (I could always get in, but I always had trouble getting out. Maybe the city loves me as much as I love it and it just doesn't want to let me go...) We ended up heading north on Broad St., which, by happy coincidence, is where my alma mater (M.Ed. '92), Temple University, is located. We stopped and poked around the bookstore a little bit and I was able to buy a sweatshirt. This made me unreasonably happy and nostalgic.

I felt like today was all about me. I started to feel a little guilty about that, then decided it's ok to have days like that from time to time. Tomorrow Tom and/or the girls can decide where we go and what we do. As for me? If I were a cat, I'd be purring.

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