Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

Marie and I woke up to blueberry pancakes and fresh coffee. Bob and Kathy are doing a large remodeling of their house so the kitchen has been moved into a different space. This made the breakfast more difficult and a great treat. After breakfast, we all got ready to go into the downtown area. Bob and Kathy were looking at home furnishings and Marie and I were going to the Independence Park Area. We drove by the Art museum which house the steps made famous in the movie Rocky, but were in a hurry so we did not get out and run up them. We then drove toward Independence Hall with a great commentary of the buildings and city from Uncle Bob. As we arrived, Marie and I jumped out of the car at a red light and I almost left my cell phone. Luckily as the light turned Marie hustled back and grabbed it. 

We started at the visitor's center and found the line for timed tickets of Independence hall. We were put in the final tour group and 30 seconds after we recieved our tickets we were told there were no more for today. We walked around the Visitor's center for a while and then watched a movie entitled, "Independence" about the founding of our nation and the buildings we would see.

We took off to explore the park. The line to see the Liberty bell was wrapped around the corner of the building, and so we went to the end of the building, and the bell could be see through windows. 

We felt that the wait was unessecary, so we continued to look around. We found the only entrance that the Parks service now allows visitors into the Independence Hall grounds. The line for the hall was huge, but we found a few other buildings open. One housed copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Articles of Confederation. While these are not the originals on display at Washington, they are copies that were used in the meeting of the Congress. There are editing marks from George Washington and others. The Declaration I saw is actually an older document than the one in DC. There is also the suspected ink pot in which they dipped their pens to sign the Declaration. 

Marie and I then walked into Congress Hall. This hall was the meeting place of the house and senate when Philly was the home to our nation. We went on a led tour and in the building was Washington's second inauguration, and John Adams had his inauguration there as well. This proved to be one of the few times power changed hands in any nation without a family, feud, war, or death that happened. Washington stood in the room as Adams gave his speech, as Jefferson stood as well gaining the title of vice president. 

We had a few hours before our scheduled tour of Independence Hall so we went to look at the American Society of Philosopher's museum. The museum highlighted five people, and their contribution to the wealth of knowledge to our nation. It was a quick visit but informational. We then headed to Benjamin Franklin's House. On our way we found the interpreter of Ben Franklin as hired by the city of Philadelphia.

The house was my favorite type of interpreting the past that I have seen. They erected metal frames where the home(s) would have been. They have bricks laid over the whole base of the house, but had windows downward to view a few relics. They found foundation and a pit used for the deposit of human waste. They also painted on the ground where the rooms would have been. I felt it invited many people at one to see the space that was torn down long ago. There is also a museum nearby with other artifacts. 

Marie and I also went to a post-office that has the unique postmark of Ben Franklin's signature. We mailed postcard to our parents from there.

Finally it was time to make our way back to Independence Hall. We stopped quickly in a military museum that was the original home to the department of defense. It then consisted of about 5 people. Now we have the pentagon...Oh well.

                

The Independence Hall was interesting and the Ranger that led the tour was very informative. We learned about the founding of our nation and more background about the time, then just what went on in the hall. I am not sure if any of the furniture was authentic, but it was fun anyway.

We then headed back out toward Bob and Kathy's house and were picked up at the train station one more time. My Uncle Robert works as a Philosophy Professor at Bryn Mawr and decided to give us a tour while dinner was cooking. The tour was fun and I even saw a bench that was in honor of one of my relatives on the grounds. We then picked up Kathy and viewed Haverford where she helps run the Chemistry labs. It was great to see more collegiate labs and compare them with what I work with at the high school.

We had a great dinner and conversation. We then watched the last part of Ted Koppel's China special on the Discovery Channel.