Philly - 3/11/11

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In the morning we gathered our things together and made ourselves bagels with veggie cream cheese and hazelnut coffee. Since our goal was to get to Philly by 10, and it was about 9 already, we decided to eat our breakfast in the car. However, our car was still parked in front of the bar two blocks away. So, we waddled down the street carrying the down comforter, our pillows, four bags, two bagels, and two cups of coffee. It was quite a feat!

We were thrilled that it wasn’t raining at all on the way to Philly, but about 10 miles away traffic bottlenecked on the bridge and came to a standstill. So the whole getting-there-before-10-to-get-the-early-bird-price-on-parking didn’t pan out so well. And parking leapt from $6 to $13. Sad. L Also, we had to be back at the car by 6 since it was day parking, not day and night parking. Well, that gave us almost 8 hours to explore the city.

In the Liberty Museum

Immediately upon exiting the car, Tricia announced that she had had too much coffee and needed a bathroom now. We literally ran down the street looking for any sort of establishment that might be sympathetic to her plight, but none of the restaurants opened until 11 and the tiny stores didn’t have bathrooms. I took pictures without breaking stride - it works from the car, right?  A hotel looked promising, but Tricia couldn’t find one off the little lobby and the desk clerk told her they didn’t have public restrooms. I told her she didn’t look pathetic enough. Finally, we came to the Liberty Museum. At the desk they pointed us in the direction of the gift shop, and we ran to the back of the building and finally found a restroom.

That order of business behind us, we walked on toward the Liberty Bell. There’s a big exhibit there all about slavery and the founding fathers. I was surprised to learn that although George Washington freed his slaves upon his death and wrote that he hoped for the abolition of slavery, he still moved them out of Pennsylvania and into Delaware in order to avoid having them freed by Pennsylvania’s act for the gradual abolition of slavery.

Before viewing the Liberty Bell itself, we went to the visitor’s center to pick up free tickets for the Independence Hall Tour. As we stood in the little line, the crazy ranger passing out the free tickets yelled at the visitors. One lady said she and her husband wanted tickets for a tour after lunch. The ranger looked at these people like she couldn’t believe they would make such a request, and said “That doesn’t help me ma’am. If you tell me what time you want to go I’ll see if I can help you. Why don’t you two discuss it and get back to me.” Then she ignored them and turned to us. Tricia and I both knew that I wouldn’t be able to talk to this woman (“So….what do you have between, say, 1 and 5?”) so Tricia put on her nice face and politely asked if we could take the first tour after 12.

We had time before the tour to circle back and see the Liberty Bell. Originally it had nothing to do with slavery, but abolitionists adopted it as their symbol soon after it was forged. They gave it the name Liberty Bell - previously it had been called The Statehouse Bell. A hairline crack was widened to preserve the tone of the bell, so it could still ring, and was “fixed” several times in the bell’s history. The last time the bell rang was on Washington’s birthday, February 26, 1846.

Independence Hall is in a secure area, so Tricia and I had our bags searched and lifted up our jackets to prove we weren’t packing heat in our waistbands. (The little kids behind us had their waistbands inspected as well.) We then got to see Congress Hall, where Washington and Adams were inaugurated, and Independence Hall, where the Declaration and the Constitution were signed. And can I just say the paint in these rooms is crazy uniform? Everything from the walls to the paneling to the molding to the railings and even the doors was painted the exact same color. Can you say accents?

After leaving the “secure area”, we stopped at Washington Square Park we stopped at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to pay our respects. The park was a mix of people enjoying the sunshine with their lunch or their dogs and the somber fact that so many men gave their lives in American wars.

We then hurried on to Jim’s for a famous Philly Cheese Steak. On the way I stopped to take pictures of a cemetery, and a guy stopped and told us all about the history of the cemeteries. The one that had caught my eye was the Separatists’ cemetery, where their relatives still leave American flags on the graves. Across the street was the Loyalists’ cemetery, where there are very few flags to be seen. He told us not to go to Jim’s for a cheese steak, and then we went our separate ways. We headed to Jim’s in spite of the sage advice. (P.S. Did you know cemetery isn’t spelled with an ‘A’ like cemetary? I didn’t. Tricia says she learned that in college. Yay Case Western!)

At Jim’s the line was out the door and heading around the block, so we took some pictures instead of waiting an hour. Instead we found a street vendor where we could get a $4 cheese steak. He didn’t have any cheese whiz. I’m told I didn’t get the full Philly experience, but it was good anyway. We enjoyed them in Franklin Park, and then headed back towards jewelry row. There we admired the diamond rings through the windows until one of the owners came outside to help us shop. When we said that neither of us was engaged, he informed us that diamonds look good on any piece of jewelry - bracelets, anklets, necklaces. Alright, so, we’ll just buy a few diamonds and be on our way. J

After only half a cheese steak, Tricia was still hungry enough to give Chinese pastries a second chance in Chinatown. I wanted another sesame ball with red bean paste, and Tricia bought a coffee roll and a butter cream horn for later (that poor cream horn was finally consumed on the 18^th). As we ate our treats, we made our way to City Hall and passed the most beautiful Masonic Temple. Even if Tricia wasn’t obsessed with Masonic Temples, it was so pretty we still would have taken lots of pictures.

Across from City Hall was the famous LOVE statue for the City of Love. I blew kisses to the camera and Tricia made a heart with her hands. And then we saw across the street at the Municipal Services Building that there were giant toys! Toys are my favorite thing, which makes this my favorite stop in Philly. (I know. I’m sorry.) It is an art piece entitled “Your Move”, and the courtyard was filled with Bingo numbers, Parcheesi pieces, dominoes, chess pieces, and, my absolute favorite, Monopoly pieces! I love Monopoly, and took a picture with every giant piece. I was so childishly happy that these may be among the best pictures I’ve ever taken.

After I finally let Tricia drag me away from the toys, we went to the Free Library of Philadelphia - as much to find a water fountain as to look at the books. We weren’t carrying water with us, and had worked up a thirst walking all over town. Across from the library there was a truck that said READ on the side. Tricia says her next job will be driving a Bookmobile. (P.S. Kat’s next job is going to be a palm reader on a cruise ship. Just in case that hasn’t come up yet.)

Our final stops as tourists were the famous Philly statues. First up was “The Thinker”, and we couldn’t resist a few poses of us thinking real hard. Then we made it to the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Rocky statue. For those of you who have never seen Rocky (like me), he runs up these steps in the movie, and then is apparently proud of himself. Some kids were running up the steps for lacrosse practice. It didn’t look fun. I decided I would go halfway up and smile on the steps. Tricia said she didn’t feel the need to go even halfway up…..but then the camera battery died and she had to trudge up the steps anyway to get the extra battery from me.

At this point we were 30 blocks from our car, so it was time to find alternate means of transportation. Besides walking. Walking was getting difficult. And we needed ice cream. So, we found a subway and bought tickets back to our car. (Did you know in Philly it’s $2 for a single token and $1.55 each for two tokens? I’m trying to figure out how that makes any sense. Anyone?) We were pretty stoked to have made it back to our car before 6. Of course, this meant we had to drive in Philly at 5:15 pm on a Friday. Which was just a little bit sad. L

And on to Atlantic City!