Tales from the Archives

Two thumbs up for Philly so far. The first couple of days we're staying with a friend's relatives outside the city. We started the day with a train ride from Chestnut Hill, a cute little town that's not quite a suburb. We actually couldn't find the train station at first b/c it looks like a ride at Disneyland. Nonetheless, we joined morning commuters on the trek to 30th and found our way to Hagerty Library.

Eric spent the day close by in coffee shops or exploring, and I spent the day in a room like a closet poring through documents. This is a very welcoming archive, they had actually pulled 10 boxes for me and had a table ready. In my experience, I usually have to wait a while and have people run around trying to find me anything relative to my topic. So far, good finds.

We continually comment on how old everything is. Drexel University adjoins U Penn, and is close to two other universities. The area is aptly referred to as University City. Every building seems to have been something else in the last century, which makes me happy. We walked to Rittenhouse Square for dinner, and had a hard time finding a restaurant we could afford. It's near the Midtown of Philadelphia, and overly trendy. My favorite was an Anthropologie store in a three story corner stone building that had to be 100 years old. Hard to wrap your brain around it. We landed on global tapas at The Continental, where we sat in swing chairs and ate tofu tempura and shrimp fried in chick peas. I'll be turning in early because I haven't slept a full night since daylight savings time.

Tomorrow, we play! Hooray for the archives having short, weekday-only hours. :)

The pic: Puff the Magic Dragon, err, the Drexel mascot.