Philadelphia City Hall

In the heart of Center City Philadelphia is a landmark that stands out in all skyline views of the city.  With the top of the building adorned with a 27-ton bronze statue of William Penn, City Hall is probably the most recognizable building in the city.  The statue itself is the tallest statue at the top of any building in the world.  Also of note, is that the building itself is the tallest masonry building in the world today.  The construction of the building was started in 1871 and wasn't completed until 30 years later in 1901 at a cost of approximately $24 million, which was over 3 times the original estimated cost.

Today, of course, this building is still the center of government for the city.  You can find portraits of all of the mayors in the city's history adorning the building, as well as exquisite architecture throughout.  Tours are offered weekdays at 12:30 PM.  We took this tour this week and after 2 hours, we felt it was well worth it.  Our guide walked is through a good portion of the building, including describing a lot of the architecture on the outside of the building.  We were able to enter various rooms in the building, including the Mayor's Reception Room (Hey, look, I'm Mayor of Philly now!)

At the very end of the tour you'll also have the opportunity to go up to the top of the Tower of the building.  The view from here is magnificent and since you can walk all around it, you can get a 360 degree view of the entire city.

I'd definitely recommend this tour for all residents and visitors to the city.  Be aware though that only a limited amount of people can take the tour each day.  You can make a reservation on the phone (215-686-2840) starting at 9 AM in the morning to guarantee your spot that day.  The tours are also only offered on weekdays.

Also, across the street from City Hall, underneath the Municipal Building is the City Hall Phillie Phanatic, who'll only be there for a few more days, so make sure you check him out ASAP!

Citizens Bank Park

We spent this past Sunday at the Phillies vs. Nationals game at Citizens Bank Park.  For anyone who hasn't been to this stadium yet, you're truly missing out.  The Phillies' home turf is one of the top venues to view a baseball game in the country.  The stadium is clean, provides good viewing angles from all the seats, and has plenty of food and entertainment.

The promenade located behind the outfield has various food vendors, including the famous Tony Luke's (some of the best cheesesteaks in Philly!) and Chickies and Pete's (a long line just for their Crab Fries!).  There's plenty of shops around to get your Phillies' paraphernalia, including a Build-A-Bear directly in the stadium.  It's great that when planning this stadium, that the designers thought about the entire ball-park experience and didn't just make a "cookie-cutter" stadium like the old Veterans Stadium this replaced.

Also, inside the stadium is one of the Phillie Phanatic statues that have been placed around town.  This is the only one we've seen thus far inside of a glass enclosure, but it's still allows for photos to be taken.

A final statue that caught our eye is the Mickey Mouse one.  Apparently all of the MLB stadiums have one of these this season for their teams as part of a promotion by Disney from the All-Star game.

Phillie Phanatic Press Conference

At a press conference today, the future of the 20 Phillie Phanatic statues that have been part of the Phanatic Around Town summer promotion have been decided.  The statues will be removed from their current locations around the city on August 30 and moved to Citizens Bank Park through the end of 2010 Philadelphia Phillies regular season.

The statues will be at the “Phanatic Walk” at the Third Base Gate through Sep. 30.  On Sep. 11, Citizen’s Bank Park will be open to the public, with FREE admission for the public to see all of the Phanatics. On Aug. 27, online at http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/phi/fan_forum/y2010/phanatic_around_town.jsp, the Phanatics will go up for auction, four Phanatics at a time, with bids starting at $1,000. All profits from the sales will go to Phillies Charities, which donates grant monies to local Philadelphia charities.

So, here’s your chance to catch all of the Phanatics all in one place in case you missed them this summer. And if you have a favorite, you can own one and make it part of your family.

For a video of David Buck, Philadelphia Phillies Vice President of Marketing and Advertising Sales making the announcement, please click here.

Various Philly Phanatics

We've collected a few more Philly Phanatic statues from around the city this past weekend. We kicked it off at the Please Touch Museum, located in Fairmount Park.  Dressed up as the Mad Hatter from Alice In Wonderland, I think this was my favorite of them.

To follow up this one, we saw the statue standing right in front of the Franklin Institute, which was of course painted up as Ben Franklin.

Our final Phanatic was in the trendy area of Rittenhouse Square.  This guy had various baseball cards of Phillies greats over the years painted on him.

Kimmel Center For The Performing Arts

This massive building opened in December 2001 and is the centerpiece of Philadelphia's performing arts district. Two separate venues are inside this structure that are perfect for plays, musicals, orchestras and other performances.  Tours are offered on a regular basis from Tuesday to Sunday at 1 PM.  On this particular trip, we weren't able to take the tour, but we plan to in the not-too-distant future (and of course we'll be reporting on it).

At the top of the atrium of the building is the Dorrance H. Hamilton Garden, which is a simple garden with various trees.  It's something you won't really see at other performing arts centers, so it's a nice sight to see.  Be prepared though...it's EXTREMELY warm in the garden.

We also bought tickets to see the Blue Man Group in January 2011 while we were there.  This is a show I saw in Vegas a few years ago, and I can't wait to check it out again.  It's an excellent show that I'd recommend everyone in the area to go see!

Also, located in the main lobby, is one of the 20 Philly Phanatics that have been placed around the city.

Free Library of Philadelphia

Located right across from Logan Square in the Museum District of Philadelphia is the "Free Library of Philadelphia".  This massive building still functions as a regular library for the area.  However, there is a great amount of historic value to it as well.  While it was originally located in a few rooms inside of city hall, it now resides in the current gorgeous structure of today and has been there since 1927.

