It’s called Yellow Bicycle Canteen and it was one of so many fun discoveries we made on foot in Philadelphia. We were immediately charmed by the curb appeal. The pops of yellow, sweet cafe tables and nifty signage were enough to pull us right through the door.
Guys, they specialize in vegetarian food! It was such a delightful, heart warming experience to walk into a restaurant and have an entire menu of food just for me!
Plus, every menu item can be made vegan with just a few swaps or omissions. This is the sort of thing you mostly find in cities. Given how many dietary needs have become mainstream, it’s shockingly difficult to eat in a restaurant in this country if you are gluten free or plant based.
Where I live, most restaurants cook green beans in pork and add beef to vegetable soup. Some restaurants offer a black bean burger or pizzas you can customize but I almost feel like many places don’t want my business.
But I digress. This place is incredible because you can get soups, wraps, and all kinds of fun sounding dishes. We were there for breakfast so I indulged in something called Y.B. Cheesy, a bagel with two eggs, American cheese and some kind of herb cream cheese spread.
We took our sandwiches across the street to sit in a quiet courtyard and enjoy our sandwiches and lemony Italian sodas.
They are not at all skimpy on the ingredients – it all was high quality and well worth the $7 price tag.
Small businesses are the backbone of our nation and our neighborhoods. These are the folks who are working to provide services and products and food that appeal to you and your sensibilities rather than the lowest common denominator that the chain stores and restaurants focus on.
If you’re walking down the street and spot a little cafe or cute store, do more than window shop if it can. Go in, see what they have and maybe spend a little cash with them. That’s how we get to keep these special places.
My only regret about this cafe is that we only got to go for one meal. Want to see their fabulous menu? Click here.
It’s the kind of thing a road tripper lives for and it was a fabulous surprise during our last morning walk through Philadelphia. It’s a sculpture of a dragon and one of four that guard a parking lot just a block or so down from Chinatown’s Friendship Arch.
Isn’t it fabulous?
All of the dragons are similar and all are elevated on poles making them feel larger than life. They are the creation of artist Ward Eiker in 2009. I read that each of these copper pieces weighs about 1,500 pounds and they cost about $75,000 to create.
The results are impressive and it’s worth noting that we stood there admiring them like a couple of fan girls! Go see them for yourselves at 815 Arch Street, Philadelphia.
The Betsy Ross House sits up against the sidewalk in Philadelphia’s Old City. It might be easy to miss amidst all the other historic buildings if you aren’t paying attention. You enter via a shaded courtyard that leads into a gift shop where you purchase tickets and access the home.
As part of this self guided tour, you learn that this place we call the Betsy Ross House never actually belonged to the Ross family. In fact, she and her husbands never owned a home. This house was owned by Hannah Lithgow, a widow, who rented rooms in her home. Today, we might call it a boarding house.
The house has been restored to how it might have looked when Betsy lived there and they know which room likely belonged to Betsy. The fact it was purchased and preserved for prosperity in the late 19th century saved this building from the many travesties performed on old homes in the 20th century. Still, it sounds like there were some issues to contend with like a window that had been converted into a door for a balcony that was added on at some point. The fireplace in Betsy’s room had been covered up and wood was salvaged from the floors for other projects.
While American school children are well familiar with the name Betsy Ross and the role she played in creating the first American flag, this wasn’t always the case.
It wasn’t until 1870, when her grandson William Canby delivered a speech to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania that her story was shared publicly. Before that, it was told within her own family and their circle of friends.
By 1898 this Arch Street home had been identified as the place where Betsy lived and it was purchased jointly by Charles Weisgerber, the American Flag House and Betsy Ross Memorial Association.
I asked a docent about her favorite piece in the house and she was quick to tell us to look for something we might not have noticed. Betsy’s own sewing box is located in her bedroom. It’s on the floor, next to the flag that’s draped over her work chair.
