June 22: Foul, fetid, fuming, foggy, filthy Philadelphia (not really)

(Apologies to Philadelphia-lyrics above from the musical 1776.  And we did have some sympathy with the founding fathers--it was HOT the whole time we were there.  We were grateful for the addition of air conditioning to Independence Hall!)

Monday morning we were up and ready to explore.  Rachel had summer school every morning, so we were on our own until after lunch.  We had to make a quick stop at Target for a few things.  Everyone was fascinated by the two story Target near our hotel.  Jonathan is a fan of escalators (he rode up and down several times), and Jay loved the cart escalator next to the people escalator.

 Once we dragged them away from the store, we headed back toward Philly. Fortunately, by the time we got out the traffic had mostly cleared and we had a fairly quick drive.

There are trees on the overpass!  Benjamin Franklin
is everywhere in Philadelphia, even on the highways.

 Our first stop after we found a place to park was the Visitor's Center to pick up our tickets for Independence Hall.  Then we headed across to the Liberty Bell.

There were amazing murals all over the city.  This was on a
building behind where we parked.

Outside the Liberty Bell complex, they have been doing
excavations and found old slave quarters.  Here the dig site
is exposed.

The Liberty Bell with Independence Hall in the  background.  The
tower in Independence Hall now houses the Centennial Bell.

Four happy people at the Liberty Bell.

 By the time we finished with the Liberty Bell complex, it was time for lunch.  We found Philly cheesesteaks at a food truck, so we were able to check another thing off our Philadelphia list.  (As a side note, the cheesesteaks were amazingly delicious but it was good we were doing so much walking or we would have gained 10 pounds just from that lunch.)

After lunch, we had a little time before we had to head to Independence Hall for our tour.  We walked around and looked at more historic buildings, then found a little park to sit in the shade for a few minutes.

History everywhere you look.

"The Signer" represents the
signers of the Declaration.  Emily
is all set to sign something too.

The tour of Independence Hall was interesting, but ran a little long for the kids.  Then they found the air conditioning vent and took turns standing on it, which made it all worth while!

Independence Hall

We think this was originally
a horse hitch, but Ben decided
it was a chair.

Courtroom in Independence Hall.

The room where the Continental Congress met.  The
Declaration of Independence was signed here and
The Constitution was written in this room.  It is set up as it
would have been during the Continental Congress.

The President's Chair.  This is the only piece of original
furniture in the room.  George Washington used this chair
as he presided over Congress.

We're getting a little tired of history!

We did not try to run up the stairs
like National Treasure.

The back of Independence Hall.

 After our tour, we met Rachel and walked down to see Benjamin Franklin's grave.  It was, admittedly, a bit anti-climactic.

 Our next destination was the Philadelphia Mint.  Of everything that we did, this was the thing that interested everyone of all ages.  The tour was self-guided and really neat.  We could look down on the money being made and learned all about the coin making process.

It was really bright.....

Inside the mint was a really cool machine that allowed you to
create your own coin.  Abby's is the top left; Ben's is
top middle, and Emily's top right.  Jon's disappeared too
fast for us to get a picture.

Some background--Rachel gave Ben a stuffed animal
buffalo when he was a baby.  It has become his favorite and
he now loves buffaloes, and has started a collection of stuffed
animal buffaloes.  On the trip, he brought two of the three
buffaloes he owns: Buffalo (the original one) and
Blueberry (the most recent acquisition).  The third one, Poconut,
had to stay at home, because according to Ben, "he snores too
loud."
As we stepped off the escalator in the mint into the gift shop, there
at Ben eye level was a shelf of stuffed buffaloes.  The dark
brown one in the back looks just like Poconut!  And there
were the smaller ones like he's holding that he announced were
"Baby Poconuts" and wanted to take home.  Fortunately
he couldn't see the GIANT Poconut that was on
the shelf above him.  We convinced him that he didn't
really need the baby Poconut right then either.

After the mint, we had planned to go to the Federal Reserve, but we got there right as it closed.  Instead we got on the subway and headed to City Hall.

Waiting for the train.

Amazing Philadelphia City
Hall.  In front there's a splash pad
area.  There were lots of kids
playing in it, and we were really
tempted!

Way, way, way up there William
Penn watches over the city.

This building just keeps going!  The architecture is incredible.
Definitely on my list of things to tour some other time.

 Since we were walking by, we ducked into Macy's so we could get a view of the organ.  In keeping with other things we saw, the Macy's was huge and ornate and completely amazing.

You can see some of the organ
pipes behind the flag.

Our next destination was the Reading Terminal Market. In hindsight, it may not have been the best place to visit when we were all getting hungry!

So much amazing food.  Given time and money, we would have
happily eaten our way through!

As it was, we got a couple canoli and just had a snack.

Crazy Marriott hotel.

Another view of City Hall.
It kind of dominates everything.

 For the end of our Philadelphia day, we decided to walk over to "Love" park.  On the way, we stopped to play on the giant board game pieces that make up "Your Move".  The kids were starting to drag as we walked, but then would get excited about the next stop and have all sorts of energy again.

Four kids in a Monopoly Wheelbarrow.

Jonathan is worried that might fall on him!

Emily will hold it up.

Abby is just happy.

Is the horse going to run
away from him?

I'm not sure why everyone is ironing Jonathan.

 We finally made it to JFK park and the giant LOVE statue.

Lots of love going on here!

 We made our way back to the subway, then to the car, then to Rachel's.  All of us were completely exhausted, hot, and sticky.  We drank about a gallon of water each, and had salad for dinner.  After baths, everyone was asleep in no time.  All in all, we felt like we had a true Philadelphia experience!