Philadelphia

Here on the East Coast, we are close to so many historic places.  While we live here, we have made a big effort to visit them as much as we can since it is only a few hours drive away.  One city we have wanted to visit for some time is Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The time finally came for us to get to go the last weekend in July!  We woke the girls up early Saturday morning (6am!) and drove there in a little under three hours.   We got back home about 14 hours after we left the house.  Here are our captured memories from our visit to the 'City of Brotherly Love'.


This was the least expensive toll that we had driving to Philadelphia. In total, we paid close to $20 to drive three hours from Rockville to Philadelphia and back home!!! Craziness. Brad took a photo of this car because it's a Quebec license plate and that's not something you see everyday!

Hooray, we made it to Pennsylvania! This is not the first time we have gone to PA as a family. We have also visited Gettysburg for the battlefields and the outlets (PA has no tax on clothes/shoes).  :-)

At the Constitution Center in the Signer's Hall.  We are members of the Constitution Center because it was less expensive for us to buy a family pass on Groupon for $35 than it was for us to buy tickets for two adults and two kids, but we really enjoyed it and hope we can go again sometime soon.

One of our perks as members, was that we got free iPod rentals for all of our family (normally it is $5 for each rental).  The girls LOVED them. In addition to the audio, they had photos, and even videos for us all to enjoy. Faith asked if we could go back for her birthday, so she could play with the iPod again!! 

Brad signing his "Hancock" in the guest Constitution book. (I seriously waited at least a couple of minutes with the camera aimed at Brad (and even took a couple of pictures) but this lady stood there the whole time!  She was a bizarre lady!)

I loved listening to quotes and thoughts from the Maryland delegates on the iPod.

After we came home from Philadelphia, Jillian brought up an interesting question to us, she asked, "Why were there no girls in the hall?"  Brad explained that women once did not have a place in politics and that some people did not believe that women were as smart or capable as men.  Jillian quickly responded, "That's not true. Mommy is smart!" :-) Brad said, "You are right, mommy is smart, just as you are smart! And now if you want to be in politics, you have the freedom to do it!"
We love talking to our daughters about the history of the our nation and I am so thankful for Jillian's inquisitive mind! I am looking forward to seeing what God does in each of our daughters' lives.

This lady, Sarah followed us all around the Constitution center (not really) but we did see here first in the Signer's Hall, then at the crafts table, and later in the Spies and Saboteurs special exhibit. She was very nice and told Jillian the story of the man with the wooden peg leg. You can read more about Gouverneur Morris and his life here.

Faith standing in the front of the window displaying a beautiful view of Independence Hall from a distance.

Wherever we go, if we see something about Texas, we have to take a picture! Texas was admitted as a state into the United States on December 29, 1845.

Jillian played the Constitution game and got to roll the mega dice, and if she got her question correct, she  then walked the number of spaces until she finished and won an American flag! 

The girls and I had fun making liberty bell window catchers with tissue paper.  

There is our friend again! 

The girls made traditional colonial hats, but Brad and I had the honor of having our photo taken with George Washington with them on!  I teased Brad that he was wearing his hat all wrong, and then that night, we came home and watched a segment of a BBC movie called Longitude and I discovered, I in fact, was the one who was all wrong!

The traditional horse and carriages

Okay, this is a sort of funny story. We asked the nice people at the Constitution Center where a CLOSE, and really good Philly cheese steak place was to go (we paid $15 for parking and did not want to move our van).   One of the ladies told us Jim's steaks; she was adament they were the best and that you could smell the sandwiches over a block away. She also said it was only a couple of blocks away...

Over a mile later, we discovered this long line outside of Jim's, there was also a major winding line inside of the restaurant.  The lady behind said it was a slow moving line and you had to really want Jim's to stand in it, we decided that we didn't really want it, even though we walked all that way to experience it! It was a hot day and our babies were flushed and very tired, so we quickly looked for an alternative place to eat lunch that had air-conditioning. 

Sweet Anna fell asleep in the stroller while we made the long trek to find our Philly cheesesteak. 

The first place that we found that looked cool, comfortable and family friendly with not much of a wait was Johnny Rockets (which they also have in the D.C. area!).

The girls enjoyed the time to color and also were able to drink tons of water! 

Brad enjoyed a delicious Philly cheesesteak! 

I enjoyed my salad and the girls had their chicken tenders and fries with apples packed from home.  It wasn't exactly what we envisioned for our memorable Philly lunch, but I say, the key to having a fun, successful family vacation is flexibility!!! 

On our more than one mile walk back to the center, we discovered an old Catholic cemetery.

Then we stopped at a local grocery mart and picked up some ice-cream bars for dessert and also got some cash-back for the cash tolls on the drive home! 

After picking up our dessert, we stopped at a nice park and ate our ice-cream together in the shade.

It was nice and refreshing on a hot, humid day! 

Even Anna had her share of ice-cream to enjoy!

We made a couple of discoveries while we were in the park. One was that it was the sight of the first medical school in America.

Two was that we had just made it in time to take part in a Continental Army recruitment/ training! 

Here was the Sergeant in the Signer park!

Brad volunteered (along with the girls and me) to be recruited in the Continental army.  

We all marched together and then we were divided into the spectators and recruits.  We felt special to be on the recruit side because we were each given a wooden rifle on loan for our training.

Jillian listened very well to the instructions! She is going to be a super good listener at school! :-)

I had fun in the action too! 

Then we went to the Independence Visitor Center and met some talented colonial people who played instruments, knew war strategy, and another who knew how to repair shoes!

Then we returned back to the Constitution Center to rest a little and see a replica of the Liberty Bell. Then we visited the temporary exhibit on George Washington's life (which was excellent, I highly recommend it) and then we went to the Spies and Sabateurs exhibit as well (not my favorite, I enjoyed the museum in D.C. a lot more).  

After we finished in the CC, we visited the Christ Church Burial Ground where some famous signers of the Constitution are buried.

Benjamin and Deborah Franklin's grave

Then we walked only a couple more blocks more and saw Betsy Ross's house! 

Betsy Ross was the creator and sewer of our first American flag!  Another interesting note is that Betsy a lost two husbands in the Revolutionary War.  She both gave and sacrificed a lot for our country.

It was the end to a perfectly exhausting, wonderful day! :-)