We were in Philadelphia for Halloween weekend. Not only is Philly our home away from home, we go annually for Eastern State Penitentiary’s fundraiser “Terror Behind the Walls.” It’s a haunted house set up in an abandoned jail. We enjoy haunted houses and find it fun, we don’t care to dress up for Halloween. October is a happening month for Philly. Some friends took their kids to the Harry Potter fest on another weekend.

Our souvenir pic from October 2015. Our 2016 pic isn’t as funny.

The weekend we were there happened to be the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta. I never really got to see rowing up close. We happened upon it by chance. We started our day at in Center City, picked up breakfast at Reading Terminal Market, and walked to Fairmont Park. We made several stops along the way: Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, Fairmont Waterworks, and then we ventured north along the Schuylkill River.

The boathouses are really cute looking places. We didn’t linger long for the event. We were actually looking for a little quiet outside the city. We were going to hike in Wissahickon Valley Park then decided we’ll wing the day and do that if we ever stay longer than 3 nights because there were things we wanted to see in the city.

Unfortunately we didn’t get any pics closer of the boathouses.

Boathouse Row sits north of Fairmont Water Works and is a historic site. There are 15 boathouses featuring rowing and  social clubs. It didn’t look like we could walk in any of these buildings, they looked like private establishments. According to wiki, each house has it’s own historic story. They range in age from 100 to 150 years old.

In 1987, Boathouse Row was listed on the National Register Historic Places. After hearing talk of demolishing the dilapidated Victorian houses, Ray Grenald, an architectural lighting designer, installed lights giving the houses a gingerbread house Christmas look in 1979. He drew attention and more appreciation to the buildings. Penn, Drexel, La Salle Universities are a part of the row.