Something to note about that flag is that there was no U.S. Flag Code in Betsy Ross’ time. There’s a sign that explains they chose to display the flag across a chair and the floor to give an accurate representation of what it would be like to stitch such a large, bulky flag. This one is a ten foot flag, a common size in the 18th century.
Never fear! The flag is not actually touching the floor. In compliance with our modern Flag Code, there is a cloth underneath the flag to prevent it from actually touching the floor.
This is a self guided tour and there’s not a ton to see or touch. However, I highly recommend the tour. First of all, there is a Betsy Ross reenactor who clearly is a skilled seamstress. She does a lovely demonstration and can answer all manner of questions about the flag, about things related to sewing and about Betsy Ross. She breathes life into this human being.
Plus, there’s something special about roaming the home of one of our nation’s most famous people who didn’t live in the limelight. She lived quietly, performing her patriotic duty without seeking fame or fortune. We got to walk the narrow curved steps she traveled each day and we got to breathe the air of a home that was designated as historic a century and a half ago. Guys, her sewing box was on display for all the world to see!
It is a lovely experience and inexpensive too. There are few barriers to prevent an active imagination from running wild with the promise of the history that was made here. Go see it or at least check it out online.
They have activities and live performances throughout the day. Be sure to also stop and pay your respects at Betsy’s grave.
They leave the supper table without ever taking a bite. They quietly run for the exit at their child’s school play. They rouse themselves from warm beds to venture out into the cold, dark winter night. They leave their jobs, their farms and their loved ones behind to don fifty or more pounds of gear to run toward danger.
These men and women are a special breed. They are volunteer firefighters.
If you live in a city or a wealthy community, you probably take for granted that when you call 911 there will be someone waiting at a firehouse to answer your cries for help. A car crash. A grease fire. A carbon monoxide alarm. A smoke-filled home in the middle of the night. These are some of the many reasons we all depend on firefighters to help.
But in small communities and especially small, rural communities, the people waiting for your call aren’t paid to wait at the firehouse. They are volunteers who go about their lives and work, not unlike Clark Kent just before he transforms into Superman.
Here they come to save the day. Only, they’re doing it for love of community, neighbor and stranger rather than vocation.
This has been on my mind a lot lately. Southern Ohio is experiencing a horrendous drought. Burn bans throughout the area are meant to protect us all. A carelessly tossed cigarette or someone roasting a hot dog outside could result in hours spent fighting a brush fire. Yet, people ignore the ban. They burn their trash, their brush and anything else they darn well please with no regard for the risk to human life, animals or property.
Our volunteer fire departments have worked tirelessly this summer and this week has been the worst so far. After a full day out fighting brush fires, multiple local departments responded to a fire caused by a blown transformer at a power generating plant last night.
I am in awe of every single person who answers when the rest of us are in need.
As regular readers here know, I just came back from Philadelphia where fire departments are a big deal. This is where Benjamin Franklin formed the first ever fire brigade. At his museum you’ll see a bucket once used by a volunteer firefighter. They would line up and draw water from a neighbor’s well, passing one bucket at a time to fill up the fire engine.
We’ve come a long way since then. In Philly today, you’ll see a heavy presence of neighborhood fire stations and some gorgeous murals celebrating their rich firefighting history. Advances in technology make firefighting easier than these humble beginnings and safer too.
Yet, there is an inherent risk these brave folks face every time they head into a burning building or toward some kind of hazmat disaster.
Plus, the time commitments, the danger, the overall risk of the endeavor and the constant need to raise money for the department to survive have left many volunteer departments in desperate need of help. Many firefighters are aging out and hanging up their gear for the last time and young people aren’t stepping up to join in the same numbers they once did.
After all, who wants to leave their family mid bite because someone else caught their Thanksgiving turkey on fire? Who wants to leave their air conditioned home to battle a brush fire in sweltering temperatures? Who wants to leave their tractor in the field or a customer at their place of work to do traffic control at a car accident?
