Philadelphia

Philadelphia....was so much fun! The only thing terrible was the traffic getting there. On one day, the construction merges turned a one hour trip into a 3 hour trip. That was terrible, but once we got past the traffic and found a place to park, it was super! When we first arrived the kids were recruited by several revolutionary war re-enactors--Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and a recruiting officer from the army who trained the recruits in marching, etc. Emily got promoted to be a corporal, so from then on all the re-enactors congratulated her when they saw her stripes all day long. Sam and Max were practically drooling over the sword and rifle demonstrations. There was a lot of security, like going to the airport to see the liberty bell. We weren't able to go inside independence hall because the tickets were gone for the day, but we saw the adjacent buildings with some original copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We also saw the site of Benjamin Franklin's house and printing shop, Betsy Ross' house, etc. The kids thought it was fun to send postcards from the post office there that had the same postmark that Franklin had in his day. The second day we figured out that we could ride the PHlash bus around town with a family pass (only $10) That was a lot less stressful than driving and trying to park. We went to the Benjamin Franklin Science INstitute and the Please Touch Museum for Children. The kids liked the Alice in Wonderland and Where the Wild Things ARe exhibits. I was particularly impressed with the city hall in Philadelphia--it was immense, and very intricately carved. Beautiful! The kids of course loved it when we returned to our hotel in the evening for a nice cool swim. It was REALLY hot!