rubinc at large: Philly Staycation

We spent the rest of our week off hanging out in Philly, doing things we always say we're going to do but then never seem to get around to. We finally went to the National Museum of American Jewish History, which is walking distance from us and opened shortly after we moved here, but took us three years to finally go see. It was really interesting to learn about Jews in America in the 1600s and 1700s, since I don't usually think about them being here so early in the country's history. It was also interesting to see the museum's sanitized version of the relationship between Jews and Blacks - for example, in the section about post-WWII suburbanization, it asserts that Jews left the cities for the suburbs for a variety of reasons, including "more sun," but manages to get through the whole section without once mentioning Black people or using the phrase "white flight." The exhibits also neatly sidesteps the issue of racism within the Jewish community, and gives a pretty cursory skim to issues like Jewish involvement in the slave trade. But we did find a book on the topic that looks really fascinating in the gift shop, so we're going to read that and hopefully learn things.

We ate at some places we've been meaning to, including the new Federal Donuts that recently opened near us - nothing like fried chicken followed by fried donuts. It was delicious, but I think we need to give our arteries a few months to recover before going back. We're not off to a great start in that department, though, because yesterday we had giant sausage sandwiches and huge milkshakes as part of an "eat in" at a Philly cheesesteak and soda shop. The restaurant used to be called "Chink's" (!!!) after the nickname of the original owner, who was a white man with eyes that "looked Asian." It was recently renamed "Joe's" after the owner's actual name, in order to be less blatantly racist, but has been faced with declining business as former regulars are boycotting them for being "too PC." It was pretty good food, but unfortunately it takes us an hour to get there via public transit so we won't be able to frequent them as often as we would like.

In addition to not being racist, that sandwich is as long as Ben's forearm.

In our walking around the city, we discovered that this weekend was Pennsylvania Dutch Festival at Reading Terminal Market. We discovered this because we went to Reading Terminal to pick up some food, and ran smack into Lil' Sebastian.

His baby is even more lil' than he is!

The also had mini-horses giving rides to mini-people by pulling them around in metal barrels, which Ben and I both found hilarious and adorable.

We weren't fast enough with the camera to catch the mini-horses pulling the train, but you can still see the kids in barrels.

Today we went to the pop-up garden that has appeared in the vacant lot behind our house (the one that they use for trapeze school during PIFA). It's amazing how much they made it look like a full-fledged park, complete with trees and landscaping. They also have concession stands that sell food and beer - since PA has crazy liquor laws, they are able to sell beer outside by officially being registered as a "private club" (translation: you "apply for membership" at the entrance and are instantly approved before you enter).