the many phaces of philly

face one: history. save d.c., there doesn't seem to be another city that i've been to that has more history than philly. devouring the typical philly historical sites in two hours. independence hall and the liberty bell. random other smaller places. hmm...what do do, what to do.

face two: artistic. recently, the city of philly commissioned many artists to paint murals all over the city. as we roamed, random buildings had amazing murals. the most impressive was below. four story building easily. a hundred yards long at least. mosaic of tiny tiles. no, i'm not making it up. phenomenal way to brighten up an industrial city.

face three: a city on the rebound. parts of the city, particularly downtown, showed huge signs of urban renewal. scaffolding and cranes scattered. gleaming new skyscrapers and crazy expensive stores. it was an odd sight seeing stores like burberry and tiffany's on the same street as a rundown mcdonald's and a payless shoes.

face four: exhausting. pictures of me today show bleary-eyed fatigue. we walked through the streets upon streets of rowhouses that constituted a lot of philly's housing. some remodeled and awesome. some rundown and in need of a lot of work. not that i want to live in philly, but i think the rowhouses and townhouses that are in capitol hill or georgetown might be a place that i'd like to live someday.