Philadelphia

Saturday, we stayed home and took it easy. We went to Tim and Judi's house for dinner Saturday night, so I went to the grocery store to buy dessert and I bought this for Brady's birthday tomorrow!

Judi cooked salmon, mashed potatoes, and asparagus and it was delicious! I think Tim lit the grill :)

Happy birthday Brady!!! I think he had 25 bowls of cereal this morning.

We went to church with Tim and Judi and then went to a Greek restaurant nearby for lunch. This gave the girls a good excuse to wear their new dresses.

After lunch, we rushed back to the site to pack up and leave. I had asked for a late check-out and they told me I could leave by 3:00, which I thought would be plenty of time, but it was 2:15 already on the drive back. We've gotten pretty good at it though, so we were pulling out by 3:15. It also took some effort to figure out how to get down to our new site in New Jersey without getting on anymore parkways, but with Tim and Google's help, we made it. This place is packed and we are in an overflow site, which really just means no sewer hookups, which is fine with us. We are about 20 minutes south of Philadelphia.

Monday, we hung out in the RV again just doing school work and making a trip to the grocery store. I also did laundry, which I hadn't done the entire week in New York because that park didn't have any facilities. It cost $4.25 for one load of washing and drying...pretty ridiculous, if you ask me.

This morning, we made our way into Philadelphia. Compared to New York City and even Boston, it was very easy to just drive in to park. Parking was $28, but I guess that's just expected by now. It was also not easy to find a garage that would accommodate the truck height (6' 10"), but we ended up about 100 ft. from the Liberty Bell.

I left the camera battery charging at home, so all of these were with my five year old cell phone camera. We started out visiting the Liberty Bell and saw the outside of Independence Hall. You have to get a ticket (free) and come back for a tour at a specific time to see the inside. We got 2:20.

We had to try Philly cheesesteaks for lunch. I looked up some reviews last night and found a place (Sonny's Famous Steaks) within walking distance. I had the traditional version, meaning bread, meat, cheese whiz, and onions. Haley had no onions and provolone. Adria had a burger and Brady had a grilled cheese. The verdict? I loved mine and Haley loved hers. Brady tried Haleys and regretted not getting what she got. They were excellent. This picture actually looks kind of weird, but trust me, they were good.

Just across the street from Sonny's was Christ Church, which is just a really old church. There is a burial ground associated with the church, but it is a few blocks away. There are several signers of the Constitution buried there, but I actually hadn't even heard of any of them except for Ben Franklin, of course.

Just across the street is a U.S. Mint. It would be cool to take a tour, I think, but we didn't have time.

It was approaching 2:20, so we made our way back over to Independence Hall.

This is actually an adjoining building, Congress Hall, where congress met while Washington, D.C. was being built. Philadelphia was the U.S. capitol between 1790 and 1800.

The House of Representatives

The Senate. Most of these desks are originals.

Another adjoining building houses originals of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. This actually may require some explanation. The NPS ranger explained to us that this Declaration of Independence is one of 200 that were made at the printer and that only about 23 of those still exist. The one here was the first one read out loud just outside Independence Hall on July 8th, 1776, if I remember correctly. However, at that time, only two people had signed the document. The remaining delegates signed it over the next year as they returned to Philadelphia. So, I asked the ranger where the actual original is, you know, the one that was taken to the printer for copies, and he said it has been lost. The most famous of these 200 copies is probably the one that was actually signed by all the delegates and I think that one is housed in the National Archives. It was very dark in this room and without my real camera, the pictures are of pretty poor quality.

This is John Barry, an officer in the Continental Navy and widely credited as the "Father of the American Navy." He was the first captain placed in command of a U.S. warship commissioned for service under the Continental flag. After the war, he became America's first commissioned naval officer, receiving his commission from President Washington.