Vacation: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (6/20/09-6/24/09)

Philadelphia

On the sixth day of our family vacation, we spent Jim's birthday on the road for over 10 hours. We got to our hotel around 8:30 P.M. The kids couldn't wait to get to the swimming pool.

Sunday morning we went to Christ Church. We were there for the history, not to convert to the Episcopal faith. Pastor Wangerin was surprised to see us there, as we were supposed to be in Canada. Our plans had changed so we were able to spend a few hours together.

*we sat in the same pew that George Washington and his family sat for worship

*Jim and Katherine sat in the Franklin pew.

*starting our walking tour

*outside the first bank of the United States

*on the grounds of Independence Hall

*in front of Independence Hall

*at the home of Benjamin Franklin

Afer doing some site-seeing with our personal tour guide, the six of us walked to

Sonny's Famous Steaks for lunch.
It was time to go our separate ways...Pastor to the train station, and we were continuing our Philly visit.

*Chinatown

*at the home of Betsy Ross

The second bank of the United States houses a gallery of paintings by Charles Wilson Peale.

I loved looking at the paintings!

*Brett looking at a Charles Wilson Peale painting of John Adams

*Katherine and Brett imitating Benjamin Frankin in thought

*portrait of Martha Washington

*outside of the Second Bank of the United States

*Logan outside of the Franklin...Jim and Logan saw the Star Trek exhibit there. Across the street is the spot from National Treasure where Riley was getting the letters from the kid to crack the next code

*next to the Liberty Bell-a must see for Katherine!

*inside Independence Hall

*the upstairs room where the Declaration of Independence was signed

*if you look closely, you will see Wangerin firing Dackel out of the cannon

*This is the actual document that was read to the public

Jim & I ordered Subway for the kids and left them in our hotel room. We went out to the City Tavern (http://www.citytavern.com/). I ordered the Martha Washington Colonial Turkey Pot Pie, and Jim had the lamb chops with steamed veggies. It was all wonderful!

*My James and our clam chowder soup

Who expects to walk through a department store and find the world's largest organ? That's exactly what we did (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanamaker_organ)!

*Wanamaker Organ inside of the Macy's Department Store

*console for the organ

*City of Brotherly Love: Philadelphia

We walked up and down the streets known as the Italian Market. Ironically there are also Mexican stores and restaurants. We sampled a Philly cheesesteak from both Geno's and Pat's (across the street). Geno's gets our vote!

*famous cheesesteaks in the Italian Market
*'Adam' in the Rodin Museum

*Rodin's The Thinker

On the last day of our stay, we stopped at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The building itself was very impressive. Brett couldn't wait to run up the steps like Rocky Balboa. Logan was tired of walking around and seeing things, so he waited in the van.

*Philadelphia Museum of Art

*Katherine and Brett posing with the Rocky statue