A Day in Philly

Yesterday was a quiet day, with nothing really for me to blog about. So I skipped blogging for that day. But today, ah, today--we had ourselves an adventure!

It all started when I googled "museums in Philadelphia." Up popped a list from Wikipedia that had over one hundred museums. That's a lot of places to visit! I have lived in this area since 1990 and I thought I had been to most of the museums. Au contraire! There is still much left to see. So because of that, Bob and I went to N. 3rd Street to visit the Center for Art in Wood, a delightful little gem located in Old City Philadelphia.  As always, it gives me a little thrill to cross the Ben Franklin Bridge and see that skyline.

The Center for Art in Wood's mission is "...to be the preeminent arts and education organizations advancing the growth, awareness, appreciation and promotion of artists and the creation and design of art in wood and wood in combination with other materials."  It displays a permanent collection as well as traveling exhibitions which inspire and often amuse. Here are some of my favorites:

Crosstalk by Alexi Nutini

Bay Laurel Burl, by Bruce Mitchell

Spud, the Potato Peeler's Stool, by C. R. "Skip" Johnson

  Time Standing Still, by Po Shun Leong and Bob Stocksdale

Source Bench, by Douglas Finkel 

After the museum we walked around Old City, stopping for a bite at OCP Grill, strolling over to Independence Hall (we had no advance tickets so we're unable to go inside,) and visiting Carpenter's Hall, which was the meeting place for the First Continental Congress.  We also went into Philosophical Hall, home of the American Philosophical Society, which for a time served the same functions as today's Smithsonian Institution and was a repository for historic and scientific papers used by scholars.

Finally, as we were walking past Betsy Ross's house we caught a glimpse of our nation's first President, old George himself. He looked pretty good for a man born 283 years ago.

We will be back to Philadelphia for more sightseeing. After all, we have a lot of museums yet to see!