This is the continuing saga of my trip to Philadelphia to visit my daughters and to attend my eldest's graduation from medical school. In the earlier morning, we had breakfast on 20th Street. After that, we started walking east to the incredibly beautiful Philadelphia City Hall. From City Hall, we made for the fantastic Reading Terminal Market before heading to see Washington Square and Independence Hall.
One memory I have is the smell of downtown, a heady mixture of weed and garbage, it being trash collection day. I'm not sure about the legality of weed in Pennsylvania, but the smell seems much more common in Philadelphia than in Portland.
Reading Terminal Market
I didn't even have Reading Terminal Market on my radar until the kids dragged me in the door. I instantly got big flashbacks to the Lexington Market from my days in Baltimore. The market is vast and I could have spent all day in there investigating all the market stalls, but given our limited time, we made a quick pass around the market before heading on to points east toward the Delaware River.
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| Cajun in Philly? Lillie Says it's Good |
Jefferson University Area
From the market, the girls wanted to head back to their apartment to score some allergy pills. They both live in the area of the Jefferson University Hospital and Sidney Kimmel Medical School. I didn't think too much of their need for allergy pills until about 30 minutes later when my eyes started itching like someone had blown in the Sahara. That was a special treat. I do not know what is in bloom there, but it was wicked. Ellie left us at this point because she had to go to work for the afternoon.
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| Ellie at her New Hospital |
If you know anything about Philadelphia at all, you have no doubt heard of the dreaded PPA, the Philadelphia Parking Authority. Some people claim that they are predatory, although I imagine you won't have any problems if you park legally. They are famous for ticketing, booting, and towing vehicles, so I found it ironic to see a PPA tow truck towing another PPA tow truck.
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| Ironic? PPA Tow Truck Towing a PPA Tow Truck |
The old sections of Philly with their row houses and cobbled streets remind me of sections of Baltimore and parts of DC, especially Georgetown. And a bit of Europe. The street below is too narrow for a work truck to go down the roadway without the tires on one side up on the curb.
Washington Square and Independence National Historical Park
From Jefferson University and its hospital with a constant stream of ambulances, it is a very brief walk to Washington Square which abuts the square on which Independence Hall sits.
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| Yellow Peony, Washington Square |
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| Independence Hall |
Things have really changed since I visited Independence Historical Park as a youngster. When I first visited, the Liberty Bell was displayed inside Independence Hall. After that, when I visited for the Bicentennial in 1976, it was moved to a small glassed-in pavilion on the grass square north of Independence Hall. It currently resides in a long glassed-in building that runs north-south along the west side of that same block, no doubt to accommodate the hordes of visitors. We did not go in, but I snapped a photo of the bell from the outside.
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| Liberty Bell Through the Glass |
The next post will see Lillie and me continue to the Delaware River and then head back downtown.
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