Philly Love

When I packed my camera for my work trip to Philadelphia I thought, "I can take pictures and blog about my trip." And then it was raining. And then there were moments after I visited the city's judicial center that I was afraid to show any valuables in public. But mostly, I have just become very bad at taking pictures. Don't judge me.

The first night I was in Philly my coworker and I ate dinner at an Indian restaurant on Walnut Street. His dish reminded me of kebabs we would make in Fresno with meat from the Meat Market. I was surprised to find such a nostalgia-inducing menu item. My food was probably the best Indian dish I have ever had. It was chicken korma (I think) and the chicken was cooked perfectly. It was delicious. After dinner we walked around for a bit and we found the Avenue of the Arts, aka Broad Street. I was uncertain about Philadelphia's worthiness as a large and worthwhile East coast city, but the Avenue of the Arts proves that they've earned their stripes. For a few minutes I even thought it might be cool to live there. Don't worry, that didn't last very long. There were ads up for the Pennsylvania Ballet's production of Balanchine's Nutcracker. They are actually coming to DC next week and I'm very excited to see the performance.


I attended a hockey game with six of the delegates. It was the Philadelphia Flyers versus the Ottawa Senators. The Flyers won 5-1. This was my first hockey game. The game was not as intense as I had always imagined it would be. There was only one fight. Hopefully soon I'll be able to go to a Washington Capitals game. (Oh and Hasan's head was in the picture. I guess the delegates were quick with the cameras, but not the best at photography.)

Unlike me, the delegation was very good at taking pictures. This picture was meant to show all the delegates with their cameras out at the same time, but my draw was a little slow. There are only three cameras showing in this picture. Can I get a point for trying?


This is me and my friends with whom I attended the Philadelphia Flyers hockey game. I miss them. They said I could visit their countries and they would protect me and take care of me. I guess that's a benefit of working on a program for law enforcement officers--protection wherever I go.

I learned from my "Promoting Tolerance through the Arts" project that Philadelphia is the "City of Murals." On one of the lunch breaks between meetings, I walked around for only about ten minutes and found three murals. Two were too big to fit into one shot. It was quite awe-inspiring to stand in front of something so huge. You really couldn't stand up close and see the whole thing; you had to step back to fit it all in your range of vision. It was so impressive.

This was the best I could get of the whole mural.

This next mural was on two walls.

This mural just didn't seem as impressive as the other two I found, but it was still neat.

This is one of the alleys where I was afraid to take out my camera and I pretty much ran out of the alley after I snapped the shot. I had just learned about the 24-hour arraignment room in the city's judicial center and came to the stark realization that Philadelphia has a very high crime rate. There was no one else around and I felt vulnerable. Anyway, I was hoping for a better shot of the graffiti. After seeing the enormous and magnificent mural arts, I was a little stunned to see the graffiti and I wanted to capture that contrast. Can I get another point for trying?

The bridge in the view from my hotel window.

This is also from my hotel room. You can see the Reading Terminal Market where I had a pepper cheese steak and sushi on my lunch breaks. You can also barely see the black canopies from the Maggiano's where we had a farewell dinner the night the program ended and the night before all the delegates left. This is the indirect documentation I have of a very enjoyable dinner that was hosted by the delegates to thank us. It was a very nice evening.

These were the three vases on the entertainment center in my hotel room. Why did I take a picture? Because they were primary colors! So cool! We're going back to the basics here.

This was me documenting the arrival in the comped hotel room and talking to my sister at the same time.

I finished the trip with a visit to the Macy's department store before the farewell dinner. I had never seen a huge Christmas tree like this inside a Macy's store. I'm getting so excited for Christmas this year. The anticipation feels different than any other year and I'm not sure I can explain why. I'm just looking forward to the season.



My trip to the "City of Brotherly Love" was surprisingly wonderful. I can say that based on the things I did, the food I ate, and the people I met, that I really enjoyed Philadelphia. But please don't ask me to live there and I do not wish to walk alone there even during the day time.

beck