Lately, I have been doing research on my various visits to Philadelphia over the years. I’ve been there several times–in 1995, 1999, 2003, 2008 and 2014. (To see my blog post about my 2014 trip, click here.) I’ve always had an enjoyable experience. It’s a great city, with a lot of historic landmarks and interesting things to do. I have in my travel files the following booklet that I purchased somewhere along the way. It was published in 1908, and is in the public domain. I don’t know if many of the buildings still exist. Downtown is now filled with tall skyscrapers, none of which are shown here.
I’ve been to Philadelphia several times over the years. My last trip there was for this ALA Midwinter 2014 conference. My partner Ruben and I flew out together. At the time, I was a member of ALA Council and president of the local REFORMA chapter, so I had meetings to attend and other committee obligations, but we found time to venture out and explore the city. We also saw our friends Ricardo, Tracy, Karen and Alex and had a very nice time with them going out to dinner and sightseeing. We stayed at the Doubletree on Broad Street and our room was on one of the upper floors. It had a decent view too. Once the conference ended, Ruben and I took a train up to Montreal for vacation. We went from Philadelphia to New York City, then up to Albany where we took another train to Montreal. I’ll post photos and write more about that leg of our trip later. The attached photos include postcards and other ephemera, photos I took and photos I found on the internet. Overall, this part of our trip was a lot of fun!
The Philadelphia Convention Center, where ALA was held.
We stayed at the Doubletree on Broad Street. Ruben didn’t like it. I did.
I thought we had a great view.
It wasn’t bad at all.
Another view from our room.
This is my favorite place in Philadelphia It’s called the Reading Terminal and It’s jam packed with places to eat, fresh produce and meat counters and lots of people all the time. One must be careful when going, however. Our friend Alex had her wallet snatched by a couple of scam artists. It put a damper on her trip, that’s for sure.
Ruben and I ate an Amish breakfast here one morning. We had scrapple with eggs. It’s an acquired taste. Kind of like meatless Spam but not as salty.
My two partners in crime, Ricardo and Tracy, were at this conference too.
Ruben and I had dinner here with Ricardo and Tracy. The Perch Pub has since closed, I believe.
The Bike Stop is gay men’s bar, but Tracy came with me and Ricardo anyway. She was the only female in the place. She’s an adventurous one, that’s for sure! Ruben stayed in the room at the hotel.
We decided to venture out and go sightseeing. It had just snowed overnight and it was freezing.
I don’t do well in this weather. Ruben loves it.
This place was full of tourists from other countries. American tourists didn’t venture out on this particular day, it seems.
It was colder than it looks.
Benjamin Franklin’s gravestone. The cemetery was closed, so I had to take this photo through the fence.
We toured this place. It was nice, with a lot of very old furnishings.
Betsy Ross’s grave.
Chinatown is right next to the Convention Center and the Reading Terminal. There are many fine restaurants. Unfortunately, we ended up at one that wasn’t all that fine. Oh well.
My friends Karen and Alex came with us to dinner.
The jacket and hat were nice and warm. It was freezing. Karen, who lives in Michigan felt right at home. Not me.
Ruben and I made it over to this gay bookstore. It was going to close for good and we were lucky to go.
After the conference, Ruben and I took a train up to Montreal. This is the train station in Philadelphia.
