Whether it's one simple yet somehow perfect day or a dreamed about journey finally realized, I never want to forget the joy of the moment or how fortunate I am!
As Greg and I walked through the Upper West Side on our way to dinner and then to see John Oliver and Seth Myers at the Beacon Theater, we passed through the Columbia Avenue Business District. We soon learned about Open Streets, a concept where the streets are closed off to motorized vehicles and allow people (and their pets) to replace automobile traffic for a few hours. Without cars, streets become a massive public space where people of all ages, abilities, and economic backgrounds can come together to exercise, and play
Columbus Ave was full of families and individuals walking and cycling,
playing Chess and Badminton,
And generally enjoying community on a beautiful evening. What a concept!
After our time in Philadelphia, we hopped back on an Amtrak train for a brief visit to NYC. We got to spend time with dear friends, enjoyed some delicious food, walked many more miles, and laughed out loud to the stand up comedy of John Oliver and Seth Myers. A perfect 24 hours!
Years ago, in June of 2012 in fact, I started to blog in an effort to document my travels through life. But life, as you know, gets in the way of our best intentions and I shared just one post in 2023, and two in 2024. Now though, I am back and making a go of it. Years from now, when I can no longer journey, I want to be able to read about the places that I visited.
When elderly parent challenges had us canceling our long planned trip to Great Britain, we opted to take two long weekend trips instead. For one of those two weekends, we took the train from Roanoke VA to Philadelphia PA, and knowing that we only had 36 hours to explore, we got right to it!
Philadephia is flanked by two rivers: the Schuykill and the Delaware, and we calculated that we walked over 30 miles going from one to the other and everywhere in between. I particularly loved seeing the contrast of historic buildings set against new ones.
We started the day at Reading Terminal Market where we devoured our cajun breakfast.
We then walked the Benjamin Franklin Parkway past the JFK Love Park, the Barnes and Rodin Art Galleries, The Philadephia Free Library, through the Oval, and to the Philadephia Museum of Art.
We walked back down the other side of the Parkway, by the Dilworth Park Interactive Fountain, and strolled through the City Hall courtyard.
After a Philadelphia Cheese Steak lunch (what else?) we walked to the Old City. Visits to the National Constitution Center (oh how I wish more Americans would remember the Constitution) and Old City Hall reminded us of our country’s history.
As the day began to wind down, we walked to Penn’s Landing on the Delaware River.
After a stroll along the river, we took the pedestrian walkway on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge over the Delaware and halfway to New Jersey. The views of the city were remarkable, and the bridge itself was beautiful.
After an amazing day, we finally took an Uber back to the hotel.
We already know we will return … there are so many wonderful museums dedicated to art, history, and science, and we look forward to checking them out.
Life on the Bike and other Fab Things 