Philadelphia Part Three

 Thursday we visited the site where Washington crossed the Delaware in a blizzard on Christmas Day.  He surprised the Hessian troops in Trenton on the other side of the river.  The victory gave the colonies hope that their army could win the war and it probably saved the revolution.

This is the Delaware from the west side.  It looks calm and peaceful in July.

 I took this picture standing on the bridge.  I was trying to show that the river is very wide.

 It's much easier to cross the river on a bridge than using boats in a savagely running river filled with ice.  Our tour guide said kids always ask why Washington didn't use the bridge. :)

As well as not finding a bridge at the Delaware, I'm sure Washington didn't find this sign when he got across the river.

 These are the Durham boats the men used to cross.  They were 20' longer than these replicas.  The oars (below) were about 10' long and weighed 50-100 pounds apiece.

 Our tour guide was dressed like one of the riflemen.  He participates in the reenactment every Christmas. He said 7,000 people came to watch last year.

 A soldier's shoes.

 The uniform on the left is a replica of Washington's uniform.  At the beginning of the war Washington suggested all the men wear riflemen uniforms like the one in the middle.

 The round object is a wooden canteen.

An Indian tomahawk--not the ax on the left, the weapon on the right.

We returned to Reading Farmer's Market for lunch.  I'd had my eye on some coconut cream pie from the day before.  Isn't it magnificent?

 This is Benjamin Franklin and his wife's grave.

 Here's a statue in his honor across the street.

 We spent half an hour learning about the Quaker church at this meetinghouse.  (They don't build churches.)  The man who talked to us was a convert to the religion--a "convinced friend."  He said the Quakers used to meet in this room, but the congregation has dwindled and this area is now too big for them.

 We found these signs all around the city, which meant a storyteller was located there.  

This storyteller told us the story of Susan B. Anthony reading the Declaration of Women's Rights in front of the Liberty Bell.  A storyteller at another location told us about the special mud used on baseballs that comes from the Delaware River.  Each time we listened to a story, we got a star on a little paper flag.  I want to do a storytelling festival patterned after this in the fifth grade next year.

 Next we visited Betsy Ross' house.  She may or may not have made the 13 star flag for Washington, but she was a seamstress, and she seemed to be a remarkable woman.  She worked in upholstery to support herself because she was widowed three different times.

Her upholstery shop.

 We visited Christ Church where seven of the signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried.  James Wilson's headstone is below.

 I'm sitting in Washington's pew.  It later became John Adams' pew.  The pew for the Penn family was behind me.  I didn't know that William Penn was a converted Quaker.  Most of his family did not convert.

 We toured an alley filled with historic homes.  This satisfied cat was my favorite part. 

 Although I did also like the brightly painted doors to the coal cellars.

 The post office begun by Benjamin Franklin.

 This is Franklin square.  The white outline shows where Benjamin Franklin's house stood.  There are excavated portions on the ground that show remnants of the house.

 Finally we were off to a Phillies/Giants baseball game.

 We were on the fourth tier, but had good seats above first base.  We saw a slamming line drive home run by one of the Giants.  There weren't too many hits on either side. but the Giants ended up winning the game.

 It all ended with the most impressive fireworks I have ever seen in my life, all timed with rousing music.

  
Friday we visited the Carpenter House where the First Continental Congress met.  The carpenters were a guild that kept their craft secret so untrained men couldn't claim to be carpenters.  The delegates to Congress thought they might more easily be undetected there than at Independence Hall.  There were many British spies in the area and the delegates thought they might slip in and out of meetings with carpenters milling about in front of the building.

We spent the rest of the morning at the Liberty Museum which had displays on many different ways people have preserved liberty and other ways people have tried to thwart our liberty.  I'm not sure what my choices of pictures say about me, but I took pictures of the art I found interesting.

These children are made of jelly beans showing that even though we are all different, we are made of the same ingredients.  The objects on the back wall are hundreds of butterflies--each looking different.  A moving magnet behind the wall makes different butterflies flutter. 

 This is part of a beautiful, colorful canopy in the entrance way.  It is filled with all the colors of the rainbow.

 This sculpture, done by the same artist who created the sculpture in Abravanel Hall, is called the Flame of Liberty.  The part shown above is on the main floor and the picture below shows the part on the second floor.  They have a small gap between them.  I like to think the bottom part of the sculpture showed the liberty of the past, the top part shows the promise of the future, and the gap in the middle shows that we have to do our part so liberty continues.

