Philadelphia, PA

Today we toured the City of Brotherly Love. Our journey started by automobile, with Brian driving us northeast from our campground in Clarksboro, New Jersey, to the train station in Woodcrest. There we boarded a Philadelphia bound PATCO train for just over $5 round trip apiece. It was a pleasant ride, and the best part was we didn’t have to search for parking downtown. The Philadelphia station was two blocks from the Independence Hall Visitor Center, where we secured tickets for a 12:45 tour. Since it was only 10:25, we investigated other activities and found a Philadelphia Duck Boat tour leaving at 10:30 – perfect timing. After a quick restroom break, we boarded our amphibious vehicle, donned our duck noise makers, and spent the next 90 minutes enjoying an educational scenic tour of downtown Philadelphia. Our driver looked like Simon Cowell from American Idols, but was much more hospitable! It was a great way to start the day.

The kids were hungry by the end of the duck boat tour, so we grabbed a quick snack at Dunkin Donuts (our first trip to the storied East Coast coffee institution) and sat on a bench on Market Street enjoying the sunshine. At 12:30 we queued up for our tour of Independence Hall. It was quite a humbling experience, standing in the same exact spots where the Continental Congress met, presidents Washington and Adams took their oaths of office, and the Declaration of Independence was signed. We were extremely fortunate to have a park ranger with degrees in history and anthropology entertain us an in-depth tour of Congress Hall, offering insights into the political climate of our new nation, especially President Washington’s role. Teressa and I are ready to go back to college again! A quick peek at the Liberty Bell completed our tour of Independence Mall.

In another case of “it’s a small world”, one of the people on our 12:45 tour was Howard Chang, a sales engineer from back in the early Webridge days. He brought his wife and two daughters into the city from New Jersey yesterday since they had not seen the Liberty Bell. What are the odds we would end up in town on the same day, on the same tour! It was fun to see him again (it’s been over 5 years).

When the tour ended we ducked into the Curtis Publishing Building (where Norman Rockwell once worked) to view “The Dream Garden”, a huge glass mosaic designed by Maxfield Parrish and executed by Tiffany Studios. Composed of 100,000 pieces of favril glass in 260 different colors, the tranquil garden scene is mesmerizing. In an attempt to snap ourselves back to reality, we jumped in a taxi and drove to Pat’s Cheese Steak restaurant for an original Philadelphia experience. We tried different combinations of onions, Cheeze Wiz, mushrooms, provolone and peppers. They were good, but we like Teressa’s French dip sandwiches better!

Another cab ride deposited us at the Philadelphia mint. Unfortunately it closed half an hour before we arrived, so we walked next door to view the graves of Ben Franklin and four other signers of the Declaration. At the bookstore on Chestnut Street the kids bought stickers for their National Park passport books, and stamped them with "Independence Hall". A short walk back to the train station, a twenty minute train ride, and a commute in Friday afternoon rush hour traffic delivered us back to the campground.

After a light dinner, we spent time pulling two ticks off Rocky. Research on the Internet suggested not using a match, instead using alcohol and tweezers to pull them out. Next time we’ll use a match or hot pin, as Rocky now has two tick heads firmly implanted under his skin. The alcohol did make Teressa and I feel better though! ;-)