How many hours are you willing to drive? Albany is also a major haul, at least 4 hours from Philly--and longer if you are doing it on a summer or winter weekend, which means Catskills traffic on the NYS Thruway. That does not say "1-2 day trip" to me.
If you feel like spending half of your trip in the car, then by all means do that, but even then I would give Albany a miss. It's not an attractive or interesting place (and I say that with love and experience, since some of my best friends live there).
Perhaps it would be more useful to let people know what places you've already ruled out, how far you want to drive, what you actually want to see/do, etc.