I tried to visit Dolley Todd (Madison's) house, but it is closed except for prearranged tours.

 

We visited two hole-in-the-wall places: a t-shirt place where we had to make difficult decisions about which decals to put on the t-shirts we bought.  We enjoyed a great visit with the friendly proprietors. Second, we found a small, rundown pizza place that sat only ten people.  When I told the man sitting by me that  I wasn't from the area, he said I was eating the best pizza in Philadelphia.  He said the air conditioning doesn't work half the time, and its the only place where he'll deal with temperature--because the food is so good.  He was right.  My veggie pizza was the best I'd ever eaten.  Here's my $2.75 slice of pizza.  

After lunch it was on to the airport a a long ride home.  What a great trip.  What a legacy of freedom we have in America--and much of it started in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia Part Two

 Independence Hall!  

Both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written here!  

It had the same reverent feeling as the Signers Hall.  We were led by a park ranger that seemed to know EVERYTHING about these two events.  In addition, he was endearing because he liked John Adams, telling how Adams was the driving force in pushing through the Declaration of Independence.  I don't think John Adams ever gets enough credit for his work to found our nation.

 Much of the outside of Independence Hall is under renovation, but here is a part we could see.  The guide said that great things happened inside the building, but the building itself was not a great structure--built cheaply so as not to overburden the citizens with taxes.

 The park service is justifiably proud of several documents they have on display.  Above: Washington's copy of the Constitution.  He made one change in it.  There was a mistake on a date and he changed it from 1708  to 1808.  I believe that would have been the date to end slave importation.

Below is Elbridge Gerry's working copy of the Articles of Confederation, with many scratchings out and changes. 

I couldn't get a good picture of their copy of the Declaration of Independence--the one that was read to the people of Philadelphia after copies were made.

We spent the rest of Wednesday afternoon in the African American museum with a wonderful docent who taught us about the African Americans in Philadelphia who struggled to earn freedom for the blacks.  An artist added the black couple to the front of John Trumbull's rendition of signing of the Declaration of Independence to show how some of the people in our country felt about their lack of freedom.  Three hundred of the 3,500 slaves in Philadelphia ran away from the homes where they were enslaved when the Declaration of Independence was written.

Somewhere in here there should be a picture of me in front of the Liberty Bell.  The batteries on my camera died just as I got my turn to stand in front of the bell.  Sometime, hopefully, I'll get pictures from my friend who took a picture on her camera for me. :)

In Macey's we listened to a short organ recital on one of the country's largest organs.  (Most people shopped, but I enjoyed the organ concert.)

 I couldn't get the picture any lighter.

 But on a "lighter note," we spend a happy half hour running up the stairs at the Museum of Art pretending we were Rocky.  Earlene and I are champions.

 Kara joins us in our triumphant pose.

 The art museum is a beautiful building.  I wish we could have seen the Rembrandt exhibit.

Rocky and me.

Wednesday was a more relaxed day physically.  We sat in a class all morning and learned about the Constitution Center's Website and enjoyed a class on political cartoons and primary sources. Our feet are marking the spot that shows when Utah entered the Union.

 We ate lunch at Reading's Food Market.  It is pronounced "redding" as is the Reading Railroad in Monopoly.  This was one of the most important facts I learned on the trip.  Reading Food Market had an amazing variety of foods, including an Amish bakery.  I abstained from treats until I found a gigantic eclair in their market on Wednesday--it had to have been 10-12 inches long.  We enjoyed our second cheese steak at the market.  Very delicious.

 In the afternoon a guide told us about the battle of Brandywine while we drove through the area.

It was a beautiful area covering 10-15 miles.

 One of the members of our crew had an ancestral home that was standing during the battle so we stopped to see the Brinton House.  The British camped out near their house and took many of their animals to feed their 11,000 men.

 Built in 1704.

 The fireplaces were huge.  This one is in the basement where the family spent most of their time.

One of the upstairs bedrooms.  I loved the lace canopy.

This house had several closets, which is so unusual for Colonial times.  I'm standing in front of one.

Dinner was at an Amish Smorgasbord.  The food was okay.  I loved the Amish quilts that were in the downstairs gift shop.  Isn't this one gorgeous? 

 We tried to see Amish country, but the sun was setting by the time we got to many of the farms.  Since they don't use electricity, the area was very dark.  Maybe some other time.