Things to Do in Springdale

Just as the Roman god Bacchus represented both wine and revelry together, Pinot Boutique celebrates wine by—how else?—throwing parties. The staff regularly stages wine-tasting events—including the recurring Vino Voyage, held aboard a 19th-century warship, Olympia —and hosts several events amid the exposed-brick walls in its downstairs venue, known as The Cellar. Upstairs, the shop’s main floor is dedicated to fostering at-home celebrations, earning the title Best Gift Shop of 2012 from Philadelphia Magazine. The acclaimed boutique displays accessories such as wineglass charms, corkscrews, and picnic gear to complement an exclusive selection of vintage wines and fresh labels from Pennsylvania's Paradocx Vineyard.

The Mann Center is a prepossessing structure from anywhere you sit in the semi-covered amphitheater—all huge, rough slabs of timber that evoke the setting for a barn dance held by elegant giants. Even the lawn section isn’t an ordinary lawn: from the top of the steep hill where the theater perches, audiences can see not only the performers lighting up the stage below but also the canopy of trees in surrounding Fairmount Park and the city skyline just beyond.

The Penn Museum hosts its fourth annual P.M. @ Penn Museum Summer Nights concert series, presented in the Museum's verdant outdoor Stoner Courtyard on the University of Pennsylvania’s idyllic campus. Just inside, guests can immerse themselves in the Museum's newest exhibition, "Black Bodies in Propaganda: The Art of the War Poster," before moving on to explore a world of art and artifacts, many obtained from archaeological and anthropological expeditions conducted by the Museum since its founding in 1887. Wandering its galleries, guests explore rare objects from the near and distant past, including those found in the Egypt (Sphinx) Gallery, home to a monumental granite sphinx circa 1200 BCE. Elsewhere, visitors marvel at intricate bronze and ivory carvings from West Africa's Kingdom of Benin, created between the 17th and 20th centuries, and intricately carved Maya stone stelae from pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Changing exhibitions showcase travelling collections or draw from the Museum's vast collection of objects from every inhabited corner of the globe.

It's a child's paradise in the Garden State Discovery Museum, where pint-size patrons can climb up rock walls, cavort with wildlife, and imagine themselves as vets, doctors, and news anchors in hands-on exhibits. Red-eared turtles lounge in the wildlife area, inviting kids to gaze upon their slimy shells, and science displays teach guests about gravity, lava, and light.