Let's go to Philly for a Date....

A couple weeks ago, I stepped out of my normal comfort zone and sent an email just as I started my rental car to head back to D.C. from a trip to Pittsburgh. What did the email say? Well, it was simple: "would you think I was crazy if I said you should meet me in Philly this upcoming weekend?"

And with that simple email a weekend adventure was born. For a quick back story, that invite was to a cute boy I met during the Rehoboth Beach trip. We worked the rest of the week to plan the adventure - schedule bus arrival/departures and engage in what turned out to be a team building exercise of finding a decently priced hotel room close to the Gayborhood. And yes, in Philly the gayborhood is actually formally called the Gayborhood - crazy fun, right!?!

We both arrived on Friday night, settled into our hotel room and took a walk to explore the neighborhood. The weekend flew by with donuts, pretzels, drinks, gay bars, dancing, lots of walking and yes even a cheesesteak. We saw City Hall (which is the largest municipal building in the country, FYI), the Liberty Bell (well at least through the glass - we were not waiting in the long ass line), Independence Hall, walked the "Rocky" steps and took a tour of the U.S. Mint.

Did you know that there are only four U.S. Mint production facilities in the country? Apparently I didn't, but he did. So for your information, they are located in Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco and West Point, NY.

One of my favorite parts of the trip and the only thing I specifically wanted to see while we were in the city was Philadelphia's Magic Gardens. It's an awesome place right on South Street. It features the work of award-winning mosaic mural artist Isaiah Zagar. He started work on Magic Gardens in 1994 and spent 14 years creating this incredible art space full of mosaic walls, tiles, bike wheels, glass bottles, tunnels...you name it. To preserve the work from developers, in 2002, Philadelphia's Magic Gardens became a nonprofit and a permanent art institution. If you are ever in Philadelphia there is not one place I would recommend you visit more.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend - perfect weather and great company. If I can get sentimental for a moment, and it's my blog so I can, the ending of the weekend was bittersweet as we each boarded our respective buses home heading in opposite directions.

Will I see him again? I don't know. Would I like to? Yes. So, I guess time will tell...and we'll always have Philadelphia.

With Love,

DC3FO