One of the first very uniquely Philly things I did after moving there this summer was to go to Reading Terminal. I went for lunch at the Greek stand one work day. It was delicious and really made me miss having easy access to Greek food. (Of all the great ethnic food in LA, I think Greek is particularly hard to find.) I went back later in the summer and witnessed an ice cream eating contest. (The winner smoked the competition! She ate her whole bowl, without using her hands, in 3 bites. And then I saw her in line to buy more ice cream later!) But even without ice creaming eating contests, there seems to always be something to entertain you at the terminal. There are exotic sausage shops, shops with homemade food from the Amish (I got my brother the pictured Amish pumpkin butter), a pretzel shop, seafood shops, fruit stands, a spice shop, an oyster bar, several well-known dessert shops (see the crazy nose, lung, and rat shaped chocolates below), a used bookstore, and 0f course cheese steak shops.
I love museums, but I have a limited tolerance for them. After an hour or two, my attention really fades, which means there are some museums that I have been to many times without even coming close to seeing everything there. I am most guilty of this when it comes to the Philadelphia Art Museum, so I took the opportunity on the first Sunday of June (you can pay what you want every 1st Sunday) to see a wing that I had never entered before - American Art. A special exhibit of paintings by Alfred Jacob Miller called Romancing the West was on display. I liked the romantic portrayal and his use of multiple mediums. (It's still on display until Sept. 18th if you're interested!) Some of my favorites from the permanent collection were the pottery, the silver work, the bird tree made by the Pennsylvania Dutch, the presidential plates (owned by Chester Arthur and Benjamin Harrison), and this one picture frame around a painting of an opera singer with the notes of her most well known song carved into it.
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