Philadelphia Flower Show

We live about twenty miles from Center City Philadelphia. We wanted to do a two night stay in the city to coincide with the Philadelphia Flower show which this year was going to be outside for the first time in it’s long history and in June instead of early March. The Flower Show in March 2020 was the last big event in the city before Lockdown and that was the last time we had been to the city. We love Philadelphia and often go into the city to visit friends, sing with our singing group and visit the theater.
We arrived just before noon the first day, checking in early at our favorite hotel in the city, the Rittenhouse, Tauck really should stay there on the tour that goes to Philly instead of the non descript Sofitel….booked through American Express Platinum which has the perk of early check in and late check out, 4pm. Upgraded room.A $65 credit each every day for breakfast and $125 to spend on various things like the spa or restaurant. We settled into our room and then headed down to the restaurant Lacroix for lunch. We just love this restaurant, it has only just opened back up but sadly not for dinner. Some of the staff recognized us and were telling us that finding staff for both the kitchen and wait staff has been extremely difficult. Apparently there was a joint job fair organized along with the Four Seasons recently and not one person showed up for interview. Despite this, the food and service were exceptional as usual and worth every penny of this high end experience.
Then we headed out for a walk around the area….what a shock….many of the stores were gone and the normal vibrant feel of the surrounding area were just not there. We always go into Uniqlo, thankfully still open, picking up an earth colored long sleeve t short for me, on sale, I tend to buy my Safari t shirts there. My hubby got a bargain sale jacket, $20. No luck at a favorite shoe store, Benjamin Lovell…but who has been wearing anything but slippers or bare feet this passed year anyway?
On our way back, we bumped into a dear friend, or should I say relative since we discovered he and I are pretty closely related since we had Ancestry DNA done a few years ago…all through our common Irish ancestors, third cousins. He quickly noticed my earring was about to fall out, the back was gone. The perils of wearing earnings are not to be underrated when you keep putting a mask on and off, I’ve hardly worn any this whole past year. Here’s the fun part, he’s a famous jeweler in Philly. We were fairly near his place, so he insisted we walk back to his home where he has a treasure trove of crazy things, he sorted through a handful of all types of backs, matching them perfectly with my earrings and looking at the earrings through his jewelers magnifying glass. Apparently they were silver, I really can’t remember whether a friend had given them to me, but he liked them. I insisted on paying for the replacements and he charged me $4.. a jewelry emergency averted!
Now back to Philly…..we ate dinner in Scarpetto in the hotel, meeting friends there. It was so lovely to meet up after such a long time.
This morning we had room service breakfast which is always beautifully presented, covered by our $65 each daily breakfast credit. We headed out to the Flower show by UBER. It is in FDR Park near the sports stadium.
Boy is it hot today! We walked around for over three hours trying to keep cool. The exhibits were lovely, but there could have been more. There were too many vendors too, only bought one little souvenir, a handmade Japanese fabric cat. The Swedish American museum is in the park too, so we went into there, a fairly small museum, done in half an hour. Back in the room recovered….going out for a cool drink…some photos to follow….