Alex's Trip To Philadelphia

Our plan for the day was thrown off a bit by the weather conditions we encountered in Philadelphia, but to be perfectly honest the weather was actually beneficial to our trip. We had planned to begin our trek across Philadelphia around the art museum, but since our planned route of travel included a stroll along Benjamin Franklin Parkway and the weather was not cooperating we had to improvise and find a new place to begin our journey. The rest of our itinerary included the Rittenhouse square area (The Curtis Institute and the Kimmel Center). We the planned to proceed down Spruce Street to Pennsylvania Hospital and the surrounding “Artistic” area. My cousin works at the hospital and we were hoping she would be able to give us a tour of the historic part of the building. We planned to go to lunch with her after the tour and then journey on to Society Hill and the older parts of the city along the water and hopefully some old graveyards. We began our journey along at John F. Kennedy Boulevard and Fifteenth Street, across from City Hall. As we stepped off the bus a cold chill ran through me and I wished that I had remembered my umbrella. My partner and I took off the opposite direction of the rest of our classmates and ventured into the unknown area of Love Park. We decided to turn and walk down market street. We stopped in a local coffee shop, Starbucks, and grabbed a tall Vanilla Latte to keep ourselves warm, and the barista gave me an extra shot for free! We walked along the commercial district and saw many chain stores and a few small family owned businesses as well. One thing I noticed was the effect that the upcoming election was having in the windows of the stores. I saw numerous businesses with signs endorsing candidates. We walked to Rittenhouse square and walked through the park, the morning was still damp and the wind was beginning to pick up. We walked through the center of the square and I explained to Juliet the significance of the five squares in Philadelphia and how William Penn planned the city around these five open areas of land. We changed directions and walked back down to Locust Street, after passing by the Barclay Hotel, taking in the old brownstones for which Philadelphia is known. We saw a lot of renovation taking place amidst the old streets of our nation’s first capital, the old was meeting new: Philadelphia was being reborn. We walked past the Cutis Institute and we stopped for a moment enjoying the view of the old antique mansion turned prestigious music academy, and as we were about to leave Juliet and we heard the students rehearsing so we delayed our departure for a few minutes to enjoy the concert. We continued down Locust and ended up walking down towards the Kimmel on Spruce. We walked in the Kimmel Center and met a guard named Joe, he showed us a path that we could take to view the performing arts center and the city, so we walked up the ramp and took an elevator to a roof top garden, from here we could see the city’s new skyline, the Penn Building, the Society towers, and the other skyscrapers, but at the same time it was possible to see the old buildings, Town Hall and the brownstones that lined the streets. The comparison of the two styles, the modern and the old, next to each other was exciting; Philadelphia had a rich history and now it has a bright future. After the Kimmel Center we continued down Spruce and ended up at Pennsylvania Hospital. My cousin Jennifer was able to show us the historic part of the hospital, which was the first hospital in the nation, we saw the first operating room in America where they had operated on patients without Anesthesia. After our private tour, Jennifer showed us one of her favorite local restaurants, the Tenth Street Pourhouse. We walked Jennifer back to the Hospital and said our goodbyes. Juliet and I continued our journey towards Society Hill, passing through Washington Square, walking by Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, and through a Rose garden that was across the street from the Second National Bank. When we reached the cobblestone streets of Society Hill we tried to find a cemetery to take a walk through, which is what we did at Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church. In order to get into this cemetery Juliet and I had to jump over the fence; we were lucky to see a broken area in the fence for good footing while we attempted to trespass. We were successful in getting in the cemetery and as we walked around the graves we saw some revolutionary heroes like Commodore John Barry, the father of the American Navy. After creeping around in the cemetery we decided to go somewhere warm, so we walked through South Street. In my opinion, South Street seemed to be kind of gaudy with all the shops and bars, not the Philadelphia I have been used to. We continued past South Street to Fourth and Bainbridge and the Famous Fourth Street Deli. In here Juliet and I ordered Cheese Kuegel, Hot Chocolate, and an Egg Cream. The food was absolutely delicious. While we were waiting for our food to be brought we teased and played with this little boy who was sitting at the table in front of me. He was absolutely adorable, and I never got his name, but his grandfather kept calling him handsome, maybe that’s what he is called? When we finished our snack it was time to head back towards the Vietnam Memorial, our trip had been completed. We met up with all the other students and headed back to Peddie, back to another week of school.