Philadelphia: Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site

Edgar Allan Poe lived in a house in Philadelphia for six years. He wrote some of his most famous work while living there, including my favorite Poe piece, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” as well as “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Black Cat,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” and “The Cask of Amontillado” among others. With him in Philadelphia lived With him lived his wife Virginia, his mother-in-law Maria Clemm (whom he called Muddy), and their cat, a tortoise-shell tabby named Catterina. It was here that he experienced some literary acclaim, though it was before “The Raven,” and the addiction and poverty to which he later succumbed weren’t yet at their peak in Philadelphia.

We visited the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site and immediately loved the gutted, empty feel of the house. There was no furniture, no wallpaper, nothing to indicate the literary giant had once resided here except a raven erected out front, long after he was gone. The place had a creepy feel even in broad daylight, with the boards creaking and the footsteps echoing in the vacant rooms. We particularly enjoyed the cellar, where spiderwebs abounded and dirt caked the floor. 

There were two possible signs of Poe. In one room, the word DEATH was scrawled into a wall. The ranger told us they weren’t sure if Poe had done it, or if squatters had done it long after Poe left. Also, green wallpaper had been recovered; the Park Service was pretty sure had been on the walls when Poe lived there.

You could almost feel the great author’s presence in the empty rooms, better by far than if they had been filled with replicas and fakes.

Philadelphia: The Brandywine River, Valley Forge, and Chaddsford Winery

On Sunday morning, we both were under the weather, but we didn’t cancel our plans of an outdoorsy day. We left Philadelphia at 8:00 and arrived at Valley Forge National Park around 8:30. It was at Valley Forge that General George Washington forged the Continental Army in 1777. I have two ancestors, eight generations back, who were commissioned officers under Washington’s command, and it was neat to think I was stepping where they had stepped. It was a crisp autumn morning. We walked about two and a half miles along the paved walking trail, past replicas that put one in the mindset of the Revolutionary War. We saw dozens of deer and flocks of geese, and the fall foliage was lovely.

We grabbed some lunch at a market and arrived at Northbrook Canoe Company around noon. We rented a canoe and paddled almost five hours down the Brandywine River, where the clear water sparkled over golden zinc. A chilly breeze kept our jackets on for most of the trip, but the sky was a deep, clear blue and we had the river mostly to ourselves.

Near the end of our trip, we saw a juvenile bald eagle, its brown feathers rough. We were extremely excited and decided to grow quiet in case its family was nearby. As we gave up hope—and I put away the camera—we began to talk loudly and disturbed a hidden adult bald eagle in the trees just above our heads. She took off. Her wingspan was wider than I am tall, and her beautiful plumage shone in the midafternoon sun. Her wingbeats reverberated in the air. We both clapped our hands to our mouths and watched in awe as she soared within ten feet of us and out of sight. It was the most amazing thing that happened on the Philadelphia trip.

Bubbling with our experience and both feeling in peak health again, we drove to Chaddsford Winery, which was founded in 1982 and had live music playing on its patio. We tasted the semi-drys and sweets and bought a bottle for later. We then took the scenic route back to the hotel through yellow and orange foliage.

Philadelphia: Eastern State Penitentiary

We went to tour Eastern State Penitentiary to enjoy the stark, Gothic architecture of the world’s first true penitentiary, a prison designed to inspire true regret in convicts. Famous prisoners include Al Capone and Slick Willie Sutton. It stands in ruin today, its castle-like towers and turrets hiding a crumbling interior. The broken down cell blocks and assorted debris made it all the more spooky.

The gargoyles are fake, added for the October haunted house they hold here. Apparently it's one of the scariest haunted attractions in the US. I believe it.

This is one of my favorite shots from the whole trip.

The view from the catwalk.

The present-day Philadelphia skyline is jarring from inside the walls.

We took the audio tour, narrated by Steve Buscemi. It was well done. Otherwise we would have never known that a petty horse theif would have had to spend years in solitary confinement in those vaulted, sky-lit cells. It would have been extremely hard time to serve.

Philadelphia: Radicchio Café

For lunch on our penultimate day in Philadelphia, we brought a bottle of Chaddsford Sangri-La Sangria to the Radicchio Café. This was our first experience bringing our own bottle to a BYOB restaurant. We sat outside and popped our bottle of wine while we ate an appetizer of Focaccia Caprese, which was a divine twist on tricolore salad by adding focaccia and prosciutto. The wine was a bold, sweet red with a robust fragrance of cloves.

The breeze had the merest autumn bite in it, but the wine warmed us up as we soaked in the feel of the city. All too soon, our meals arrived. I had the Linguine Pomodoro, which was excellent after I added some crushed red pepper. He had the Paccheri Bolognese, which he said was terrific.

We finished the wine and headed off to our next destination. It was a quiet moment in the shade breaking up the bustling of a hectic day.

Philadelphia: Christ Church and Christ Church Burial Ground

On our first day in Philadelphia, we landed, parked, ate, and headed straight for Christ Church. Christ Church, founded in 1695, is called “The Nation's Church” due to the famous Revolutionary-era leaders who worshiped here, including George Washington, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. It is the first parish of the Anglican Church in Pennsylvania and is also the birthplace of the American Episcopal Church.

Here we are sitting in the pew that Washington and Adams shared.

We got a brief tour by a gentleman who was very proud of the living history: the pulpit, the baptismal font that had been in use for at least a century, the pews where famous people sat and not-so-famous people still sit every Sunday. He informed us that walking on a grave inside a church is a way to honor the memory of the deceased.

Golden mid-afternoon sunshine poured through the original lead glass windows, dappled by the leaves of the old sycamore in the courtyard.

We then walked a couple blocks to the 291-year-old Christ Church Burial Ground. This cemetery is the final resting place of Benjamin Franklin and four other signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Me at Franklin's grave:

Other famous and interesting people who were buried here can be found here.

The high brick walls blocked out the hubbub of downtown Philadelphia and encouraged a reverent silence as we walked among the graves, crunching fallen leaves.

Philadelphia: Rum Bar

We traveled to Philadelphia October 8 – 13, 2010. On Saturday night, we ran out of daytime activities and wandered to Village Whiskey, a speakeasy-type bar with great, but pricey, cocktails. We each had two, but in preservation of our wallets, we decided to leave in the hopes we could find a pub with better prices.

Just around the corner was what became our favorite place in Philly: Rum Bar. The music was quiet, the bar was packed, and the drinks were good and well priced. We sat at the bar, though that is not usually my favorite place, because there was no seating to be had.

Soon we began talking to the bartenders, Zack, Katie, and Vena. We talked with two girls about the pitfalls of Facebook and Twitter and sympathized with the girl next to me, Kris, over having a bad date. The drinks kept coming and I got friendlier and friendlier. Antics and hilarity ensued.

I had the elusive great bar experience. I've never had so much fun at a bar. I think the main reason—other than the fun people, of course—was the fact that I could actually hear them talking. In Nashville, bars are LOUD. You have to scream in each other’s ears to be heard, so I usually give up trying to interact. But here, we talked and laughed easily.

Despite the fact that Sunday I felt absolutely TERRIBLE on my hiking and canoe trips, we actually returned on Tuesday night to toast off our last night in Philly. We had a blast and were greeted like old friends.

I want to go back to Philly just so I can go to the Rum Bar!