Thankfully, there are still people willing to do this. And they’re willing to do it without demanding to know what’s in it for them. What’s in it for them, by the way, is knowing they helped another and that someone else will be there if they ever find themselves on the other side of the emergency.
My community would be in trouble without them and I am grateful every single day for these brave souls who want to help. Mr Roger’s taught us all to look for the helpers in times of trouble. If you need a helper, look no further than your volunteer fire department. If you don’t need help, go find them anyway and thank them for all they do.
Ps: All first responders, both the paid and the volunteer, are pretty amazing. Let’s be grateful to them all!
Philadelphia has a number of distinct neighborhoods including a vibrant Chinatown. The forty foot Friendship Gate into this neighborhood is even prettier in person.
I wish we had more time to explore here but I was thrilled to at least see the gate. Perhaps I’ll make it back again someday!
Whoever designed the Benjamin Franklin Museum has a great sense of humor and playful creativity not commonly found in history museums. It’s a fun place for all ages to visit and well worth the five bucks it costs to enter.
Franklin was a Renassiance Man through and through. He was a scientist, printer, writer, publisher, statesman, diplomat and political philosopher. He was curious about the world in ways that seem almost boundless and his contributions to society continue to be felt today. I read something describing him as an American polymath, a word I did not know. That’s Greek for someone who has learned much on different subjects.
They tell the story of his life and work through the lens of his character attributes and use an assortment of artifacts, computer animations and hands-on exhibits to do so. There’s a little squirrel named Skuggs who helps to tell the stories. You see, Franklin was fond of small creatures like squirrels, or skuggs, as they were called.
It’s a fun museum with plenty to keep the kids engaged and lots of big ideas and some quality artifacts to keep the grownups interested too. Rather than try to recreate his home, the courtyard features a ghost house where his home once stood. There are markers on the ground for his well, ice house and privy. There are pretty flowers, trees and some images too. Plus, you can go in a print shop and witness pages being set and printed.
Franklin owned slaves early in life but eventually became an abolitionist. He studied electricity and invented all kinds of things we still use today including the lightning rod, flexible catheters, and drumroll please….. bifocals – a creation I don’t enjoy needing but will be forever indebted to him for giving us!
Franklin lived his life by Thirteen Virtues which you can read about here.
He was the only person to sign the Declaration of Independence, Treaty of Paris, peace with Britan and the U.S. Constitution. He also founded Philadelphia’s first fire brigade. At the time, there were no fire hydrants so volunteers owned buckets and would stand in a line to relay buckets of water drawn from a neighborhood well to fill the tank of the fire engine. Look how far we have come since then!
I’m especially fond of these virtues and can’t help but think we would be better off as a nation if more people (including myself) made even the teeniest effort to embrace them.
He became a vegetarian as a young man for reasons based on health, ethics and economy. This resounds with me as I’m pescatarian, trying to mostly eat vegetarian wiith only a few fish meals a week. He was a musician and composer too, doing his part to bring beauty to the world.
Franklin believed in doing what he could to improve the world around him. In fact, he began each day by reflecting on a single question: “What good shall I do this day?” At the end of the day, he would return to this question by asking himself: “What good have I done today?” He thought about how he spent his time, whether he had done any good deeds or found ways to leave the world in better shape than he found it.
What a better world we would have if we all went about looking for ways to to help.
Meanwhile, if you’re in Philadelphia, I suggest you find your way to Old City to visit this museum. Learn all about that here.
While you’re there, stop by his grave at the Christ Church Cemetery. You can go inside for a small fee during their open hours. This fee helps with the massive responsibility of maintaining and preserving the history that lies at rest here. If you’re like me and couldn’t get there during hours, you can view Franklin’s grave from the sidewalk outside. They say leaving a penny on his grave will bring you good luck.
All of this is within easy walking distance of the LIberty Bell and loads of other historic sites.
