This one’s just for fun—a reminder of the joy of the unexpected.

I love Philadelphia to bits. I’ve lived there, led numerous trips there, have a child who lives there. I even married a Philly boy. For me it is truly my ‘2nd city’, the one I know almost as well as I know home. Even so and like any dynamic place, there are just always new and wonderful things to be experienced.

In October. on a flying visit to Philadelphia, I finally made time to visit Magic Gardens. It’s not new, not out of the way—in fact, not in anyway inaccessible. I’d just never happened to have been to this multi-decade, mosaic-crazy wonderment—and I’m so glad to say I finally have! It’s an absolute, positive dazzler.

So next time you’re in Philly you should go—and if you do then you may want to buy your tickets in advance. They tend to book up early. I may be late to the Magic Gardens party but the rest of world seems to have long known that it’s a very special place.

Oh and while you’re exploring you may also want to make time to visit another amazing spot in Philly. This one is in Fairmount Park—Shofuso, a traditional Japanese tea house and garden. It’s gorgeous, simply gorgeous. Profoundly sublime to precisely the same measure as Magic Gardens’ over the top exuberance. My guess is that you’re going to love both of these not so hidden treasures in the marvelous/topsy turvy/raucous/stately City of Brotherly Love where the list of things to see and do never seems to end.