WARNING: This post has been awhile coming and it’s long! If you’re not my mom, you might even want to skip it. Should you decide to risk it and read it anyway, you might want to grab a sandwich and settle in, before scrolling down.
THURSDAY
We headed out early for a full day of historical sight-seeing. After finding out that the hotel breakfast was very expensive (which was not a big surprise), we headed over to Readings Terminal Market, where we heard you could find some good food.
And find some good food we did! The place was amazing. The market was basically a compilation of small eateries that offered everything from ribs to Thai food (one thing that made Scott very happy). In addition to selling ready-made food they also sold the most beautiful cuts of meat (yes, meat can be beautiful :0), fresh produce and seafood that amazingly didn’t stink up the place! It was great. We wandered around before settling on a Mediterranean breakfast that was completely delicious. Before leaving we made plans to come back the next day (and the next) for every meal we could.
From there we walked down Market Street all the way to the National Park Visitor’s Center, where I got more stamps in my passport book and we got timed tickets to tour Independence Hall. We did most of the things there were to do in America’s Most Historic One Mile, as the Old City of Philadelphia has been dubbed. Without going into too much detail, we went to see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Carpenter’s Hall (where they held the first Continental Congress), the US Mint (don’t bring your camera, because they won’t let you in with it. Scott and I took turns napping and touring while one of us waited outside with the camera.), the sight of Benjamin Franklin’s house, Betsy Ross’s House, Christ Church Burial Ground, where Benjamin Franklin (and other Declaration Signers) are buried, the Free Quaker Society Meeting House, and the 4th Street Quaker Meeting House. We also walked around Washington Square and saw the tomb of the Unknown Soldier located there. Afterwards we headed down to Penn’s Landing and took in the view there before declaring we were cold and tired and headed back to the hotel for a rest. Here’s some pictures from all the sights:
Behind us you can barely see Independence Hall.
The Liberty Bell
Independence Hall
Betsy Ross’s House
Benjamin Franklin’s (very elaborate!) grave
This is the original courthouse in Independence Hall, where criminals would stand on trial. The criminals would literally stand in the box in the foreground of this picture, thus beginning the phrase, “to stand trial.”
This is the part of Independence Hall where the Founding Fathers held the Second Continental Congress and signed the Constitution. Very historical…
This is the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, commemorating all those who died during the Revolutionary War, located in Washington Square.
This is the view of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge from Penn’s Landing. It was a gorgeous view, but awfully windy.
Philadelphia is an attractive city to visit because everything is located so closely together. You can buy tickets for a “hop on-hop off” bus, but we didn’t really see the need as everything was easily within walking distance. Although this short distance seems to become much longer after hours of walking. I’m sure part of that was because we kept wandering back and forth. It would have been much better had we organized our plan more thoroughly and created just one loop around the Old City, rather than crisscrossing back and forth. It would be really great if they just painted a bright red line you could follow around, like Boston’s Freedom Trail!
After a break in the late afternoon we went to dinner and walked around the city center a bit, but there was nothing much worth speaking of.
The view right outside our hotel was great—there was so much to see!
FRIDAY
We headed out early again on Friday to enjoy another good breakfast at Reading’s Terminal Market. The best thing about our hotel was that it was within walking distance of the Market! Unfortunately, because it was Good Friday, some of the food places were closed so we “settled” for our yummy Mediterranean breakfast once again.
From breakfast our plan was to go see City Hall and ride up the tower and take in the view from the top. Afterwards, we were excited to go tour the Masonic Temple across the street. Scott is very interested in the Masonic History and was anxious to learn more. Once again, I realized I hadn’t planned super well. Everything was closed because of Good Friday. Had we planned to tour the Old City on Friday and City Hall and the Masonic Temple on Thursday, everything would have been great. Nothing would have been closed and we would have avoided the school groups at the Historical sights. Bummer!
So, thirty minutes later, we weren’t sure what to do. I had figured that City Hall and the Masonic Temple would take up the entire morning and it was only about 10:30. We wandered around a bit taking in the sights and photographing ourselves in front of some famous views.
Philadelphia’s City Hall is the largest and most ornate in the United States. It’s obvious why, the building was incredible and absolutely huge!
Sticking out in the background, you can see One Liberty Place. After City Hall was built, there was a “gentleman’s agreement” not to construct any buildings taller that the top of Penn’s hat on City Hall. This agreement lasted for about 100 years, until One Liberty Place was built. It was a neat building and looks similar, but don’t get any grand ideas—you can’t go to the top and look around.
