history and culture on the eastern seaboard

I had a lovely visit to the fair city of Philadelphia, Thursday night through Sunday evening. My friend Peter is an excellent host, and lives in an awesome part of town. He lives in Old Town, which is a neighborhood of the Old City neighborhood, right near the river, and chock-full of historic homes and minuscule streets. As we're driving into Old City on the way back from the airport, driving down the main drag, Market Street, we drive past an alley between 1st and 2nd street. The alley is labeled Bank St., and Pete says, "that's my street." I say, "you live in the alley?" and he says yes. Pete is known for telling jokes, so i assume that this is a joke and move on. We park the car a few blocks away and walk ... back to this 'alley.' He wasn't joking, his street is just so old that it's too skinny for cars. He lives in an old barrel factory, with all brick walls and high ceilings with exposed pipes. Very urban, very chic. Definitely a yuppie bachelor pad - a black velour couch, a big-screen TV that's actually the monitor for his souped-up computer, a massive collection of good alcohol, and a fridge full of condiments and no food (that last is a quote from Fight Club, but in this case is totally true - the shelves in his refrigerator were totally empty except a Brita pitcher and assorted barbecue sauces).
The weather was beautiful for us, and we spent Friday wandering around the city - we walked the 20 blocks to the Mutter museum of medical oddities, which is in a medical school. It was horrendously creepy - lots of deformed fetuses in jars and wax recreations of horrible diseases. I was glad i went, but when we left i genuinely felt nauseous. We also visited the Green Market in the middle of the city, which is an indoor market with all kinds of vendors - lots of prepared foods, but also fruit and vegetable vendors and lots of cute Mennonite and Amish ladies selling honey and pickled things. We went out to dinner at a Korean restaurant, where our meals were served in steaming-hot stone bowls - delicious, and a little thrill of danger while you eat ... will i burn myself horribly, or will i be okay?!
then our friends Paul and Ben arrived from Washington, D.C., and we had a fun night out on the town. Saturday was a day with much hanging out and catching up about life as young urban professionals, and wandering the city to see the Liberty Bell (about 5 blocks from Pete's house) and Ben Franklin's house (1 block away) and various other cool old things and neat newer things. Ben and Paul left on Sunday morning, and Pete and I spent a day in Center City and driving around the area.
All in all, i'd say it was a successful weekend - i didn't have to pay for a thing, as i bought my plane tickets. i got to spend many hours with some of my favorite people. i got to see a city i'd never been to before. i'd like to go back to Philadelphia someday - it really seems like a nice city.
Now i'm back to good ol' Chicago, where it's dreary and rainy, which is not making me feel any more energetic or excited at being back to work.