Philadelphia Trip - Sean

My partners, Dennis Briggs and Jackie Wang, and I had planned out our path to a T. We would get dropped off at City Hall and quickly go north into the Masonic Temple. Afterwards we would wander around Chinatown and take in the unique environment that Philadelphia’s Chinatown was sure to emanate. After walking down Race Street, the main street of Chinatown, we would go into the Chinatown Metro Station located at the corner of Race and 8^th Street. We would pay the two dollars per person to ride the subway and transfer three lines in order to get to our destination of the Lombard-South Station. From there we would walk down one of Philadelphia’s more lively, homely streets, South Street, and go to one of the best Philly Cheesesteak places in all the world, Jim’s Steaks. From there our group would head to the oldest established African American church in the United States. At the Bethel A.M.E. church we would roam around and witness the common day occurrences in one the cornerstones of African American religion in the United States. After walking around the Bethel A.M.E. church our plan was to go to north into Old City, where the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and the oldest residential street in the United States were located. From Old City our trio would then head to our final destination, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Oh, how our plans differed when executed.

For starters, what was previously believed to be a bright and sunny day perfect for a trip to Philly turned out to be a cold, windy, and ,at least in the beginning, rainy day. This caused Jackie to dismay because she was cold throughout the entire trip and constantly wanted to venture inside during what was planned to be a mostly outdoors journey. Then, due to apparently bad planning on my part, the Masonic Temple we had planned on visiting turned out to be closed due to reservations and seemed like it had been for quite some time, whoops. This led to a sooner than intended trip to Chinatown. In Chinatown we had, thankfully, a pleasant surprise. One of the buildings was throwing a grand opening ceremony and had performers executing a dragon dance to the beat of a drum. We were cordially invited by one of the photographers at the event to go inside and visit. All of us were glad to take in the experience. After entering the building I found out that the place was a new salon called the “Angel Face Spa Salon”. The first I noticed after entering was odd, but a very interesting cultural experience. Inside the salon they were serving beverages and had an entire cooked pig carcass that a Chinese man was cutting up. Normally I would be a little confused about why cutting up a pig inside a hair salon would be a good advertising ploy but because of the occasion I decided the heck with my negative thoughts. After taking in the exuberant atmosphere Jackie, Briggs, and I left the building after taking business cards and thanking the owner for the pleasant time. Next up, second goof up in the itinerary. After walking down Race Street we could not find the Station that our map had shown was there. So with a quick executive decision our set went towards Old City which was relatively close. In Old City we wanted to go and visit the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall but decided it would be better not to wait in the long lines of tourists surrounding them. Instead we entered the Independence Hall visitor center and asked the teller where we could find the nearest subway station that would take us to the Lombard-South Station. He kindly pointed us in the right way and gave us directions which we sadly botched up three seconds after exiting the building. Asking a police officer on the street where we could find the nearest subway station he pointed us to the next block where we proceeded to pick the wrong entrance to subway three times in a row. Then our trio spent around 15 minutes inside the station thinking that all the trains passing by were express when in actuality they were all stops. After finally exiting at our intended destination we ambled through South Street and took in the essence of true Philadelphia. And then we went to one of the largest tourist spots in Philly. At Jim’s Steaks we waited for around half an hour in order to get our Cheese steak. While waiting I noticed all of the famous people who had been there and had written small recommendations and support back to Jim’s. I also saw the scores for the record holders on most Cheese steaks eaten in a duration of time. The Philly cheese steak was delicious as one would expect and we quickly headed out towards the Bethel A.M.E. church. When we reached the church we were greeted with a pleasant surprise, the wife of the bishop of the church Susan Leath who kindly invited us into the basement which contained a museum of the history of the founder of the church and of the church itself. She gave us a small private introduction to the museum with little bits of information and then sent us on our way with a smile and a plethora of great information. From there we headed to the Vietnam Veterans memorial and finding we still had over an hour of time, ambled around the general area and then took a rest in the Hyatt Hotel in order to collect our thoughts and mull over the fascinating journey we had just experienced.