24 HOURS OF BROTHERLY LOVE

During the past year, I was fortunate to travel extensively across the United States: Boston, Atlanta, New York, Charlotte, Dallas, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Grand Rapids, San Francisco and Napa.  As a result, I have lots of ideas for new blog entries.  Trouble has been, I can't seem to focus my thoughts for any extended period of time; it feels not so much like writer's block as writer's overstimulation.  So, sometimes, you have to deconstruct and just start with a smaller piece or a slice.

I religiously read the 36 Hours column in the Sunday New York Times travel section to discover where my next weekend getaway might be.  The range of destinations is far and wide, often jumping from continent to continent with each consecutive weekend.  Some of the Times' weekend getaways actually require more than a weekend.  Compare two columns from last fall.  Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which is about an hour from my home in Maryland, was the destination for a great Labor Day weekend with long-time friends.  Antwerp, Belgium, on the other hand, would involve a rail transfer after an overnight flight to either Brussels or Amsterdam.  And, sometimes, there are times when even a long weekend isn't possible.  That's when I look for a quick 24-hour fix of someplace fun and obviously pretty close to where I live, which is about halfway between Washington and Baltimore.

One of my very favorite 24-hour destinations is Philadelphia.  The City of Brotherly Love is almost exactly halfway between New York and Washington, and almost exactly two hours from my driveway.  But, Philly is different from either of its more vanguarded East Coast neighbors.  As the nation's fifth largest city, it has a real urban feel like Manhattan, but is much smaller and more manageable.  It has grand museums and monuments and even stately boulevards like Washington, but also is very much a working city with old-world neighborhoods and a gritty vibe.  So, recently, when good friends invited me to their art gallery opening in the city's Manayunk neighborhood, I jumped at the chance to join the party and spend another 24 hours in William Penn's town, which always offers something new to explore along with its more than 300 years of history.

CHOOSE WELL: With such a short amount of time, planning a 24-hour visit necessarily requires narrowing the focus of your limited time.  For me, with the art gallery opening set for Saturday evening, I considered what I would do with my Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.   I went with a city market, a museum, a hotel bar and a run along a newly expanded path.

After checking into the brand new Home2 Suites by Hilton, a spotless property that is designed for business and other more independent-minded travelers (there's no restaurant or room service), I walked across the street and into the world-famous Reading Terminal Market, an amazing city market that has been selling fresh fish, meats, produce, flowers and other bounty from the countryside around Philadelphia since 1893.  In addition to several sit-down restaurants and lunch counters, the market also is a primary retail space for many Amish farmers who transport their harvests for sale from nearby Lancaster County.  My mission involved searching for fresh flowers that would be needed for a date the next day back home.  Mission beautifully accomplished, I proceeded to the afternoon's destination, the Barnes Foundation.  The Barnes Foundation is a museum and horticultural institution that was established by Albert Barnes in the early 20th Century.  Barnes made millions as a chemist who helped develop an early anti-venereal disease drug  before the advent of anti-biotics.

Apparently, Philadelphia society at the time was unimpressed with Mr. Barnes or, perhaps, the source of his wealth, so he was not welcome into their ranks.  He turned to the study of art and began collecting works from the famous and nearly famous artists of the day.  That happened to include some of the world's greatest Impressionists.  Today the collection of more than 800 paintings, including an amazing concentration of French Impressionists, and 2500 other pieces of art is valued at more than $25 billion.  Barnes left his collection in trust to a foundation controlled by Lincoln University, a historically black college in the Philadelphia suburbs.  The trust directed that the collection be open to the public on very limited terms.  A combination of financial need and growing demand to see the famous art led to a series of court cases that resulted in breaking the terms of the trust and moving the collection in 2012 from its original location in the Philadelphia suburb of Merion Township to a gleaming new home on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Center City, taking its place on the boulevard with the city's other major museums, the Franklin Institute, the Rodin Museum and the spectacular Philadelphia Museum of Art, itself worthy of a separate visit.  As you make your way through the rooms of the new Barnes, which faithfully replicates the placement of the art in its former home, you will be struck by how often you recognize a famous paining - a Renoir, a Cezanne or a Monet - and think, "I didn't know that painting was here."  For art lovers, Philadelphia's destination status could not be higher.

Leaving the Barnes and having a few hours to kill before getting ready for my gallery opening event, I decided on one of my favorite city pastimes, visiting a hotel bar.  Staying at expensive hotels may not be in the budget, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy a cocktail or a meal at these luxurious digs and absorb some of the vibe.  Philadelphia has lots of high-end hotel options, including the Ritz Carlton, Park Hyatt and Four Seasons.  I chose the recently opened Le Meridien Philadelphia, which gave luxurious new life to a former YMCA.  The lobby bar greets you front and center as you pass through the main entrance.  With its dark, richly paneled walls and white marble floors, the lobby appears at once classic and chic.  I ordered the bar's trendy version of pretzel sticks and a vodka martini for my afternoon snack.  A little buzzed and definitely sated, I walked back to my hotel to shower and change for the raison d'être of my trip, my friends' gallery opening.

The car service alternative to taxis, Uber, has arrived in Philadelphia, so I happily hopped in a black town car and chatted with my friendly driver as he made the 20 minute trip to Manayunk, the location of my friends' gallery.  Manayunk is located a few miles up the Schuylkill River from Center City Philadelphia.  Historically a separate, working class town, it was annexed by the City of Philadelphia in 1854.  Today, Manayunk's Main Street is full of art galleries, shops and restaurants, and is one of the city's hipper neighborhoods.  That evening, I helped my friends celebrate the opening on Main Street of the Bazemore Gallery, a boutique space showcasing modern artists, including my friend and co-owner, Lenny Bazemore.  After an evening celebrating my friends' success, chatting with lots of interesting, eclectic Philadelphians and admiring beautiful art, I Ubered back to my hotel for a good night's sleep on my firm hotel bed.

Up sorta, kinda early the next morning, I laced up for my morning run.  Philadelphia is a runner's city.  First and foremost, it's almost entirely flat and the tight grid of narrow streets makes planning your route easy.  The city sponsors several running events throughout the year and its November marathon is one of the best, most well organized in the country.  Of course, a must-do for any runner visiting Philly is a dash up the iconic, "Rocky" steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, from where you turn toward the skyline of Center City and make an obligatory fist pump.  Indeed, I left my hotel and made my way up the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to the museum.  Normally, I would head around the museum to the north and enter the path leading into Fairmount Park, Philadelphia's fabulous green lung that straddles both sides of the Schuylkill.  Instead, I turned to the left and made - for me - an amazing discovery. 

The Schuylkill Banks has turned the formerly pedestrian-unfriendly lower stretches of the river into a great urban path that leads all the way to a point across from the campus of the University of Pennsylvania on the west bank, and just before the Schuylkill flows into the Delaware River.  Along the way, you will enjoy views of Center City from a new perspective, pass under bridges and by the gorgeous, Art Deco 30th Street train station.  Now, when running in Philadelphia, you can more easily include long distances in your runs, all within sight of Center City's skyline.

I finished my run, cleaned up and checked out of the hotel, headed to Annapolis for a Sunday date, armed with a huge bunch of flowers from Reading Terminal Market.  I also left with new, happy memories of one of America's greatest cities, and practically in my backyard.