Our Old Stomping Ground - Philadelphia

Jo managed to sponsor a conference in Philadelphia and I joined her last week to enjoy seeing where we spent the first 16 years of our life after graduate school.  We caught up with lots of our Philly friends and saw our two houses - both of which looked to be in great shape, although one now has a pool in the back yard.  While Jo was doing her conference stuff, I played tourist and did the Independence Hall tour, which we had done somewhere around 10 times while living there as each new guest would visit.  Remarkably very close to the same information was provided by the park ranger as before.  One new thing is that Independence Hall is now roped off and everyone has to clear security before hand.  Not surprising given the state of the world today, but kind of sad as well.  I also checked out the Liberty Bell before heading down to South street for the real highlight - a cheesesteak from Jim's Steaks.  It certainly didn't disappoint, but if I'm honest, lobster rolls from Captain Scott's in CT rank above a Philly cheesesteak - at least for me.

Hard to not see it say Rohm and Haas

To walk off more meat than I've eaten in a month, I checked out the Philadelphia mint and watched some coins being cranked out and then hit the visitor center to watch a couple of shows on our founding fathers.  Before catching dinner at a local diner and heading back to meet up with Jo after her meeting ended for the day.  Yes, I won for having the most fun that day mostly because of the cheesesteak.

The following day, Jo joined me her meeting concluded around lunch and after a stop at Jim's for a second round of cheesesteaks for me and Jo's first we visited our favorite historic site - Ben Franklin's court.  This was completely redone from when we last visited in 2000 and always enjoyable since Ben was quite the inventor and ladies man.  Next up was the Chemical Heritage museum which opened since we left and celebrates all things chemistry - Yeah!  Fun little museum but it was somewhat eye-opening to see equipment in a museum that we both had used.  Not sure I'm quite ready for my life to be museum aged.  Afterwards, we met up with our friends Jean and Jon for dinner to catch up on the exciting changes in their life since we last saw them.

Friday, we headed out of the city to see our old houses, drive around the area, and have lunch with Holly with whom we spent many a night and weekend playing volleyball.  Next up was a stop in Doylestown to see friends from the old Rohm and Haas days (side note, while in Philadelphia we noticed that Dow has installed two beer gardens on grounds of the old Rohm and Haas home office - which they now own - I'm not sure Otto Haas would have approved).  We had a fun time finding out what everyone has been up to since we left PA and seeing all the changes in Doylestown (the town we have lived in the longest so far).  All too soon it was time to head back to the airport and back home.