Off to Philadelphia for a 3-day Weekend

It's our 25th wedding anniversary, and we're off to Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, but, more importantly to us, the cradle of American independence.

We thought there would be enough to keep us busy for two full days, and it's a seven hour drive from our farmhouse in Danville, so we are glad for this three day weekend.  On our way home we'll visit the Gettysburg battlefield.  (That's where we chatted with Lincoln.)

John has done his research and found us a hotel in Chester, PA twenty minutes from Independence Hall, and it's only $60 a night.  King-size bed, clean sheets and clean bathroom, big screen TV, fridge, microwave, overlooking a beautiful college campus, right on the interstate.  Saving on the hotel room leaves more money for souvenirs.  Woo-hoo!  I love to buy books!  John loves to save money - it's a win-win.

I will say that arriving via Lil' Miss and her GPS was downright scary.  We never did figure out WHY she took us by a convoluted route through a pretty scary neighborhood in the dark of midnight.  Narrow streets, boarded up buildings, lots of graffiti.  I just told John to have faith, Lil' Miss knows what she's doing, she hasn't steered us wrong yet... (All the while I'm thinkin' to myself, "Lady, if you get this one wrong I'm gonna take you out and SMASH YOU!")  Thank goodness we emerged at the brightly lit, well-kept lawns of the Widener University campus and our hotel safe and sound.

Again, John did his research and found the exact street address of Independence Hall.  (He loves to go on-line and research our travels.)  We put that into Lil' Miss and headed for the most concentrated historic sight-seeing we've ever done.  In about a ten block area of cobblestone streets, open green space, and wonderful buildings we found incredible facts, original documents, paintings, objects (like the Liberty Bell), there were horse-drawn carriages, private tour guides, National Park tour guides, folks were even on those nifty things you ride (It's?) following a tour guide around.  We went at it hard but not wanting to miss learning anything, and after two full days we still hadn't seen it all.  All of this in about a ten block area.
If you're going to Philly and want the full Monty, give yourself a minimum of three days. 

The carriages have a sling that hangs under the horses behind to catch its manure.  On Friday there were a few carriages; on Saturday there were a LOT of carriages.  By noon-ish all of those slings full of poo, especially on Saturday, gave us the aromatic sense of what it would have been like in 1776.  Also, we passed up the carriage ride on Friday for $10 a person thinking we'd do it the next day.  Saturday the price went to $30 per person.  Needless to say we got no carriage ride!

There's underground parking at the Independence Visitor Center, a magnificent place in and of itself.

Parking was $16 for the day - not bad.  Elevators take you right up to the inside of the Visitor Center. There was a man in period costume playing a hammered dulcimer.  It was beautiful music.  He stopped between songs to explain that the idea for the piano as we know it today came from the hammered dulcimer.

There were, of course, videos and gift stores, snack foods, interpretive things on the walls, National Park rangers to guide and instruct, and sparkling clean restrooms.  But we must move on to the security lines for Independence Hall.