the coolest thing(s) in philly

Philadelphia, between Christmas and New Year's. December 29th, to be exact. Sightseeing. Liberty Bell (security's like an airport, and Kim, my soon-to-be-sister-in-law, said, "What are they afraid of? Isn't that thing already cracked?"). Outside of (couldn't get in) Liberty Hall. Christ Church (pic of Al there below). Outside of (didn't want to go in) Betsy Ross's house. Philly cheese steak sandwiches in Sonny's. But here are the coolest things we saw/did in Philly:

1. Silent film with a live organ performance in The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. Al had seen it in the editor's picks of things to do in some paper, and it was definitely a great thing to do. The Kimmel Center has a huge pipe organ, and although I'm not a pipe organ enthusiast, I loved the experience. We saw Speedy with Harold Lloyd, which was hilarious. And knowing that the organist (Tom Tenney, a twenty-something guy from Birmingham, Michigan, of all places) was interpreting the movie through music--and playing nonstop for 90 minutes--just added to the experience. I had never done anything like it before, and I loved it. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the hall.


2. The Blarney South on South Street. South Street is alive at night. There were people everywhere, thus some good people-watching. There were all kinds of shops (some you'd want to go in, some you wouldn't), quite a few bars (again, some you'd want to go in, some you wouldn't), tattoo parlors, and restaurants. We stopped into an Irish pub called The Blarney South for a couple of beers and sat down at the bar, right next to a couple of off-duty bartenders who were hanging out and eating dinner. I loved just listening to them talk and goof off with our bartender, and I was loving the music--some satellite radio station playing late eighties/early nineties music. After seeing the on and off-duty bartenders eat and watering over their food, we ordered dinner. I had the meatloaf with mashed potatoes. The meatloaf was good, but the mashed potatoes were the best I've ever eaten (sorry, dad). Al had an open-faced turkey sandwich, and he loved it, too. Sorry, no pics of this, either.


3. Elfreth's Alley. It's "the nation's oldest residential street," and we just walked by it (and through it) when we left our hotel. Cute, narrow, colorful, historic, a place I'd love to live in if I ever got to be an urbanite. The first pic in this post is of the alley.