Bookbinder's is alive. I don't know if you want to spend a night there. THERE are many attractive places elsewhere . Try the Astral Plane 17th and Lombard or Dante n Luigis' Have fun , its a great town. PS Bryn Mawr is on the mainline , a very exclusive area , your daughter will be in a beautiful setting.

Most of the undergrads would kill to be at Pomona.
M

<i>&quot;She has never been to Philadelphia, loves museums, arts &amp; humanities....</i>

May I suggest a visit to the Barnes Museum -

http://www.barnesfoundation.org/

It's located in Merion, in the Main Line area. The museum houses an incredible collection of artwork that was collected by Dr. Barnes for display in his home. Upon his death, his home was opened to visitors. His collection includes Monet, Manet, Cezanne, Gauguin, Rousseau, Rubens, Modigliani, etc, with a heavy emphasis on Renoir (for some reason, 183 Renoir's sticks in my mind!!). Most of the rooms are wall-to-wall art! He also collected a lot of Pennsylvania Dutch furniture and folk art which is interspersed through out the home. There is also an arboretum and gardens on the grounds which you can visit.

Enjoy Philadelphia. Peace.

Robyn :)&gt;-

I forgot about the Reading market they have all kinds of neat stuff there. I had gotten a couple of pounds of Pignoli nut cookies (YUUUMMMMMMM) and a few cannoli to take home. We ate breakfast there too. But EEEEEKKKKK don't like scrapple. I have watched them make that around here. My husband
made me try it. :(

mikemo, NOT!

Had a number of Pomona exchange students come east and stay.

Pomona's lovely but not pre-emptively so. You're such a California-chauvinist.

Hey, Casandra, I'm with you on this one, and I'm a California girl through and through. My daughter did undergrad at Bennington and is doing her grad work now at Claremont. My neice did undergard at Pitzer. Both girls found the Claremont campuses just &quot;OK,&quot; and my daughter, while she is also a California girl, will be the first to tell you that Claremont feels almost claustrophic in comparison. She is also less than impressed with both her profesors and her courework at Claremnont--not challenging enough for her!

I don't know if this is still the case, but several years ago students from Bryn Mawr were also able to take some classes at the University of Pennsylvania.

This really gave them the best of both worlds in terms of being at a small suburban liberal arts college with the ability to broaden their curriculum with specific courses in a larger urban university setting.

We will keep you posted on the college choice. As for California, we in the MidWest believe that 300 days of no sunshine, 20 degrees below zero weather, 3 feet of snow from December - May just make for good character. Hey, we gotta rationalize all this crummy weather somehow. Friend's daughter graduated a few years ago from Pomona and she never returned to Chicago, her hometown, because of the snow and lousy weather. Again, think of the character building!!

Wanted to give an update. Daughter and I are visting Bryn Mawr in mid October, confirmed with college last week. She is getting tour, interview, spending night in dorm with couple of freshies and going to some classes. Haven't made hotel reservations yet but college recommended Radnor Hotel and will look into that. Meeting MIL in Philadelphia to keep me company while daughter is busy. Plannning to do public transportation into the city, visit art museum, Liberty
Bell, touristy stuff.dinner in Little Italy. Any suggestions? Looking for ethnic, original Italian restaurant, love Italian food. Then on to Baltimore and Washington, DC to look at colleges as well.

If you go to S. Philly (or, or as you call it, &quot;Little Italy&quot;) and are looking for authentic Italian food at good prices and with no pretension, try &quot;Io et Tu&quot; or &quot;Tre Scalini.&quot; Both little neighborhood places that are great.

If you want to do the historical sites in Philly, go to the Visitors Center first and get a ticket for Independence Hall. They are free, but you must get a ticket with a return time. Choose s time that will allow you to plan your day. The Contstitution Center is also right there as is the Liberty Bell. There are all sorts of tours an activities in the city. For lots of info, go to www.gophila.com

Our daughter graduated from Bryn Mawr 3 yrs agg. Had a great experience. We stayed at the Radnor Hotel as well as the Wayne Hotel. Radnor more modern, Wayne an older but good place.
By all means have a dinner at a Pizza place called something like, &quot;Peace of pizza&quot; in Bryn Mawr. Excellent yuppie pizza by the slice. Unbelievable combinations.
Good luck.

Glad to hear you're coming to Philly, my hometown. I recently received a great kindness from another Fodorite when I traveled to Macerata, Italy. We corresponded online and talked on the phone and met in her town in Italy. I'd like to return the favor to another Fodorite. If you want to talk about what to do for a few days, entertainment, foodie stuff, museums, sites, etal, I'll be glad to help, send me an e-mail [email protected] and we can talk by phone or e-mail...ciao