Whirlwind Philadelphia Trip

We got back last night from a quick weekend trip up to Philadelphia. I don't have much time, since we are leaving tomorrow to drive to Ohio, but I wanted to give a quick report. We drove up Frday afternoon. We left here at 2:30 and arrived there at 8:30--6 hours for about 180 miles of driving! Crazy east coast traffic!

We drove to the house of my friends from college, Sandra and Phil. They live in this beautiful house, the stone part of which was built in the early 1700s. A builder completely restored it and added on a large kitchne, family room, and master bedroom suite. It was so lovely!

Saturday we drove into downtown Philadelphia after breakfast. We started out at the Betsy Ross house, where Betsy Ross herself told us that we were one of the few families she had seen that had an average amount of children for the time! She also pointed out that we looked like a troop of Redcoats, since I had done the matching red shirts again. Whoops!

We then walked over to a large Quaker meeting house, which had a little exhibit on William Penn that was interesting, not to mention free. I am all for that!

Then we headed over to the Independence Hall Visitors Center, and on to the Liberty Bell. It rained off and on the whole day, often quite steadily, which was a good thing because it really kept away the crowds. I would MUCH rather deal with rain than crowds. The downside is that we all looked a bit damp and bedraggled the whole day.

At the Liberty Bell we met up with Bob's sister Rose and her 2 girls. They had come down from northeastern PA to visit for the day. Here we all are in front of Independence Hall. They had tickets for an earlier tour, so we ate lunch while they did that, and then we met up again at the site of Ben Franklin's house.

It was so great to have someone like Phil around, who was very knowledgeable about downtown Philadelphia, since he grew up in Philly. This was a great boon at lunch time, especially. We had brought a cooler for a picnic lunch, but with all the rain, where could we eat? He suggested a food court place, the Bouse or something, where you can also take food in. This sounded great, so we walked over there. It was really crowded and I was wondering where we would ever find tables all together. Then he said we would go downstairs, where they had cafeteria-style tables. There was plenty of room there! This is where students on field trips would come to eat their lunches. Inside information--it makes life much easier!

After lunch and Ben Franklin's museum, we walked back over to Independence Hall for our tour. This was at 3:45, and the girls were getting pretty tired by then. We had a good tour guide, who was full of interesting tidbits and had an engaging manner, but the girls were quite restless. After that was done, we walked over to Christ Church (which was a good deal farther away than I had thought!), and I nursed there one last time before we headed back to Sandra's. There we cooked out and had a delicious dinner before we got the kids in bed. The girls were so tired! They went down even before our dessert--"water ice", which is a Philadelphia specialty. It's sort of like a slushie, but not totally. I had lemon, and it was very tasty and refreshing!