Philadelphia- The City of Brotherly Love

Last Saturday the January 26th, my wife Salma, Geoff and I went to visit Philadelphia. Geoff is a native of Philly and loves the city by birth. Salma and I had lived in an outskirt of Philly for two years and love the city for the fact that it gave birth to the US constitution that created a nation unlike any other. It’s this constitution for which immigrants like me enjoy equal rights and freedom and protection in this great country.

We drove from Harrisburg to Geoff’s house in the morning and enjoyed a tea break. We three then headed over to Philly and stopped at the University of Pennsylvania campus. UPenn is one of the oldest and most prestigious schools in America and afforded by mostly the rich and talented people.

We walked on and around Locust Walk and saw numerous Ben Franklin’s statues. He’s well connected to the campus. After the initial construction Philadelphia Charity School halted in 1740s due to financial reasons, Ben published his proposal for an institution for the education of youth and organized 24 trustees and established UPenn instead. He served as its president until 1755.

We then stopped at the Liberty Building, one of the tallest structures in the city. Paid parking is expensive and free parking is scarce in Philly. So the only alternative was to pretend as Trader Joe’s customers and park on their highly desired lot. We did just that.

We purchased our passes for the One Liberty Observation deck and were elevatored to the 57th floor.  Philly has no shortage of beauty when seen from up here. On a clear day, you can see the entire city from here and as far as the horizons go in all directions. We spent around an hour here and enjoyed the views.

Next stop as planned, we arrived at Picanha, the Brazilian Steakhouse in north Philly, for dinner. We’d had a dinner here when Salma’s Brazilian friends called for a goodbye party in 2018. The varieties of salads and juicy steaks along with delicious creamy deserts lured us here back again.

Going into the night, we concluded our day at the pool table. That was plenty for a day. We enjoyed Geoff’s company and thankful that he made himself available for us.