Cool Places in Philadelphia

We moved here as we were planning to raise a family. I was working a remote job, and we wanted the feeling of knowing our neighbors — which you never got in Manhattan. You could live in the same giant building for years and not know who your next door neighbor was. Not the case here. We have a block WhatsApp group to share random thoughts, take care of each other's kids and pets. Someone recently asked for maple syrup and someone else brought some over. That same neighbor watched our kid so we could go out — we've done that for others too. Here you build a friend group by walking down the street and saying hi.

Strawberry Mansion Tennis Courts

I bought some cheap tennis rackets on Amazon and my wife and I went out to the courts near Strawberry Mansion maybe a dozen times total. She's actually not bad at it — she's played several times before. The first time I ever picked up a racket was with someone in business school, and I got crushed. So I at least know how the game works. This was my second time. We mostly just hit the ball back and forth, occasionally getting a ball in play, whatever "in play" means when neither person can serve.

What's nice about those courts is everyone is there — families, guys actually playing with the little yellow balls, some nonprofit had signs up for kids tennis lessons. It felt alive, like that neighborhood is being used and not just gentrified through. We stopped going after we moved to Fairmount two years ago, then my wife got pregnant and later we had a kid, and it got harder to drag ourselves somewhere when you have a baby to manage.

Boxer's Trail

I run along the Schuylkill most weekends, going out past the art museum and along the river. There's a stretch they call Boxer's Trail, named after some boxer who trained there, I think. I've never actually looked it up — I always tell myself I will but then never do.

One thing I've noticed is there's this older guy who walks three golden retrievers and a black lab at 6 AM every Saturday and Sunday. Same guy, same dogs. At this point we basically nod at each other. He's nodded at me for years and I've nodded back, and I'm pretty sure that's friendship even if we've never actually talked.

The Waterworks

My dad was in town last summer and we took my son to the Waterworks. It's an old pump house from when Philadelphia actually had a water system, and it's near the art museum and the running path, so you go past it as part of the loop.

Dad got a photo of him holding my son, both wearing sunglasses. It might be the best picture I have of the two of them together, honestly.

The Dandelion

The Dandelion is a pub on the edge of Center City. It's expensive — twenty-five bucks for a burger and eight dollars for a beer — which is kind of tough to justify on a normal day.

But the Sunday roast is actually legit, and the windows curve out onto the street in a weird medieval way that looks like something out of Lord of the Rings. I've been to London for work but never been inside a British pub, so I don't actually know what that's supposed to look like, but I imagine this is close. Inside it's dark in a good way, not dingy. Just dim.

Shoemaker Green

Shoemaker is actually two parks — there's a small one and a slightly bigger one. The small one has names carved into the sidewalk commemorating the first female graduates from Penn or something like that. It's a little hilly, with nooks and benches tucked into corners. You're always in sight of traffic and surrounded by Penn campus buildings, but somehow the trees block it all out. It's a weird urban park, but in a good way.

During summers I go there to read or work, and the wifi is decent. There's a Starbucks right there if I need AC, which is huge because Philly summers are brutal. Outdoor wifi with shade is worth a lot when it's 95 degrees and humid.