In West Philadelphia, Born and Raised...

For you children of the 1980s, you may recognize the title of of my post. Whenever I think of Philadelphia, I can help but chant the Fresh Prince of Bel Air rap "...in West Philadelphia, born and raised, on the playground is where I spent most of my days..."

So last week I traveled to Philadelphia for work, and needless to say, Will Smith and his über-cool 90s flat top was in my head for much of the trip. It was a whirlwind trip: we flew all day Thursday, trained on Friday, and flew home Saturday.

The National Girls Collaborative Project is bringing in new regions to help implement our project, so we trained them on the elements of the project and how to get started. We have been preparing for months, so the training was very gratifying and I felt a huge wave of relief after it was over. My coworkers are a lot of fun, so I enjoyed being in Philly with them, as well as sharing a couple nice dinners and free happy hour at the Embassy Suites.

I didn't do much sightseeing in town - but our event took place at the Franklin Institute, which had a nice view of the surrounding museums. Luckily the East Coast cold spell broke for a few days and Friday was actually quite warm and sunny in the City of Brotherly Love. And it was also fun to laugh to myself that less than a week earlier the Arizona Cardinals kicked some Philadelphia Eagles' butt... go NFC West!

My room was on the 27th floor of our hotel, so I had a great view of Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The other photos are from the roof of the Franklin Institute.