Fun in Philadelphia

It has been several weeks since I have posted because I have been traveling. I spent 3 of the last 4 weeks traveling, then had to take time to catch up on my homekeeping duties (laundry, bills, and other fun stuff!!) One of the places that I traveled to was Philadelphia. I had not been there before. I went with my daughter to attend a conference and we had a little time to do just a little bit of sightseeing. Philadelphia is a beautiful city. We have found that taking a tour gives us a lot of info in a short amount of time whenever we are on a tight schedule. We opted for the Big Bus tour as we have in other cities. It was FREEZING cold, 28 degrees, so our tour was in a heated trolley instead of an open top bus! We didn’t do a lot of hopping on and off nor did we do as much touring by foot like we usually do but we had a great time never the less. We were told on the tour that Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures that any other city in the US.

We stayed downtown just one block from the magnificent City Hall which is in the center of town! I love buildings and architecture and this City Hall is one of the most magnificent buildings I have ever seen!

A 30 foot statue of William Penn stands at the top!

The statues and carvings around all of the windows and doors is just unbelievable!

Look at the little fellow on top of the pediment above! I would love to know the stories behind all of these figures!

Of course we also visited the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. The city is so historic!

I am so thankful that these historic sights have been preserved. The conference that we attended was in the convention center which was being prepared for the Philadelphia Flower Show the following week!  It would have really been wonderful if we could have taken that in at the same time! Any time we visit a new city, I always purchase a travel book to read ahead of time so I’ll know what we just can’t miss! I am so glad that I read about Philadelphia or I would have missed a treat! I read that Macy’s in Philadelphia is the home of a wonderful pipe organ. Somehow I underestimated the grandeur of the organ! It has 28,842 pipes and is quite magnificent. It was built for the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis before being purchased and transported to Philadelphia. It has been thrilling shoppers every business day since 1911!!! It is in the center atrium of the store.

An organist plays twice each day, Monday through Saturday. We were able to catch two of the mini concerts!

Organ pipes are on each of those seven levels going up although the Macy’s store is only on three of the levels now.The console is just above the shoe department!

At the end of the mini concerts, visitors are allowed to view the console.

Of course, we took the opportunity to take cheesy photos!

I am delighted that Macy’s has maintained and preserved this magnificent organ. I am including a very short video so that you can hear it but you can find several other lengthy videos on YouTube to hear more!

We had a great time and would highly recommend a visit to Philadelphia, especially for any history lovers!

I still have several projects in the works but as you can imagine, I haven’t been at home long enough to work on them! I hope you’ll visit again to check my progress!

If you would like to read my daughter’s take on the trip, click here.

I’ll be linking to Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style. Click over and visit for lots of inspiration!