Philadelphia

Olivia is studying the founding of our country in school this year, so we thought that this would be a great time to visit Philadelphia.  Philly is only about two hours or so from the Sanders' house in Delaware, so it was an easy drive. Once we arrived, we went straight away to get tickets for Independence Hall.  Even though we procured the tickets in the 10 o'clock hour, the first available tour wasn't until 3:45.  I'm glad we went ahead and got those tickets right off.  We saw several people wanting to tour and being turned away later in the day because the park service had run out of tickets.

After getting our tour tickets, we walked across the street to the Liberty Bell Center to see the bell. That didn't take long.

 It was getting close to noon and we had some time to kill so we decided to walk around Philly.  The plan was to walk to Reading Terminal Market because I had heard that that was the place to get a Philly cheesesteak, and I wanted Brian to have that (because he is such a foodie).  My guidebooks didn't lie, Reading Terminal Market is indeed the place to be for lunch, and I think that everyone in Philadelphia was there. I'm okay with crowds, but this was too much.  There was a long line at every stand.  We could barely move around. We quickly began looking for a plan B, but lots of other people were too.  Many of the restaurants around the market were also full.  We ended up just walking back to the historic district and having lunch at a pub in that neighborhood.  Although our trek failed, we did get to see some interesting things along the way.  We walked through a part of Chinatown, saw the surprisingly beautiful City Hall, and went into the fanciest department store (a Macy's) that I've ever seen.

 After lunch we still had a little time to kill until our tour.  So, we walked around the historic neighborhood checking out some of the other buildings and catching Pokemon.  Yes, the kids want to hunt for Pokemon everywhere we go.  They are really into it.

Three forty five finally rolled around and we were able to enter Independence Hall.  We got to see several rooms in the building- including the room where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were debated and signed.  Olivia had to memorize the Preamble to the Constitution for her class this year, and we videoed her reciting it in three different places within the building where it was written.  The park ranger heard her reciting it and he gave her a card that had the Preamble written on it.

 After our tour we returned to our car and drove back to Delaware.  Later in the evening the movie National Treasure was on t.v. and we watched it.  There was a long sequence in the movie when the heroes are in Philadelphia.  It was cool to see the places that we had just been to that day in the movie.