Philadelphia Trip - Part One

Daniel and I just got back from a trip to Philadelphia - completing our third annual trip with just the two of us and no kids. I love this tradition.  The first year we went to New Orleans, and last year we went to Boston.  We flew my mom out to watch the kids (which they loved). 

It was fun to do Philly right after Boston because of the historical timeline - after things got going with the revolution in Boston (Paul Revere, Lexington & Concord, etc.) all the action moved to Philadelphia (Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, etc.). 

(Embarrassingly, I had not remembered any of this before these two trips.  I know I learned it at one point, but it turns out I have not retained any of my high school education.  Tristan (3rd grade) might actually know more than I do - when we told him we were going to Philadelphia, he said, "Oh, that was the nation's first capital.")

Anyway, because of all the historical significance of Philadelphia, we decided to spend the whole first day just walking around the Old City and hitting all of the historical sites.

Our hotel was in downtown Philadelphia, and just a short walk away from the Old City.  We started out by going to the Philadelphia Mint to see how coins are made.  It's an actual working mint (they can make up to a million coins in 30 minutes), but they have it set up so you can take a tour through the building and look down and see all the coins getting made.  It was pretty cool.  I think they should give away a brand new penny as a little souvenir to everyone who goes through.  I wonder how much that would cost them?  Or they could charge a nickel for a brand new penny, and then they'd make money!  I would have paid, and I don't even like pennies - I just have never seen pennies so clean and shiny.  We weren't allowed to take pictures, though.

After going through the Mint, we walked to the Christ Church burial ground, where Benjamin Franklin and four other signers of the Declaration of Independence were buried.  We also stopped by the Betsy Ross house, where the first flag was made.

Then we walked down Elfreth's Alley, one of the oldest residential streets in America.  It's been around since the 1700s, and people still live there.  We thought it would be a fun little place to live.  Probably not room for 5 (soon to be 6) kids, though.

We visited the Christ Church, where both Benjamin Franklin and George Washington attended church.  Here's Daniel sitting in the exact pew that they used.  I wish our church had pews like this - I can easily picture our little family sitting reverently (or playing on the floor) in there.  One weird thing about this church is that they buried people right inside - I guess the floor used to be gravel, and they would just dig it up, bury someone, and cover it all up.  You couldn't walk down the aisle without stepping on someone's grave.  I don't know if that's worth the fancy pews.

Then we walked down to Penn's Landing on the Delaware River.  Right across the river is New Jersey.  We were a little worn out from all our walking.

At lunch we went to the famous Franklin Fountain for ice-cream, where Man vs. Food visited in the Philadelpha episode (I know his name is really Adam Richman, but at our house he is just called "Man versus Food".  Has anyone else even seen that show?).  We even ordered one of the exact dishes that he got - the Franklin Mint.  It was awesome.

Here's me in front of Franklin Court, where Benjamin Frankln's house was.  I'd like to learn more about him someday - from what we saw in Philadelphia, he seems like a fascinating guy.

One of the neatest places we visited on the first day was Independence Hall, where both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed.  We got to go inside and see the actual room, and learn more about the whole process (again, I know I've learned all this before, but it seemed much more exciting and important this time around - probably a combination of being at the actual locations and also not being a teenager anymore).

After that we walked over to see the Liberty Bell.  I couldn't help but think of the movie National Treasure, and it was making me laugh because Nicolas Cage's character is supposed to be some major history wiz, and he's looking for a clue or something at the Liberty Bell, and he climbs to the top of Independence Hall (where it used to be), and then acts like because he's such a historical genius he suddenly remembers the little known fact that the actual Liberty Bell is no longer being used, and in fact is across the street.  It was just funny, because it is so obvious to any tourist in Philadelphia where the Liberty Bell is, becaue they have a big museum specifically for it, with signs, etc. leading right to it.  So you can't really miss it.  C'mon, Nicolas Cage.

By then we were pretty much done with the historical stuff, so we walked down to the other side of Philly, by City Hall.  We spotted the love statue and hung out by the fountain for a little while.

For dinner we went to Reading Terminal Market, a huge indoor marketplace right by our hotel.  I love markets!  Daniel tried out the pork sandwich at DiNic's (another Man v. Food recommended stop).  We took a picture so the kids could see how cool we were being by hitting all the Man v. Food places. 

That evening we just walked around Philly, trying to see if there was anything to do.  We noticed that most places closed really early, so we're not really sure what people do at night there.  It seemed like a lot of people were going out to restaurants for late dinners, but we had already eaten.  We were pretty tired from all our walking, though, so we didn't mind not staying up too late.  It was a good first day.