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| Robert Indiana's "Love" |
Eduardo and I took this past long weekend to venture out of New York to the "City of Brotherly Love" - also known as Philly! Since our plan was hatched at the last minute, the train fares were ridiculously expensive. We ended up taking a "Chinatown bus" (only $11 one-way!) from - yes, you guessed it - Manhattan's Chinatown to Philly's Chinatown. It was quite a comfortable ride and lasted two hours. On the downside, no pets are allowed on the bus, so Nori enjoyed her staycation in NY with Aunty Lena, Lena's sister Kara, and Kara's friend. Kara and her friend were in town for a wedding, and as luck would have it, Kara earned her medical degree from U. Penn a couple years ago. Throughout the weekend I received texts from Lena with Kara's great food suggestions.
Through Airbnb I booked a condo near Rittenhouse Square, a centrally located neighborhood in Philly, and we walked a couple of blocks to Tria for some wine, fried oysters, crab cake, and fries smothered in black truffled cheese sauce.
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| by one of my favorite artists |
Despite Philly's annual "Made in America" concert, which disallowed what would have been our Rocky-like race up the front stairs to the museum doors, we spent nearly the entire following day enjoying the museum's offerings, including the collection of medieval arms and armor (I now understand what it means to "throw down the gauntlet"), a rare Vermeer, a room full of Thomas Eakins paintings, and reconstructed Japanese tea rooms. We also visited the nearby Perelman Building exhibiting the colorful fashions of African American designer Patrick Kelly. Seeing his designs brought me back to the late 80s and early 90s when big, colorful, plastic buttons sewn onto white Ts or denim was à la mode. Before calling it a night, we walked over to one of Kara's suggestions, Barbuzzo, for Mediterranean food and cocktails.
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| man v. Parmesan cheese |
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| note: before I got my water ice, I was super grouchy |
Sunday we did quite a bit of walking, first to the Reading Terminal Market (kind of like the SF Ferry Building) and then down to the 9th Street Italian Market, which, like many historic Italian neighborhoods, appeared to be losing much authenticity but gaining changes in culture as new immigrants set up shop. It was uncomfortably hot and humid, so we took all opportunities to duck into the delis and stores to explore and cool down. Along the way, we stopped for some "water ice" at Philly Flavors - another suggestion from Kara and the highlight of my day.
I had been wanting to go to the Mutter Museum, which aims to "help the public understand the mysteries
and beauty of the human body while appreciating the history of diagnosis
and treatment of disease." So, we spent two hours there, fascinated, sometimes disgusted, often incredulous. Did you know that in 2007 a 10 pound ball of hair was removed from a young woman with a hair-eating disorder? The museum also displays the shared liver of "Siamese Twins" Chang and Eng, as well as slides of Albert Einstein's brain (Eduardo was pretty disturbed at how Einstein's brain was stolen from his body and mishandled for years). The exhibits definitely had a sideshow quality, but at the same time, I really learned a lot from all the information on unusual conditions or diseases.
Our last day was spent on historic Philly - Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, the Benjamin Franklin Museum, etc. Franklin made his fortune by the age of 42 through a printing business and then spent the rest of his life on his intellectual pursuits, including politics. Don't we all aspire to similar endeavors (well, except maybe the politics part)? I like this quote from Franklin: "If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing."
A number of weeks ago, Lena, her friends Shayna and Jill, Eduardo, and I, signed up for a free "Brompton Bike Tour" through NYCeWheels, a specialty bicycle shop on the upper Eastside. Brompton bicycles are amazing folding bicycles, ingeniously designed, aesthetically attractive, and completely useful. I bought one for my commute (bicycle, train, and shuttle) from San Francisco to/from San Jose every day, and I brought it with me to New York. NYCeWheels receives support from Brompton, a company in England, so that during the summer people can use the bicycles for free for the tours. Since I have an attachable basket for my bike, Nori came with us too.
From NYCeWheels, we headed to Central Park, cycled on to the upper Westside, joined up with a bike path along the Hudson River, and up to the Little Red Lighthouse in Fort Washington Park under the George Washington Bridge. After a rest to enjoy the view and take a few snaps, our group continued back down the path, through Harlem and Spanish Harlem, and then down along an East River path. All in all, it was a 3-hour long bicycle tour. I also enjoyed chatting with the other people on the tour, including a woman who had recently immigrated from Tsingtao (yes, it is an actual place in China and not just the name of a beer) and a young fella originally from the deep south, who gave me his honest opinion on the best BBQ joints in New York. In a city like New York, it can be difficult to meet and talk with strangers on a more personal level, but somehow cycling alongside each other made it easier to open up and talk.
Last month, Lena, Eduardo, and I (plus Nori, of course) relished a "summer streets" event described as an "annual celebration of New York City’s most valuable public space—our streets." Park Avenue was closed down to cars for an entire morning. There were various booths and organizations set up along the way, but just walking down from 72nd street all the way down to SoHo was quite special. 
Taking advantage of the unique angles to look up at the buildings was a reminder of how much history and unique architecture there is all around. 
