Today I rode 18 miles before I packed up and left Lewes. It was a beautiful day.. There was new yard art today. – It turned out to be a good omen when I found street parking in Philly just around the corner from my Airbnb. I am going to have to move it tomorrow because the streets are all 2 hour parking but it was perfect for tonight. Now I remember why I always preferred to bring the train to Philly from DC. Parking is a problem.
I have lived in many places from small towns in Iowa to Los Angeles, Seattle, Philly, Manhattan, and suburban DC and for reasons that are not totally clear to me, Philly is the place that I feel most at home. I arrived in Philly in 1997 after 10 years in Seattle. I was starting a new position and building by practice from scratch again. There is a lot more sun in Philly the Seattle and that may have been part of it. I loved that the women in my new practice were more ethnically and culturally diverse. Seattle women were rather reserved. There was so much more emotion expressed by the Jewish, Italian and Black women in my new practice. I had a lot to learn and it was fun and challenging.
Philly was my first experience with city versus suburban living and I was in a high rise apartment building on the edge of Center City which was entirely new for me. I moved there on my own. I love walking around the city and after Seattle, it was nice to not have all the hills. All of the historical sites were within walking distance.. My commute to work was reverse of most of the traffic along Pennsylvania Avenue and Kelly Drive which was beautiful most of the year..
Tonight I walked west to east across Philly tonight to a restaurant. Probably half of the people walking on the streets were wearing masks. Many restaurants have built various kids of structures with work metal or tent material to accommodate outdoor dining – using parking spaces in the streets when sidewalks are narrow. I haven’t seen anything quite like this before. The picture below had a series of tables separated by walls. Others just had significant space between tables. It felt very safe.
Tomorrow I will cycle the Schuykill River Trail as it will be less crowded than Saturday. SaturdayI will ride around the City if I feel safe enough. There are reasonable bike lanes and many one way streets which should help. I really look forward to covering more of the City than I can do walking. I want to soak up as much as I can.
Tamara Unleashed 