Exploring the Cities of America ~ Part 1 ~

After many years of my sister incessantly pointing out to me that I am "uncultured," I came to realize that she is right. I am a little "uncultured" when it comes to music or famous movies. But who isn't? The thing that I am most "uncultured" about though is my own country.

The sad thing is, I can tell you anything about American history, however I have barley travled outside of my home state, Pennsylvania. For many people reading this you're probably agreeing because going to Disney World does not count as traveling your country.

The simple fact is that people take the opportunity to travel and visit places outside of thier own country. But when do they ever take the time to travel and visit places in their country?

Unless you're backpacking the entire United States, you probably haven't seen every site to see that the great United States has to offer. Because of this, I made it my mission to explore the cities of the United States.

I decided to start with visiting places in the city that is literally only 30 minutes from me and I've only explored a few times...Philadelphia...the home of the Eagles, the Liberty Bell and Brotherly Love. It's probably one of the most historical cities, yet I've barley seen a quarter of what the city has to offer.

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The first place I visited was Spruce Street Harbor located in Penn's Landing. This is defintley a very cool place to visit in the summer because it's right on the Delaware river. It offers a lot of opportunities if you're looking for a fun summer day trip.

My friend and I drove there back in August before we both left for college. I didn't know much about the place, but I had seen a few pictures on instagram. Truthfully, I wasn't expecting the place to have a lot to do. I figured it would just be a cool place to hangout and get some pictures.

Little did I know, this place had a lot of potential.

It was right on the Delaware river, so you could go paddle boarding, kayaking or boating. If you weren't into any of these physical activities and you just wanted to "chill," there were hammocks you could lay on with your friends and just hangout.

And if you're a Taurus like me, this place is perfect because there is food right near by. To get a gauge of how close it is to the hammocks, it's comparable to a quick walk from the couch right to the fridge.

But wait it gets better...they don't just have food. They have Ice cream (this basically sold me because I absolutley love ice cream) and it's not just any ice ceam, it's Franklin Fountain's Ice cream.

If you haven't heard of Franklin Fountain's ice cream ( I didn't know what it was until last summer) it is homemade ice cream served in Franklin Fountain chinese boxes. It is perfect for pictures and absolutley delicious. It is defintley a must to try if you visit Spruce Streeet Harbor.

Another must if you decide to spend the day at Spruce Street Harbor is to go on the nets that lay right abover the river. I will admit it was a little scary at first because I thought I was going to lose my shoe or phone, but it was definitley worth it! (disclaimer: there was a net underneath in case anything fell) Behind these nets was a little "beach" with sand and colorful beach chairs. It is a cute spot to take pictures and just relax for a little, while you watch people attempt to paddle board or kayak on the river in front of you.

My friend and I are 100% guilty of sitting there watching these two siblings learn how to paddle board. It was quite the site to see.

They had some other cool features that surprised me. One of them is the games they have near the hammocks for you to play. These included a huge connect four, chess, pingpong, and a corn hole. My friend and I enjoyed playing these games while we were adventuring around this place and waiting for the hammocks to dry from the rain.

The last cool feature that I was very surprised with was the lock wall. It was like the bridge in Paris, but a fence. My friend and I saw the fence and were a little disappointed that we didn't have a lock, but we improvised and used a broken hair tie instead. So, a quick tip would be to bring a lock if you want to part take in this cool piece of art.

I would defintiely reccomend visiting Spruce Street Harbor because it has a lot of fun things to do. There are probably a lot more than I talked about above because it was raining on and off the day my friend and I went, so I could've missed something when we visited. All in all though, everything we got to see made it worth going back a second time.

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Get excited for more in this series - Exploring the Cities of America. You might find out about a place you've never heard of or you'll learn something new about a place you've already visited. Whichever it is, you don't want to miss out. Next week, I'll be visiting another place in Philadelphia...it's pretty magical.