Editor Corner

by Jackie Damrau, Managing Editor

I find traveling to cities that I’ve never visited before to be quite exciting. Before leaving, I always try to find out about the interesting sites to see, any city tours that will show me the historical places and other areas of interest, and then “always, always” look for interesting bookstores or unique shops to visit.

Philly was no different. My adventure pre-conference started with riding the subway from the airport to the conference hotel. Subways are an interesting place to definitely look like a lost soul, ask ridiculous questions, and generally observe the city population. Of course, the inexpensive one-way fare of $6-7, depending on time of travel, makes it a fun adventure.

After arriving at the hotel and claiming my pre-shipped boxes on Thursday, I ventured out on the streets to see the sites. I didn’t venture very far, but did go to a huge shopping mall, The Gallery, that had over 170 stores. In the general downtown area, it seems that the subway feeds into many of the areas, so at almost every turn, you were running into a bevy of people cascading out of doors with the mission in mind of getting to the street. I then walked around to just see what was nearby discovering, of course, the 7-11 to pick up those in-room munchies and the local CVS and Walgreens for other items.

My Big Bus Sightseeing Adventure

My first selection was to take the 90-minute Big Bus Tour. This was a double-decker bus where the topside is open to the air. Being a somewhat humid day, I decided to ride below and enjoy the tour from there. Everyone else was topside, which made it pleasurable for me to be able to hear the guide. The tour went by 20 historical sites, including the Congressional Hall (pictured at left), beside the ones listed above that I could go back and visit with my CityPass. I definitely recommend this tour. Here’s a brief synopsis of the notes (yes, I took notes!) of the 20 historical sites:

• Stops 1-4: Independence Visitor Center (home of the Liberty Bell), Betsy Ross House, National Constitution Center, and Chinatown (3 rd largest in the US)
• Stops 5-6: Convention Center Marriott (where I started and ended the tour) and City Hall
• Stops 7-10: Basilica of St. Peter & Paul, Rodin Museum, “Rocky Steps” outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Eastern State Penitentiary (the movie “12 Monkeys” was filmed there)
• Stops 11-14: Philadelphia Museum of Art (3 rd largest museum in US, structure made out of dolomite from the old city dam), Philadelphia Zoo, Franklin Institute (national monument to Ben Franklin), and Logan Circle (home of City Hall, which is built from rock and concrete–no wood or steel)
• Stops 15-20: Academy of Music / The Sound of Philadelphia (street that stretches 14 miles in a “straight” line), Antique Row, South Street/Head House Square (home to The Artful Dodger restaurant), Society Hill Sheraton (located near three buildings built by architect I.M. Pei), Penn’s Landing Waterfront, and Old City/Christ Church (built in 1695 and houses the oldest post office that has “never” flown a US flag because it was a post office well before the designing of the American flag)

Sites I Visited

What sites did I visit? Well, I rode the bus back around to my first love, old churches. The art, stained glass windows, and overall structure of the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul (at right) gives one the sense of love and passion that went into building this structure.

To go from the Basilica to the Science Museum, you had to walk around a gorgeous fountain. I called this the Swan Fountain (below), because on one side it had swans and the other side had turtles spraying water into the middle of the fountain.

The Franklin Institute Science Museum was my next stop. While a very small museum, I found great fun in learning all about the heart and how it works. I even got to walk through a heart with signs telling you about each portion of the heart. The interesting part of this is that the passages were built as small and restricting as a normal heart is, which makes one appreciate this part of our body. Of course, schoolchildren were running through it as if it were an attraction!

Just a few doors down, I stopped at the Academy of Natural Sciences where I spent a large amount of time in the Gregor Mendel “Planting the Seeds of Genetics” exhibit. Mendel, an Augustinian friar, charted the rise of genetics by growing and examining tens of thousands of peas in a garden at The Abbey of St. Thomas. His work inspired others, such as Crick and Watson, in discovering things like the double helix of DNA.

Journey Ends – Back to Conference Life

As you can see, I had a pretty full day of sightseeing. A much-needed hot soaking bath and lounging was in order for the remainder of the evening before the whirlwind days of conference would start. You can read about the conference festivities in that special section of this newsletter.

I’m now looking forward to planning my next conference city tour for Atlanta, Georgia. STC’s 56 th Annual Technical Summit will be there on May 4-6, 2009.