Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley

Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley

(c) Dorine Houston 2008

http://philadelval.gather.com/

The Delaware River begins in upstate New York, somewhere in the Catskills, and flows south, forming the border between Pennsylvania and New Jersey for its entire length, then continues into Delaware, finally debouching in the Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.  This beautiful river supports fishing, boating, canoeing, tubing and other water recreation.  In the Pocono Mountains, the magnificently beautiful Delaware Water Gap is a scenic place on the border of PA and NJ.  By the time a traveler has reached an area of Bucks County, PA, about an hour north of downtown Philadelphia, the Delaware River is so wide and deep that it supports huge ocean-going vessels including oil tankers and container ships.  In Philadelphia and Camden, NJ, the river's edge has parks, baseball stadiums, museums, public gathering areas, a huge mall, an aquarium and other attractions.  Penn's Landing, where downtown Philadelphia meets the river, is the site of numerous city and regional festivals.  Wilmington, DE also has a large river's edge area with shopping, restaurants, arts venues, a museum, park areas and a minor league baseball stadium.  It is right next to the downtown business area. 

The Delaware Valley is the birthplace of our nation and of religious freedom enshrined in law; William Penn made Pennsylvania the first British colony in America to be established as a home for such complete religious freedom that Jews in addition to all manner of Christians were welcome and assured the opportunity to live in peace, free from any kind of persecution. 

The Delaware Valley is rich in the arts, sports, business and industry, education and health care and wonderful food.  Recreation opportunities abound.  Farms producing all manner of produce and four-legged meat, free range poultry and organic eggs, and rivers and the Atlantic Ocean offering up their bounty of fresh and salt water fish and other sea foods both animal and vegetable keep local markets filled with a huge variety of high quality fresh food. 

The Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were written, approved and promulgated in Philadelphia.  Valley Forge, just west of Philadelphia (about 20 miles from downtown) is the site of great heroism and the turning of the Revolution in our favor.  Just an hour north of the city, Washington's Crossing is the site where, on an icy Christmas Eve, George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River to roundly defeat the British and Hessian troops that were carousing and drunk for the holiday, in no condition to fight. 

Farmers' markets from the venerable Reading Terminal to corner operations out of the back of a truck are everywhere.  Peaches, cranberries, blueberries, table corn and tomatoes abound in New Jersey; Kennett Square, PA produces some 90% of the nation's mushroom crop and Lancaster County has some of the world's richest farmland, much of it tilled by Amish and Mennonite families that practice sustainable agriculture.  Fish from the Atlantic Ocean and the Delaware, Schuylkill and Susquehanna rivers as well as numerous smaller ones are essential to both sports and commercial fisherfolk and to local tables. 

Philly is a great sports town.  We know how to suffer and still remain loyal to our beloved Phillies.  Only Chicago Cubs fans know what that kind of loyalty and heartbreak are like!  People all over the Delaware Valley bleed Eagles green and support the Flyers and Sixers.  Horse racing is important; horses believed to have a real shot at the Triple Crown are bred in the area. 

Philadelphia has numerous world-class hospitals and superior universities, as does the surrounding area.  Philadelphia has arts venues of every kind, from the classical to the most contemporary, from the Opera Company to Victor Café where opera grad students at the Academy of Vocal Arts and other music schools in the area wait tables to pay their tuition, and sing arias every 10-15 minutes.  Jazz and blues, doo wop, great rock and roll legends call Philadelphia home.  Theater, ballet, modern dance, art film houses all provide for the citizens' enjoyment.  Churches, synagogues, mosques and temples of all kinds are on a large number of corners, often right across from each other.  Little Italy, Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Moscow and other ethnic neighborhoods provide the city with markets, cultural events and its wonderful diversity. 

If you live here, have ever lived here and are homesick, think scrapple and cheesesteaks are important food groups, bleed green, studied in one of the great area educational institutions, love hiking, skiing or lake canoeing in the Poconos or sun and surf at the Jersey Shore or Delaware beaches or if you are simply interested in knowing more about this wonderful region, join us at

http://philadelval.gather.com/

And welcome!