We woke up a little sore from hiking the day before but ready to go! We headed straight to a visitor's center so we could get maps and talk to people who knew what they were talking about and made a plan from there. We found out pretty much everything was free but to go into Independence Hall and see the main attractions, you had to have a ticket. So we got a ticket but the earliest ticket was for 2:45 so we had quite a bit of time. So we headed over to a long, long line to see the liberty bell first.
Since we waited so long, we read every bit of the information on the walls talking about its history and also its influence on the future- different groups that had used its inscription towards their cause.
Then we wandered around a little bit and saw some assorted neat things:
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| John Barry, the father of the American Navy |
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| The Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier |
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| Ben Franklin |
And then we went in a completely different direction both literally and figuratively and walked to the site where Rocky runs up a bunch of stairs in the first Rocky movie- the Philadelphia Museum of Art. We didn't know there was a statue there of Rocky so that was exciting. I was going to take a picture of Zachary next to it but this man encouraged us to both go up there and he would take a picture of us.
I knew immediately this was not going to come without a price and sure enough, after he took the phone from Zachary's hand, he said, I do this all day for tips. We didn't have any cash on us so he led us to a restaurant inside of a building which has part of its first floor serving as a homeless shelter- very interesting. Here's Zachary and his new friend:
We got him his lunch and then we went back to the statue so I could get the pictures I had wanted in the first place and then of course we had to follow in the footsteps of Rocky and go up the stairs.
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| Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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The view from the top of the stairs.
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And finally, I wanted a good picture of the statue itself so we went back:
We walked pretty much the whole 2.5 miles back before stopping for lunch- we found an Irish pub and Zachary got his Philly cheesesteak. I got some wings and cheese fries- yum.
And we made it to our tour of Independence Hall just in time!
Our tour guide was a trip- he talked very quickly and got very irritated with the whining children and talking adults but he knew his stuff. First, we saw a typical courtroom- the prisoner stood in the cage and he told us a lot of other stuff about how trials worked- stuff like one of the two doors in the back were real, the other was just painted on, not functional. The jury sat on the right of the room and the witness stand was on the left. There were multiple judges and there were audiences standing where we stood who could get in big trouble if they made too much noise.
Then we walked over to the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed. I had never thought about it like this before but had the revolution not been successful, the signers of this document would have been convicted of treason so there was some serious business going down in this room.
After those two rooms, we went to a small museum where we saw the pen stand used by the signers:
This building also housed actual copies of the Constitution and the Articles of Confederation.
Here's the outside of the building- very tall!
After this, I had had my fill of walking so we went back to the room, showered, and did something we can't ever do with our children- watch a movie in a theater! We saw Pitch Perfect 2 and it was awesome. Then we walked around the mall a little bit more- I found a Jamba Juice which I have not had a smoothie from since college. We also did one more thing we can't do easily with children- I went clothes shopping! I found a lot of stuff I loved so it was a very successful trip!
Finally we headed back to our hotel, changed again, and headed out to dinner. We found another pub in hopes of finding me some potato skins. We did find potato skins but the cheese on them was liquid and it was so gross. I also ordered a lemon drop. Now the lemon drop I have had before was like lemonade with a kick. This tasted like a glass of vodka with a drop of lemon juice. But I drank it like a champ. Zachary had a long island iced tea and a beer and was feeling pretty good. I wanted to catch up with him, ya know, get on his level... so we found a bar and I asked the bartender to please make me something fruity and sweet. Rum punch. Perfection. However, it didn't really affect me very much. Zachary ordered another long island iced tea and thought it would be fun to take this picture on the walk home:
Meanwhile, our kids were being taken care of by more responsible adults who sent us these adorable pictures:
