Well let me assure you all that I have seen much worse riding through West Philly, though the highlight of our ride was this architectural marvel, composed of repurposed shipping containers:
Luke hosted us from Thursday evening until we left on Monday morning. A better host in a city there can never be. The definition of entrepreneur, Luke now owns a restaurant along with several rental properties and other properties around town. I'm certain he wouldn't want me harping about these things. I simply mention it, because I was just so impressed by the guy. Most importantly, Luke has found his happiest times in his life during long bike tours like ours. He shared tales of his tours through Alaska, where time became could be a minor consideration and adventure took center stage. I saw a look in his face that I have seen on those of others who have toured. It is pensive and reflective, but not melancholic more like satisfied. A man who seemingly has everything says all he wants to do at present is go tour.
Luke didn't just let us stay in his home and eat and drink at his restaurant. As though that was already beyond common generosity, he also spent the weekend with us when he could. The poor weather kept us from riding around the city on our bikes, which we were all eager to do. We were not thwarted. Luke took me and Geoff to a few of the important tourist spots. The highlights for me were the City Museum and Anheiser-Busch Brewery.
The city museum is a mish-mash of industrial trash, put together to form a beautiful artistic landscape.. that you can climb all over. The museum is fittingly housed in a gutted warehouse building. As you approach the entrance you notice a full sized yellow school bus teetering on the roof's edge. Then two old busted-up planes suspended above a courtyard, seemingly connected by giant slinkies. 
Taking a closer look, I noticed children hurling huge rubber balls at each other in a giant ball pit. For once the sound of screaming children didn't make me want to run into the nearest bar to search for adults. Instead I'm sure at this point I was walking at jogging pace to get inside.
The first thing you notice inside is a stream of humans being launched down a metal chute, arriving 10 feet before you and then walking away with a big smile on your face. In fact, the place was full of slides, tunnels, ladders, and hidden rooms. The cave led to the 10-story slide, which gave me wicked friction burns - totally worth it. My photos can't really capture the scale and the detail of this place. It stands as one of the coolest places I've ever been.
I assumed the Budweiser brewery tour would be more or less the same as any other brewery tour I'd been to. But seeing as you never leave a brewery tour dissatisfied, I was quite happy to oblige our host for a tour. Once our tour began and our leaders, who I swear were both named Mario, took us out the front building's back door, my preconceptions were overruled. Buildings constructed before the turn of the 20th century appeared in stunning relief to the steel gray sky. As we walked, the eye would catch 20th century additions of giant pipe racks and smoke stacks that belied the industrial nature of today's Anheiser-Busch, yet I could not help but be won over by the historical flare of the place. Architectural flourishes decorated brick building facades and interiors, which also competed for real-estate with modern steel tanks and the pipes that ran everywhere. The first stop on the tour was the stable, which still functions to house the Budweiser Clydesdales, equestrian giants. Further you are told that the school house that was converted to an office building long ago, once functioned on the brewery grounds. I wonder what that Saint Louis was like, where school children walked to their classroom smelling of malted barley.
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