Last weekend we were in Philadelphia, me for the CWPA conference, Jake for a weekend away to sketch and write. I did have Elton John stuck in my head, as well as lots of ideas about writing and rhetoric and education. It was, my friend Jen and I decided, an immensely intellectual weekend.
But it wasn't all conversations about pedagogy. Jake and I squeezed in some time to bash about the city, and it was great! We saw lots of cool architecture, and some historic sites.
Having been to Philly before for a printmaking conference, Jake had scoped out some stuff for us to do. He took me to a swanky little martini bar with a live jazz band. We sipped cold drinks while this gal in a blue dress belted "The Best Is Yet To Come". The cutest part was how proud my husband was to show me around; he was a very good tour guide.
We walked through city center and checked out some parks and the profusion of modern sculpture, and then hit up Chinatown to see the arch. We wandered into a tiny Vietnamese shop and purchased spicy barbeque meat kabobs for a dollar while the proprietor chatted us up, explaining how he developed his spicy sauce recipe while holding an entire cooked fish. We ended up at a Belgian pub for mussels, belgian fries and the most complicated beers ever.
Before leaving on Saturday, we hit up the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which was so cool. It is seriously so huge, there is so much art to see. Jake was excited to see the Marcel Duchamp pieces, and it was interesting to hear him describe them to me...like having my own personal curator guiding me through the exhibit!
All in all, it was a great trip. Aside from the massive amounts of driving there and back again...This weekend promises more of the same, as I trek out to Chicago to help Jen move. After that, I may just swear off road trips for life...or, until the next cool opportunity comes along.
4 comments:
sounds like so much fun! i want to go back to philly so bad and take neal with me and discover the city with new eyes. it definitely has changed alot since i lived there and the last time i was there was probably about 15 years ago! can't wait to hear more about your adventures in the city of brotherly love:) xoxo
also...love the city pics. it brings back warm fuzzy feelings of when we used to jump on the subway and head downtown for the afternoon! my mom also worked downtown which was pretty cool. and my parents lived downtown while my dad was going to college back in the late 70's hence the place where i was conceived and born;)
glad you enjoyed it--i need to check it out.
Cool stuff, mica. The downtown of philly was exceptionally walkable, cool and historic, with lots of neat nooks and crannies. What an incredible thing to start growing up there!
nat~I feel like you would dig philly--and that we would have some kick-ass conversations about all the text there--rhetoric is EVERYWHERE in that city!
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