Vacation--Day Eight Philadelphia

The first thing we did on arrival is to get tickets to see Independence Hall. It is free, but you have to get tickets and they go quickly. Our time was only a few minutes away so we hurried right over to go through security to see it.
This was originally a Brittish court. it was interesting to learn about the justice process. The door you see on the left is an actual door--the right door is just put there for balance--it is not an actual door.
This is the room where The Declaration of Independence was signed, the Constitution was drafted and signed--what amazing things happened in such a small room. The chair at the head was for George Washington and is called the Sunrise Chair. At the beginning Benjamin Franklin said he didn't know if the sun was setting on the chair or rising, but after the constitution was drafted he said that the sun was definitely rising--thus it is now called the sunrise chair.
Caroline was picked (she is always picked for things) to help talk about the bill of rights--Caroline's statement was "I want to be able to vote"

Matt and Caroline took some great pictures outside Independence Hall.We saw the Liberty Bell--it was fantastic. On our way to Independence Hall, the line to get into the building was really long. Afterward (and after a couple of stories), we walked by and there was no line--so we went. It took us about 5 min to get through security and to the bell (we skipped all the reading--it looked fascinating, but Alex would never have survived). We took a few pictures, and left. I think we were in there (start to finish) for only 15 minutes....I guess that is all I can expect with little kids.

The kids decided to join the Continental Army. They weren't sure at first, but they were swayed by the promises of $3.67 per month, a half pound of flour per day, and a half pint of rum per week (huzzah!). Alex wanted to join, but the musket was bigger than him so he was told to come back in a year. Instead he took a nap in the stroller.

After the mustering they were taken for drills on the parade grounds.Camp followers were discouraged, but we managed to sneak these pictures.Caroline was made a Sargent.

(we teased that this was a demotion from her Colonel status yesterday at Valley Forge)

Before the mustering we had been at the Independence Hall visitors center filling out the Junior Ranger books. Caroline had gone to talk with a lady in period clothing who was sewing buttons. She gave Caroline and Carter a secret message to take with them to the mustering. Carter lost his, but Caroline gave hers to the Captain after the drill was over and he showed her and another girl who had a message how secret messages were passed by spies and then decoded by the recipient. After they had decoded the messages, they were given a white ribbon to wear on their wrist to indicate the message had been passed successfully.

Philadelphia has story telling benches run by the same group as those at Valley Forge. At the first story bench you get a flag with 13 stars. At each bench you get a star. The benches were spread out all over historic Philadelphia, but were all within walking distance. The benches were all located in great spots next to historic buildings. We heard a lot of stories--everything from Ben Franklin's childhood, Betsy Ross making the flag, the meaning of Free Speach, and a robbery at the first bank (solved when the robber tried to deposit the exact amount he had stolen) and many more. The story tellers were FANTASTIC! They involved the kids and would talk to them afterward. Towards the end they would ask what stories we had already heard or ask if they knew who certain people were--the kids related almost all the stories and knew who different people were. After we had listened to all 13 stories, we ended up at Franklin Square--a great little park with a Carousel, miniature golf, a playground, a fountain and lots of grass to run around on. The kids took their completed flags and showed them at the gift shop and got a coupon book that included a coupon for a free carousel ride and a free ice cream sundae.
After the carousel the kids played at the playground--it was really great and not crowded at all. We stayed at the playground for well over an hour.
We had ice cream sundaes after we finished at the playground and then tried to take one last picture in front of the fountain. Obviously it was less than sucessful.

Then I just got the happy people in it--that wasn't much better.

We had wanted to see the Mint, but we ran out of time (it closed at 3 and we couldn't finish the benches (before they closed at 4) to get the prize and still see the mint). Carter was really disappointed and started getting upset. I had a flash of inspiration and asked if he and Matt would like to go in and see the gift shop (you aren't allowed to bring bags or cameras into the mint so we couldn't all go). He was happy with that--they went in, saw the gift shop (didn't buy anything) and left--completely happy....thank goodness.

I would have loved to see all the buildings (we didn't really go in any of them), but this was a great alternative where the kids were happy and so were we. We also would have liked to have a few more days here...but unfortunately we were out of time. It was a fantastic day and I just couldn't resist letting the kids buy hats and glasses so they "could look like Ben Franklin".

The other nice thing is that everything we did was free--we did have to pay for parking and meals, but everything else was free. The other funny thing is that the kids were so excited about all the story benches that they completely forgot about lunch--we were working hard to get all 13 done in one day (several people were amazed that we did it) so we figured we would stop when they mentioned it--and they never even asked for anything to eat until dinner.

Matt did buy a couple of soft pretzels when we were by the Betsy Ross house and we had a funny story with that. I gave each of the kids a piece of the pretzels and kept a small piece for myself. As I walked out of the courtyard area of Betsy Ross' house I stumbled and dropped the pretzel. A bird quickly landed on it and we laughed about how the bird was hungry too. We started walking down the street and all of the sudden the pretzel hits me on my head! I look back thinking someone was mad a me for littering and had thrown it at me, but no one was there. Then I notice the bird is on the pretzel again and I figured that what had happened is the little bird picked up the pretzel, but it was too heavy and it dropped on my head as he was flying away....what are the chances of that happening? The kids loved the fact that the bird dropped a pretzel on my head.