The Mutter Museum

A unique blend of history and medicine, the Mutter Museum is a display of medical oddities, and is considered by most Philadelphians as a good place for a blind date or a great place to take visiting friends who want to see something NEW. The actual "cabinet of curiosities" as it were, is a tasteful arrangement of artifacts within floor to ceiling wooden cabinets on two floors. It doesn't take too long to see-- I went through in about an hour. Check out the webpage a little and see if it's your thing-- it's in the Rittenhouse Square area and I think it's near the Phlash Bus route.

City Hall

Let's talk about something you can see just a few minutes from the Convention Center: CITY HALL! Each of the four main entrances has its own architectural program, i.e. no two are the same. Apparently you can go up to an observation deck to see the view, but I've never done that.

if you want to take an official tour, go to the tour information center in Room 121 in the east portal.

But if you only have a minute, walk around a bit, and also look up and see if you can spot the statue of William Penn by Alexander Milne Calder at the top of the tower. Billy Penn was the tallest thing in the city for a while, and builders followed an unwritten rule of not going taller than his hat. When Liberty One pushed past, some say ol' Billy put a curse on our professional sports teams, not allowing them to win a championship. We've come pretty close many times, but no one has won, have they? Maybe we are cursed... but lots of buildings have followed suit, and there's no going back now...

It's interesting to note something about the Calders-- three generations of sculptors whose work can be seen up and down the Ben Franklin Parkway. Alexander Milne Calder did William Penn on top of city hall. A.M. Calder's son, Alexander Stirling Calder, was a sculptor for the Logan Square fountain, and A. Stirling Calder's son, Alexander Calder, is the famous Calder of the 20th Century, whose mobile "Ghost" can be seen hanging in the Great Stair Hall of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and a collection of his stabiles have ben installed along the south edge of the Parkway between 21st and 22nd streets. To me, this is a cool Parkway legacy. Just a bit of trivia!

The Ben Franklin Parkway: Museums and the Rocky Steps

Sometime at the end of the 19th century, the city fathers in Philly decided to cut a swath of road starting from city hall and extending to a reservoir that was on the edge of Fairmount Park. They eventually lined it with museums and designed it on a scale befitting the Place de la Concorde-- and now we call it the Benjamin Franklin Parkway! The Philadelphia Museum of Art is now at the far end (built on top of the empty reservoir) and is an icon of the city. Even its stairs are famous, and I bet that there may be an adventurous soul among you that would like to run up them and do the famous Rocky pose at the top-- with both hands held up in victorious celebration! Eye of the tiger!

Let's see... along the Parkway we've got the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Franklin Institute Science Museum (and their King Tut exhibition), The Rodin Museum, The Academy of Natural Sciences,and Logan Sqaure (also known as Logan Circle).

Not far from the Parkway you can find Eastern State Penitentiary (which I love) and the Please Touch Museum (which is really only fun if you're a little kid, or if you're with one).

The Parkway also has a bit of sculpture that's fun to see. Between 21st and 22nd on the southern side of the Parkway you'll see several stabiles by Alexander Calder. Then there's the famous Washington Monument in front of the Art Museum (not like the big obelisk in DC-- the one in Philly is sort of a menagerie of Gen. Washington, bison, moose, people, etc). On a pretty day, it's an excellent walk.

I love the art museum, anyway, so I'd say if you're going there from the convention center area, or vice versa, why not walk? The Phlash, I believe, also drives along the parkway, so that could be a nice way to catch a glimpse of it, too.

Independence Park

All right, teachers. I know everyone wants to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. And I kid you not, they are inspiring, even to someone like me who's seen them over and over again. But these are not the only gems of Independence Park! Far from! The best advice I can give you is to start at the wonderful Independence Visitor's Center at 6th and Market Streets, where friendly, knowledgeable park rangers are practically jumping out of their seats to give you a hand with planning your visit to this world heritage site.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER: The Visitor's center is the ONLY place to get your FREE, TIMED tickets for Independence Hall. The Liberty Bell is free and you don't need a ticket, but you MUST HAVE A TICKET FOR INDEPENCE HALL! They make reservations for large groups, but if you're going on your own you will have to pick up your ticket in the morning, so the earlier you get there the more options you'll have for when you can go.

Also, you'll find a gift shop there, a cash machine (which is NOT free like the WAWA ones I mentioned previously), a cafe, some exhibits, and racks of brochures about other stuff to do. The guides at the desks have great big maps to help you get around the many attractions within a few blocks of the Visitor's center, including:

The National Constitution Center
Betsy Ross House
Ben Franklin's Grave
Ben Franklin House and Museum
The US Mint-- The Mint won't let cell phones into the building. There is no storage for your cell phone at the door. DON'T BRING YOUR CELL PHONE TO THE US MINT!

And more! Start here for your journey into the exciting birth of our nation...

The Independence Seaport Museum

Our little family of four just visited the Independence Seaport Museum, and (unlike so many things in this world) it EXCEEDED my expectations! The best parts had to be the workshop within the Museum and the tours you can take of a REAL submarine and a REAL turn of the century warship that are parked in the river just outside! It was SO cool, so if you like boats, history, wars or even physics (the physics of floating and moving in the water) you will like this place. I loved it!

The workshop: When we visited on a Saturday, two men were in the workshop building a replica of a medium sized sailing vessel. While one toiled away, the other (who was extremely personable and knowledgeable) answered all of our questions, pointed things out around the workshop, and let us put our hands all over stuff to give us an idea of what they were doing.

The BECUNA: The Becuna is a WWII-era submarine-- oh my goodness! What an experience-- you don't know what our servicemen did for us until you cram yourself down into this thing and see for yourself what life was like under the surface. This is not for people who have mobility trouble, as there are narrow stairways and small hatch doorways to navigate.

The OLYMPIA: If not for the guns poking out of the pretty windows, you might at first feel like you were on a leisure fun ship when you step into the Olympia. But soon you realize that even if the Admiral had his own leather couches and huge enamel tub, the enlisted crew was left swinging in hammocks when they needed to unwind. The Olympia founght in the Spanish American War, and an exhibit inside the Museum will get you pumped to see it with information on Teddy Roosevelt, the Rough Riders, and the explosion off the coast of Cuba that started it all.

The Museum is included in the City Pass, too, if that's something you'd like to try. Get more information about CIty Pass, and the Museum, here.

The Fisher Fine Arts Library

I spent years working and studying the Fisher Fine Arts Library, and it still is a breathtaking site to me. If there's one building on Penn Campus that you see, I'd say this should be the one. The Library is closed on weekends in the summer, but is open from 9am-5pm Mon-Thurs, and 9-5 on Fri.

The Library's official address is 220 South 34th Street, but if you walk down 34th you'll only see it from the back-- still, you can't miss it. It looks very RED and very Gothic. You need to go up the stairs on the West side of 34th Street (toward the Green), and walk around to the front stairs. Once in the lobby, go straight through to the library doors. You'll be immediately up against a turnstile-- so lean over and ask the front desk person if visitors are allowed to come in. Sometimes you can get in with a driver's license and by signing in-- but if not, just having a look around from the door is enough! It's quite a sight, and only takes 5 minutes. Pay special attention to the windows! Oh, and if you saw the movie Philadelphia with Tom Hanks, you may recognize this as the Law Library-- I guess the real law school library wasn't pretty enough, so they came here and dressed up the art books to look like law journals, and changed the lamps (weird). It's probably the most beautiful library I've ever been to... see what you think!