scenes from philadelphia

Most of you probably don't know this, but I actually was in Philadelphia from Saturday to Tuesday night for a conference!  But because I love you guys so much, I had already written Monday and Tuesday's posts on Friday and scheduled them to post themselves.  I try not to post where I'm going to be just because there are creepers on the internet, but I'm sure none of you are those people.  :)

Anyway, every year and a half, ICMA and the EPA cohost the Brownfields conference, and if any of you don't know what a brownfield is, a) don't feel bad because I didn't before I started working for ICMA, and b) it's basically an abandoned industrial field that has become nothing more than an eyesore to the surrounding community.  After both world wars, America's industries boomed and took over a lot of space that has since become decrepit or contaminated or both, simply because most of our industrial work has moved overseas.  So, these areas need to be cleaned up and turned over to the citizens, whose taxes pay for these areas to be functional anyway.  Many of them turn into parks or new office complexes that are built using green energy.  In fact, companies like my dad's are often involved in designing these sustainable structures and seeing them through.

Ok, hope you haven't fallen asleep on me!  This was only my second time visiting Philadelphia, but I absolutely loved it!  We stayed near the Pennsylvania Convention Center, which is a beautiful area of town.  I didn't have time to go visit the Liberty Bell or Independence Hall, but I did get to step outside for a few pictures, so enjoy!

That's City Hall with William Penn hanging out on top...

And that's part of the convention center on the left.

A couple of my coworkers working the Mobile Workshop counter...

On Sunday, I went to the Opening Plenary session, which was basically a panel of local and state government leaders who talked about brownfield reclamation for an hour.  But it was moderated by Howard Fineman, who is the Senior Political Editor at the Huffington Post (and used to write for Newsweek) and appears a lot on the 24-hour news channels, so that was kind of awesome!

Nearby was Reading Terminal Market, which used to be a station along the Reading Railroad but is now like an indoor farmer's market on steroids.  It has a very retro feel, and most of the food counters there are local to Philly.  I loved it and ate this turkey sandwich there pretty much every day!

Philly's not really a place you can turn into a weeklong vacation, but if you're on your way to New York City or something, you should definitely stop in!