Its a beautiful day in the neighborhood

What a great weekend!  The first play of the season is open and it was great.  Now, the weather has turned to fall and with my first house guests I went exploring in my new/old city.

The weekend started off just a little bit rocky when I went down to meet my guests and realized that the elevator wasn't working.  That's a lot of news to greet guests with -- a five floor to climb to reach your weekend's lodging... with a dog.  You know what that means!  But climb we did and the visit was well worth it.

                                                               

Saturday we started with a visit to the liberty bell and some traditional touristing…  After that it was off to Northern Liberties and lunch at a spot I had originally seen on the Food Network.  You gotta love when you’re tv watching proves useful!  It’s a little spot called Honey’s Sit and Eat.  Yum.  After that we explored the sculpture garden behind the museum of art. Here’s a little sample.  I love this.

Then I took us on an adventure.  I was looking for Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park but I couldn’t seem to find it.  Instead we drove in circles for a little while, often ending up on the edge of the park in what I can only assume was North Philly.  At one point we saw a sign that said, “Danger, deep water.”  Where?  So off we went to try and find the water.  Turns out it was a reservoir or valve station of some sort.  Deep water or not, it was the source of quite a bit of humor for the day.

Later, we walked to a little Italian spot right in my neighborhood for a lovely and terribly cosmopolitan dinner.  I think the Real Housewives of Philadelphia were seated next to us.  They had been overserved and were actually more annoying than entertaining.  I like walking to dinner. 

The next day were aiming at Independence Hall but had a little trouble motivating so we’ll have to catch more history next time.  Instead, we headed out to the Philadelphia Art Museum.  What a spectacular building outside and such a lovely collection in. I especially like the Philadelphia furniture.  I could use a few of those pieces in my apartment.  They would be perfect.  Lunch at a cool diner called Silk City Diner and then a trip through the Rodin Museum.  That’s The Thinker you see through the front gate.

A late dinner at another neighborhood spot, Race Street Café, was the perfect end to a wonderful day.

It was such a fabulously Philadelphia kind of weekend.  It made me appreciate how much my city has to offer and how much I want to get out and explore.  I just need some buddies.  I know, patience, patience,  but it’s hard.  Do you know anyone?  As I read over this, clearly they must like to eat!  I feel like we ate our way through the weekend.  What could be bad?  Come visit. There are more sites to see and plenty more restaurants to try.  Here's quick view of William Penn atop City Hall inviting you to come visit!