Philadelphia And Vicinity, November 26-28, 2010

Victory Brewing Company in Downingtown, which is making some of the best beer in the region (including Brooklyn Brewery? Maybe!):

I read that they were starting to poke holes in the Spectrum, but when we went by there, it was just one lousy hole — one of those ceremonial jabs at a building’s facade. Not sure how much more progress they’ve made on demolishing the place:

SEPTA sold the naming rights of the Broad Street subway line station at Pattison Avenue to AT&T:

I might feel a little disappointed if I visited Philadelphia and saw Independence Hall with a trompe l’oeil top. Some enterprising artist should do something similar to a building like, say, the Chrysler Building — it’d be hilarious:

The new National Museum of American Jewish History has opened just off of Independence Mall:

Lancaster Avenue in West Philadelphia:

April 2-3, 2011

Saturday we took the 7 train out to Corona . . .

. . . to the New York Hall of Science, which I had never been to. I love the quirky architecture of the Great Hall, which was originally built as a pavilion for the 1964-65 World’s Fair and which was designed by Wallace K. Harrison (who also designed the Rockefeller Apartments on 54th Street, the Time-Life Building on Sixth Avenue and the master plan for Lincoln Center, and was the lead architect for the United Nations complex):

This is one of the blocks up close:

The Mathematica exhibit (background here) is vintage 1960s — and as quirky and retro as the dioramas at the Museum of Natural History. A really cool treasure:

We also played miniature golf at the Rocket Park Mini Golf course, next to the Mercury-Atlas and Gemini-Titan rockets that were also from the ’64-’65 Fair:

At least one of us loved the cow eye dissection demonstration:

Took the train back via the 103 Street-Corona Plaza Station (with a pit stop for a Mama’s Special).

Sunday we went to Williamsburg to visit the Brooklyn Flea:

Here are some new pages for Bushwick Inlet Park (“inlet” is a horrible sounding word), the Citistorage Records Center (which will have to move if plans for the waterfront move forward), and the Williamsburg Edge (which doesn’t actually have any pictures of the buildings themselves . . . whoops!).

On the way back, we walked by the furrier on Manhattan Avenue, which we had read is going to close soon:

And back over the Pulaski Bridge:

New Orleans, November 10-14, 2010

Tagging along with Jen on another work-related trip . . .

November 10, 2010: Overeating New Orleans

Flew into MSY, otherwise known as Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, took the Pontchartrain Expressway (which takes you right by the Louisiana Superdome), checked into the hotel and went immediately to lunch at Butcher, Donald Link’s sandwich shop around the corner from his Cochon restaurant. Butcher is really really good.

Tried to work off some of the muffaletta by walking around the French Quarter.

It was my first time in New Orleans, so Jen took me down Bourbon Street, which is rather tame during the day:

I was excited to see the Mississippi River, so we walked along the waterfront:

This was our day of sightseeing, so Jen took me to Cafe du Monde where of course I had to try a beignet even though I wasn’t all that hungry. From there we crossed the street through Jackson Square where there’s a statue of Andrew Jackson and visited St. Louis Cathedral:

Jen then shopped.

After Butcher and Cafe du Monde, I’m somewhat ashamed to say that I wasn’t all that hungry when we went to dinner, but dinner was good, too. A post-dinner drink but we weren’t out late enough for the music to start, because people in New Orleans stay out really late. We took one of those super cool streetcars back downtown.

November 11, 2010: Overeating and Overdrinking New Orleans

Breakfast at the venerable Mother’s Restaurant, then tagging along with Jen on her work stuff.

Back to eating . . . Felix’s for oysters, where they shuck them right in front of you. They have no use for dishes:

On to Napoleon House for drinks, then plastic cups back on Bourbon Street, which is less tame at night:

Then Sazeracs at The Roosevelt:

Then on to dinner at Cochon. Butcher is really really good but Cochon is really really really good. This, if memory serves, is Deep Fried Head Cheese:

November 12, 2010: More Overeating In New Orleans

Tagging along with Jen, then lunch, then a walk over to St. Louis Cemetery #1, which has the shortest opening hours of any cemetery I’ve ever visited:

Sazeracs at the Rib Room:

Then gawking at the World Trade Center (of New Orleans), then dinner.

November 13, 2010: Mississippi Gulf Coast

Picked up a rental car and drove out to the Mississippi Gulf Coast by way of Interstate 10 and the Peanut Stand across from the Mississippi Welcome Center just past the state line. I said before when we traveled around South Carolina that I didn’t understand why boiled peanuts haven’t yet caught on in other places, but it’s worth repeating: Why no boiled peanut joints up here? It’d be a hit!

The coast is healing, and we saw it as we strolled along the beach in Pass Christian. I don’t know that I really knew how badly that part of the coast was hit during Katrina — there is basically nothing left along the road to Biloxi except for stuff that has been rebuilt. It’s really striking — just mile after mile of empty parcels:

And as of November at least, there were still cleaning crews along the beaches:

Tough couple of years for that part of the country — very sad.

Neil had some sort of Neil Simon image of Biloxi in his head — he wanted to see big 1950s Thunderbirds rolling down Main Street. Or something. There isn’t much of that on Main Street in Biloxi:

We ate a snack in D’Iberville then made our way back toward Pass Christian via Gulfport.

The first annual Pass Christian Oyster Festival was happening, so we checked out that and got some oysters at Shaggy’s at the harbor there. The oysters at Shaggy’s were coming from Texas, so that was disappointing, but some places were starting to serve local oysters again.

On the way back, a rest stop without boiled peanuts and back in New Orleans, walked down Canal Street before the night’s activities.

November 14, 2010: New Orleans Has Scoreboard

Around 5:30 a.m. I learned definitively that New York has absolutely nothing on New Orleans. Think you’re out late because the bar you were at closed at four? Try stretching that out until 5:30 or later. The time on the metadata here says 5:57 a.m. (actually 6:57 a.m., but I have it set to Eastern time). I’m actually hoping that I forgot to turn the time back at the beginning of November, but I fear that I didn’t . . .

Yikes.