The Grand Court

This is the Grand Court at Macy's Philadelphia. The store is housed in the lower three floors of the great Wanamaker building. During the holidays, the store literally lays out the red carpet for shoppers. This allows visitors to sit on the floor to watch the light show. This indoor space is one of my favorite downtown stops at any time of the year. There are daily organ recitals all year long. Years ago there used to be benches near the famous bronze eagle that you could use to take a break, but they were removed. Nevertheless, its still a great place to meet in downtown Philadelphia.

Jim

Liberty Place In Philadelphia

Here's another look at the inside mini-mall at Liberty Place in downtown Philadelphia. The food court is very large and boasts a great variety of eateries including a couple of Japanese food stands. I like the one that specializes in sushi. My usual lunch is a "Dragon Roll," a tasty concoction made with cooked eel and avocado.

Jim

What Would You Do?

One of my friends is reading a self-help book currently. One of the items he related to me about the book is a question that the author suggests that readers pose to themselves: "If you were guaranteed 100 percent success at something, what would you do?" I suppose the object of his thought experiment is to prompt the reader to examine what they really want out of life. This is a good exercise, but if your answer come up as something radically different from what you're actually doing, then I suppose that's something of a major problem. My first reaction upon hearing the question was that I wouldn't want to pick something that, if I did it, would screw up my current life. So I guess either I'm somewhat on the right track and happy in life, or I've just set my goals and expectations too low. I think both apply to me, actually.

PHOTO: One of the newest in the series of boathouses along Philadelphia's famous boat house row. This one houses concessions, bathrooms and a large indoor basketball court.

Jim

Our Morning City Routine Starts Here

Back in the city, my early morning walk with Brad starts out with this view looking downtown. The huge new skyscraper will be the tallest building in the city when completed. In the distance is Philadelphia's beautiful old City Hall complex with a statue of William Penn on top at 500 feet, saved from the wrecker's ball decades ago only because it would have been too costly to demolish it. Now it's one of our treasures. The street is Pennsylvania Avenue. A hundred and ten years ago there were five or six active railroad tracks at street level at this location. About a hundred years ago, the tracks were buried below in a large tunnel. The tracks and trains are long gone save a single track that is used for freight, but the tunnel remains directly underneath this scene. Just to the right out of camera range is the Philadelphia Museum Of Art. It's about a three minutes walk from this point to Fairmount Park, the largest park in the country within the limits of any city.

Jim