I have a week’s vacation that I have to use up before March 31st and am planning to use it to visit friends in the Philadelphia and Boston areas. The woman in Beantown has a pretty good idea of what to do to show visitors around but one of the two I’m visiting in Philly’s a bit of a socially anxious homebody that only goes into the city to work so she’s not entirely comfortable planning our iteniary. I’ve only been to the city a couple times myself so I don’t really know much about the cities besides the obvious historical landmarks, plus I’m not entirely comfortable being the one to plan the entertainment, myself. I’m the guest intentionally; I hate being the host.
So, with all that in mind, does anyone have any suggestions? She’s not hopeless or else we’d not be spending the time together, obviously, and I, myself, am pretty much open to anything that isn’t prohibitively expensive but we’re somewhat limited by what she’d feel comfortable doing. Any help would be much appreciated, either for us or just for her in general.
I’d like to see the sights and take in a couple museums but I expect I’ll either do that alone or with a second friend that I’m hoping to spend some time with after her. I saw the Mütter Museum when I was there this past January and just walked around Center City and had a cheesesteak – vastly overrated, incidentally – in May '06. Truth be told, I’m visiting more for them than the city itself and am perfectly content to spend most of my time watching films or listening to music but she feels compelled to show me around but doesn’t really have an idea how to do so.
Sorry, this is too complicated for me. Since I’m not entirely clear what your friend’s issues are, I can’t really figure out what she would or wouldn’t be comfortable with – and since you’re not interested in sightseeing anyway, I don’t see much point in figuring out sights to recommend seeing.
I said I’m most likely going to site-see alone or with another friend, not that I’m disinterested in doing so. I’m researching this independently but am sure I’ll overlook dozens of things. If you want to recommend some, do so.
Well, the Art Museum is an easy one - it’s huge, and almost always has multiple interesting special exhibits going on. But my favorite museum in Philly is the Franklin Institute.
The next time I’m in Philly, I’m going to go to the Barnes Museum, an eccentric collection of world class art from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. You have to get reservations way in advance.