Philadelphia really is the City of Brotherly Love!
The view from Logan Circle looking back towards City Hall. This was one of the few fountains that hadn’t been drained for the winter. We could see why all the others were dry, this one was blowing a freezing spray at anyone standing downwind.
See? Even Scott looks cold sitting on a bench getting misted by the fountain (and that’s saying something, if Scott’s cold!).
Benjamin Franklin sits regally at the entrance to the Ben Franklin Science Museum.
You can see Rodin’s “The Thinker” while walking along Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Rocky must have seen a similar view after climbing up miles of stairs. It was pretty incredible.
Eventually, after seeing the massive crowds of families at the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Science Museum, we decided to try the Philadelphia Museum of Art. We wandered around for a bit, grabbed some lunch, and I came an artistic understanding.
My mom was always surrounding us children with culture. She would volunteer in our schools as an Art Masterpiece teacher, she would warn us about her mistakes by retelling the story of how she played basketball in the courtyard outside of one of the most famous art museums in Europe and missed out on a great cultural experience, she encouraged me to take and Art History class in college and helped my memorize paintings and authors. Despite all this cultural background, I can’t really say I’m an art connoisseur. I have yet to master the art of looking at a painting, nodding knowledgably, stepping back, cocking my head and murmuring appreciatively. I’m better at racing past the paintings, waving my hand dismissively and proclaiming, “I think I’ve seen that painting in a book somewhere before.” This doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy a good museum (I thoroughly valued the time I spent at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.) or that I don’t appreciate the work of famous artists. I think my dismissive attitude stems from the fact that I just don’t know that much about the works of art. I think a museum would become a fascinating place if examined along with a personal tour from the curator. Alas, the Curator was unavailable and the Museum Director’s audio recording was another five dollars on top of the expensive admittance price, so I maintained my dismissive attitude towards the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
After the museum we walked down to the southern end of Fairmont Park, took in the view of Boat House Row, and wished the weather was warmer so we could rent some bikes and ride around the park. But it wasn’t warm, it was chilly and windy, so we headed back to the hotel to rest before our dinner reservation.
Crewing is a big deal in Philly, so Boat House Row was built to house the crew teams and their boats. It is very picturesque, even with a muddy river full of dirty snow melt and flanked by bare trees.
We were very excited for dinner. We made reservations at The Melting Pot. Neither of us had been there before, so were anxious to see if the food lived up to its rave reviews. Fortunately, it did. We had a great time, dipping bread, veggies, meats, fruits, marshmallows, cheesecake, brownies, and pound cake into our fondue pot. The food was amazing and the variety was fantastic. There was never more than two bites of any one item, but there were tons of items! This was probably my favorite part of the meal—the vast variety of flavors to try.
SATURDAY
We headed out early once again (after breakfast at Reading Market, of course) to pick up our car from the airport. We had parked at the airport because it was cheaper that at the hotel. It took awhile but saved us at least a hundred dollars.
I was a bit bummed to be leaving Philly and nearing the end of our vacation!
From there we headed out to Gettysburg which is about a 2 ½ hour drive from Philly. We got there and drove around for a bit before finding the National Park Visitor’s Center. After getting another stamp (yeah!), we watched the electronic map show. This was a rather cheaply constructed map that explains the battle of Gettysburg in about a half hour. I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the decrepit and ramshackle state of the Visitor’s Center, but apparently they are months away from opening a new one, so hopefully things will be better.
We toured the area by car, stopping at the major points of the battle and following the chronology of the events. It was interesting to see how greatly the topography of the land influenced the battle. Just a little hill or ridge was a great advantage. It made me appreciate how crude fighting was back then.
It was a bit funny driving around Gettysburg, because there are memorials built on all along the battle field commemorating the troops of soldiers who fought (and died) in the battle. Not that the memorials were funny—there not—but, the placement of the memorials was what was humorous. All the southern states had theirs built along the Confederate Lines and the Northern States built theirs along the Union Lines. It seemed as if each state was trying to out-build the others and that reconciliation was still not a sure deal. It made me think back to living in Texas where they would all fly the Rebel flag and it wasn’t uncommon to find the State flag flying above the Star-Spangled Banner.
This picture over looks the battle field from the Union Lines—isn’t awesome?
We enjoyed our short time at Gettysburg before piling back into the car and finally arriving back in Columbus by midnight. We had a great time and it was good to get away and see a new place!
