Philly

We went to Philadelphia today. The weather was supposed to be pretty bad here in Shavertown, but very nice in Philly so it seemed like a good outing. We had promised ourselves one weekend trip a month since there's so much to see up here.

We had a very successful day. We managed to get in among other things the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Congress Hall, Carpenter's Hall, and the Second National Bank which has a huge collection of portraits by Charles Willson Peale. We ate lunch at the same tavern where John Adams and George Washington used to hang out. (I talked to my son later in the day. He wondered if they used to tell each other, "I could use a warm one!") They serve some colonial dishes while others are quite modern. I had Martha Washington turkey pot pie and it was delicious. We were lucky to be visiting in May. It seems that in June and July you have to reserve your tickets to see Independence Hall weeks in advance or show up early at the Visitor's Center and wait in line for a ticket. I had no problems booking a time the night before.

I'll have to ask my parents if I visited any of these places when I was nine. I remember everything we did when I was sixteen and know that we didn't do the historical sites. I seem to remember being driven by Betsy Ross's house. In any case, it seemed like the first time for me to visit all of them.

We were so impressed by the care Philadelphia has taken with the heritage of our nation. Michael commented on what a heavy responsibility the city has had, especially since they have had to take it upon themselves, the federal government only taking over these sites in the twentieth century. There are whole areas which feel very much like it must have when the framers were living there. It is actually easy to ignore the huge skyscrapers behind Independence Hall.

All the pictures I have included are of Independence Hall. All taken with my little Olympus since Michael was taking pictures with the Nikon. I was particularly impressed by that handrailing with the ivory button in the middle. I thought how many famous and heroic hands had touched that banister.

There was one unhappy moment for me. A lady was going around in the Second National Bank taking flash pictures of all the famous portraits while the park rangers weren't looking. I felt like telling her to stop. When I'm in Europe I'm always afraid of hurting something that "belongs" to them. But when this woman started harming these American portraits, I felt like she was damaging "my" stuff. Those protective feelings made me feel very American.

It was a glorious day with lots of sunshine. As usual in Pennsylvania, everyone including the park rangers were kind and helpful. There's lots we didn't see so we will be ready to go again.