April 13, 2008

Another Philly excursion

Drove up to Philly yesterday to check out the Star Wars, Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit at the Franklin with my buddy Leo. It was damned nice to have a change of scenery, so I took the camera along...

On the way up, I took a detour off of Rte 95 into Havre de Grace, MD to get some breakfast at Java on the Bay. Yet another coffee shop in a quiet little historic town, but with none of the yuppified feel of most that I visit. It was a very appropriate spot to spend a few moments perusing Garrison Keillor's Good Poems for Hard Times while wolfing down a carrot cream cheese muffin and spiced chai.



A row of windows above the store-fronts on Washington Street

The weather forecast included the chance of thunderstorms, but those never materialized. The day was a tad bi-polar, though, with cirrostratus clouds streaking across a blue sky one moment, and almost totally grey overcast the next (which made for wacky lighting conditions, so all of these shots are in solarized camera mode to give them a little extra oomph).

After picking up Leo, the first stop we made on the way down into Philly was at the very excellent InFusion Coffee and Tea shop (sensing a theme yet?). Fantastic place in the Mt Airy district of Philly, with a great spinach and lentil burrito.




Germantown Ave, Mt Airy

The Star Wars exhibit and the Franklin Science Museum were very cool. Climbing around in the giant heart exhibit was as much fun as displaying what a total nerd I am by deluging Leo with geeky trivia at each of the Star Wars displays. Afterwards, we wandered up towards Eastern State Penitentiary. There wasn't time to tour the prison, but we did hit up Mugshots CoffeeHouse and Juicebar (I really can't pass one up at this point, I think it's an addiction) before heading back to the car with three minutes to spare on the meter.


An apartment across from Eastern State Penn. Awesome windows with an eerily terrific view.


One of the highlights of the day was having the chance to cruise through Valley Forge National Park again. If I lived anywhere around the King of Prussia area, I think I'd spend every spare moment in that park. Absolutely wonderful place. I took advantage of being there to finally snag photos of the Kennedy Supplee mansion. All in all, a very excellent day-trip.










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