Philly for the Fourth

go eat at Pat's...

(have fun)

I guess the big fireworks show and free concert are at the art museum (Fairmount park) again. I've gone to that a couple of times - it's wonderful, the crowd always feels happy and the fireworks are spectacular.
I also like the fireworks at Penns Landing - the riverfront. The backdrop of the night sky with the Ben Franklin bridge at one end and the Walt Whitman bridge at the other is probably my favorite frame for fireworks of all time.


This - I guarantee you will be beautiful. I used to live there and at Christmas time with the candles - you felt transported back to another time.
I'm visiting my parents in Jersey next week and when I read that I thought - oh damn - I'll just miss that - I would have driven down one night just to do that.

I also like South Street and environs. But I like those alternative scenes - I don't know if you're that type or not. But it's pretty funky - nice restaurants - and incorporates the Italian neighborhood in south Philly.

Philadelphia is a really friendly city. The people are wonderful - many beautiful things to see. The historic districts are all bunched together so it's very comfortably walkable.

I still go just to walk it every time I go home - I enjoy the atmosphere.

And yeah - Pat's is good for cheesesteaks - even if you have to wait in a line that stretches around the block (which it often does).
But they're HUGE - just remember that - I can never eat a whole one.

Have a good time - I'm jealous. Philadelphia is a great place to be on the fourth = the only place I like better (on the fourth of July) is the boardwalk on the Jersey shore.

Art Museum, Franklin Institute, if you can take a day trip, head to Delaware and go to Longwood Gardens.

Longwood, and then you can make a tour of the New Bolton Center to its west, then you are right in the DUtch Country and , If you send me a PM, Ill give you some real local visits for the country side. The color Green may assault your eyes but you get used to it. (Weve had a very wet year so far and the trees and fields are almost blue green).


What are you guys really interested in? art, musick (lotsa jazz clubs). Nature? cityscapes? Philly is kinda gritty, so keep your wits about you.

Camden (take a ferry from the historic waterfront) and visit the Camden Aquarium. Or drive "down the shore" to the casinos. (The beaches will be really crowded on those dates. The Delaware beaches are much nicer and less tackied up.

In Philly, you are 90 miles from the center of the nation. You have NY to the North and DC to the South. Trains are easy to get and theres something doing in all these areas to satisfy your curiosity.


Small town fourths are fun in a folksy way, almost any small town West of Philly has one going on. The Big Pa Dutch Folk Festival is going on June 27 to July 5 at Kutztown Pa.

Thanks for the info, farmerman, but we'll be tied up in meeting long enough that we won't be able to get out of the city. Actually, I was in Lancaster some years ago, and learned that some of my ancestors were actually fairly important folk there in the eighteenth century. We seem to have gone considerably downhill since then. As I said, I'll be in meetings most of the time, but it looks like the Miz will be able to get around and see a few things. We are clear after noon on the 3rd, so we should be able to see quite a lot of the holiday festivities. Thanks again!

Too bad, Well, if your going to be in the city mostly, all the museums that have been mentioned should be prioritized. In the way of painting, the Philly Academy has the great collections of landscapes and Eakins works as well as Anshutz Cropsey etc. The Phila Museum of ARt is a real mixed bafg of everything from Egyptian to Modern. The Franklin Institute is neat , but if youve no kids to bring along, youll be a little bored Im afraid. Academy of SCience is also one big nature museum so If youve seen the Smithsonian or the Field or The Museum of NAt History , youve seen better than Philly ACademy of Science.
BUT, Only Philly has gut the Mutter Museum, a world class collection of weirdness in the medical sciences that people take sanitizing showers after theyre done at this one. Theyve got examples of the Bubos from people with Bubonic plague, Theyve got diseased and deforemd body parts that would gag a maggot.

The CAmden aqauarium is a good trip across the river and youll get a chance to see all the mothballed naval hips like the Olympia,a couple of WWII subs, a few square riggers and an old steamer. If youve got a car, a ride down to the Philly NAvy Yard is a treat. You get to see several of the WWI and WWII and later era ships of the "Line" in mothballs.

Le Bec Fin is still the best restaurant in Philly, but there are several really good ethnic restaurants besides Italian, theres a really good Chinatown selection, a great Russian and E European section, (our fav is called WARSAW).

The 4th celebration will be down by the waterfront I believe , so you Will get a hance to see the old ships.
Get a Cannoli at Isgros on Christian St (in the Italian MArket section) AA These places in the Italian MArket are open pretty much the time and are bustling hawking produce and cheese etc six days a week.

Heres a Wikipedian entry on the Mutter. MAybe, on second thought, much of the display material may be old hat to you in your practice (I used to o the lab workups for a vet practice years ago while in college and I saw a lot of weird **** come out of animals)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCtter_Museum