Philadelphia: First Impressions

Mom and I went to Philadelphia a couple weeks ago. As soon as we landed in Philadelphia and got off the plane my first impression was, "uh, oh". The terminal was a mess and the women's restroom was filthy. This perfectly describes the city of Philadelphia. It's dirty and a little scary. There are a lot of homeless people, which is to be expected in a large city, and they are constantly approaching you for money and a ride and trash is just everywhere. Once we got to our very nice hotel (one of the top three in the city) we checked in, dropped off our bags, and went in search of the Liberty Bell. We walked forever (about 10 blocks) and went inside a cheesy museum. The personnel told us the Liberty Bell was just across the street but the building was about to close. We ran to the building, had our purses checked and rushed to see the bell. Several people were standing around taking pictures. I got in a few shots and then we backtracked to read about all the history and look at the exhibits. We were told, rather forcefully, that we needed to hurry up because the building was closing. Oh, well, at least we got to see the bell.
I believe this pretty building is Town Hall but I can't remember.

This is the world's largest organ. It's inside Macy's. Everyday at noon and 5pm an organist gives a short concert. We happened to drop by around 5pm. It was so loud but the shear size of this thing, and the fact that it's inside a department store, is just incredible.
They were also having a Spring Flower Show inside Macy's. You can see the trees and hundreds of flowers in the shoe and cosmetic department.

I took a picture of this sign because of the "fur vault". My grandmother used to work at Belks and she handled ladies fine clothing and fur coats. There were so many cute spring dresses there but they were each at least $100. I wanted to buy about 4 of them but I resisted, plus there's no way I could afford them or fit them in my suitcase.
This is the main entrance to China Town. The walk there was a little scary so we walked a block in China Town and then went back to the safety of the hotel.

Our nights were spent in our hotel room watching TV. Walking around Philadelphia during the day was unpleasant enough so I can't imagine what it was like at night. You may ask why I was even in Philadelphia. I was attending a librarian conference for the week. I did learn a lot and would love to try some of the methods at my school but I'm not sure if they would work on our campus. I attended at least a dozen different "sessions" during the week. Some were short and some were very long. I saw a Sundance Film Festival film called Connected by Tiffany Shlain. It was interesting and she's kind of a pioneer in the web world. She was also one of the keynote speakers. More on the keynote speakers later. Would I visit Philadelphia again? No, but it was nice to get out of town (a two day trip would have been just fine though).