The rare book department held inside is one of the largest in the country, which is always bringing academics to the area for research.  Tours are offered of the rare book department for anyone that is interested, and should be scheduled in advance.  There is also a plan to expand the library structure in 2012 with an atrium-style addendum on the back side.

At the entrance to the building is also one of the 20 Philly Phanatics around town that we've been photographing this summer.  This one is "dressed up" like an astronaut.

Right across the street from the library is a Shakespeare Memorial.  For anyone that has been a fan of this Englishman's plays, you should probably give it a look-see if you're in the area.

LOVE Park

Built in the 1960s in the "City of Brotherly Love", LOVE Park is located centrally in the city right outside of City Hall.  At all times during the day, you'll find this park packed with people.  The central fountain is gorgeous as it rises into the sky behind the famous LOVE sign that is displayed centrally in the park.

Also located here, on Wednesdays in the summer, is a Farmers' market.  Although it is quite small in size compared to other farmers' markets, it is something different than you see in the central part of most major cities.  

And for this summer only, you can find one of the city's 20 Philly Phanatic statues located right here.

Penn's Landing

Philadelphia is largely considered the "Birthplace of America", which always makes the 4th of July weekend a special holiday for this city. Beyond the obvious fireworks celebrations, what we enjoyed most was the All-You-Can-Eat Ice Cream celebration on Penn's Landing.

Located right next to the Independence Seaport Museum, for $5 you were able to get all the ice cream and ices your stomach could handle. And even better yet, your money goes straight to the Joshua Kahan Fund to help fight pediatric Leukemia.

Penn's Landing offers a gorgeous view of the Delaware River where you can see the Camden Waterfront.  This is a must-visit view for anyone coming to Philadelphia.

Also in this area, you can find one of the city's 20 Philly Phanatics at the entrance to the Independence Seaport Museum.

In this area are also various memorials.  Unfortunately, due to the heat wave currently hitting Philly, we were only able to see a small portion of Penn's Landing.  The first memorial we went to was built in 1992 for Christopher Columbus celebrating 500 years since he "discovered" America.  It's an impressive looking monument located right outside Penn's Landing's Hyatt.

The last memorial we saw was the Korean War Veterans Memorial.  This beautiful little pavilion commemorates the American soldiers who gave their lives during this bloody conflict.  I'd definitely recommend this for anyone who has any connection to this War's history.

Piazza At Schmidts

Located in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia is a recently built plaza called the Piazza at Schmidts.  Upon entering, the first thing you'll notice is the giant HDTV overlooking the plaza, which typically is showing various sporting events.  Lately, World Cup Soccer has been occupying most of the air-time, but you can usually catch most of the Philly sports games here.

Surrounding the plaza are various shops and restaurants.  We decided to give Darling's Diner a try and were quite impressed with the "breakfast" for dinner we ordered.  The plaza wasn't very crowded, which was disappointing since it is such a nice area.  Hopefully though, as time goes on and word spreads about this place, more people will come out.  They even offer a free parking lot right across the street!

For this summer, they also have one of the Philly Phanatic statues, so be sure to check it out before it's gone!

Last Philly Phanatic Location Announced

The location of the 20th Philly Phanatic has been announced.

The last statue can be found at the Piazza at Schmidts.

This new facility located at 2nd and Hancock Streets holds free events all year round, including a farmers market on Saturdays.

Phanatic Around Town is the summer promotion of VisitPhilly.com, with 20 Philly Phantatics located throughout the city until August.

For a complete list of Phanatic locations, please click here.

PHLVisitorCntr posted a photo of the newest addition to the Phanatic family - click here to see the photo

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Whenever you drive into Philly (at least from the West), the first thing everyone notices is Boathouse Row and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Boathouse Row at night especially looks quite beautiful when it is all lit up. During the day, it may not be as impressive, but it's still quite a nice view.

For the museum, this architectural masterpiece is almost like a gateway into Philly.  It's been seen in countless movies, most noticeably in "Rocky".

Inside you'll find one of the most impressive collections of art in the entire world.  It ranges from American to Modern to European to Asian.  You can spend hours in here just getting lost in all of the works of art. 

This day also marked the last day of the Picasso and the Paris Avant-Garde exhibit.  This was defintiely worth the price of admission!

After finishing up in the museum, right next door is the Fairmount Waterworks, which was the first public water system in our country.  A pretty impressive thing when you think about the technology available when this was first built in 1822.  There's various exhibits in here showing how water gets processed and how all water is inter-related.

Of course no trip to Philly is complete this summer without seeing one of the Philly Phanatic statues in the city.  The one we visited during this trip was located at Lloyd Hall (the beginning of Boathouse Row). 

Phanatic Around Town

Phanatic Around Town features 20 Philly Phanatic statues painted by local artists and displayed around Philadelphia. The displayed Phanatics will be around town through August.

Locations include:

• African American Museum
• Betsy Ross House
• Citizens Bank
• Citizens Bank Park
• City Hall
• Franklin Institute
• Franklin Square
• Independence Seaport Museum at Penn’s Landing
• Independence Visitor’s Center
• John F. Kennedy Plaza/LOVE Park
• Lloyd Hall
• Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
• National Constitution Center
• Philadelphia Free Library
• Philadelphia International Airport
• Philadelphia Zoo
• Please Touch Museum
• Rittenhouse Square
• The Market at Comcast Center

The 20^th Phanatic’s location is still to be determined.

For more, including pictures of each Phanatic, please click here.

UPDATE: The final location has been announced as the Piazza at Schmidts.  Read about it by clicking here!