For day 3 in Philly, we once again got up, got ready and got on the subway. Our destination today was Independence National Historical Park. It is somewhat like the mall in Washington DC in that there are multiple sites that you can visit in the one location and there are lovely green spaces that cover the spaces between the sites. We decided to start at Independence Hall itself.
We dropped in on the gift shop and Jonathan got us tickets for the next 20-minute guided tour of Independence hall, and so when it was time, we made our way to the meeting point where we met our guide. There were about 50 people in the group, and our kids were the only kids in the group. 🎪🎪🎪
The first floor of Independence Hall consists of two large rooms which are separated by a central hall. The first part of the tour takes you to the courtroom. It was originally used by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. The courtroom has no doors, which means that all proceedings were open to the public. (Yay!!)
We then moved across the hall to the Assembly Room (which does have doors). This is the room in which the Declaration of Independence was read and signed by the members of the Second Continental Congress.
Eleven years later, in the exact same room, delegates to the Constitutional Convention came together to create and later sign the document that would outline the new form of government: the United States Constitution.
They have it set up as closely as possible to how it would have appeared at that time.
Clara seemed to get into the tour and she asked our tour guide some good questions.
In particular, she asked why all the decorations were all green, and we learned that green was the official government color and that is also the cheapest dye (I’m guessing that the former is true because of the latter 🤪).
We also got to see THE original chair that George Washington sat in during the Constitutional Convention. (What we saw yesterday at the Museum of the American Revolution was a replica.)
Benjamin Franklin is credited with immortalizing the chair when he observed:
“I have often looked at that picture behind the president without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.”
After the Assembly room, we walked out through the back and that concluded our tour. The details in the back half of the building were lovely. So many beautiful details.
We decided that it might be a good idea to get some snacks before we moved on to our next point of interest. Fortunately, it was a beautiful day. September is a really good time to visit Philly. The weather was gorgeous!
We found a nice bench outside of Independence Hall where we ate our snacks and this allowed us to appreciate the exterior of the building as well. (The steeple is 168 feet tall)
After we had finished our snacks we went across the street to our next stop: The Liberty Bell Center. In the beginning, there are a bunch of exhibits about the making of the bell and how the crack occurred (the famous crack was actually a repair attempt to prevent further cracking. But it failed, there is another hairline crack which is ultimately what put it out of use.)
There were also a bunch of exhibits that talked about how the Liberty Bell is not only a symbol of American Independence, but it has also become an important symbol of Liberty for many causes: Abolition, Women’s rights, Civil Rights, etc.
And I didn’t realize that it is also a symbol of liberty in other parts of the world as well. That was news to me. I was amazed by how many famous non-Americans were pictured with the bell: Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, etc.
And then we got to actually see the Bell itself.
Clara went over and chatted up one of the docents, making observations and asking questions.
It is bittersweet to watch your babies grow up. I love my tiny babies, but I also love watching them grow up and become their own people. Especially because they are pretty cool people.
Although, some of them were rather distracted when we were in the chamber with the bell.
After we visited the Bell, it was time to get lunch, albeit a rather late lunch. We got a recommendation from a local who told us about a place right across the street called The Bourse which has a food hall on the first floor. That sounded perfect and so off we went.
There was a cool sculpture out front and so the kids climbed around on it for a few minutes.
Then we went inside to find some chow.
I am happy to report that I have now officially eaten a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich in Philly. Woot.
It turns out that The Bourse building is 125 years old and was once home to the nation’s first commodities exchange market. It has been restored and and now has the food hall on the bottom level and 9 levels of office space.
When we went back outside, there was another sculpture that the children climbed around on: the YO/OY sculpture which was right in front of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History.
“…the sculpture could be read in two ways, depending on the vantage of point of the viewer. From one direction, the sculpture says “YO,” as in the phrase we shout to get someone’s attention, or just as often to express drawn-out amazement and sudden realization. From the other direction, the sculptures says “OY,” the rueful Yiddish phrase popularized in American Jewish culture.” (From the Philly Voice)
After that, we determined that it was time to head home. We’ve been pushing pretty hard and we intend to push hard for the next little while. So, we made our way home for the evening.
We’ve had some interesting experiences navigating the subway system with a stroller (foul smelling elevators and no elevators at all) so we have started improvising a bit. Jonathan pulls Isaac’s seat off and carries him in that. Evie walks with Clara and I handle the rest of the stroller. It’s a pretty good system. And it makes Isaac laugh his head off every time. 😂😂
One of the fun things is that the subway stop that is right in the Independence NHP area has all kinds of cool art depicted on the walls: famous people, artifacts etc. It’s pretty cool.
Another good one on the books!
