I've been home from my long vacation in Pennsylvania visiting my brother Tom and sister-in-law Amy for a couple of weeks now (okay, more like a month... but it seems like yesterday!). As I expected, I had a great time!!! Because I was gone for so long and took over a 1,000 pictures, I thought it would be better to break up my travels a little bit by posting one little bit at a time over the next week or two. So here goes nothing...
I arrived in Philadelphia at 7 am after a redeye flight from California. Three hours of sleep on a plane is not a great thing! Kinda random story about the flight there. I woke up about an hour from landing to see panicking flight attendants giving oxygen to a passenger three rows in front of me. She started throwing up. It didn't look too good. I wasn't surprised that they asked everyone to stay seated once we landed to get the paramedics to her. The paramedics got delayed so they ended up getting everyone off the plane. I felt bad for her and hope she's okay!
Once I finally got off the plane and headed out of the airport, my brother picked me up and we headed into Philly for breakfast and all the touristy stuff in the historic part of town. I couldn't wait!!
We ate breakfast at Sabrina's Cafe, thanks to a recommendation from Tom & Amy's friend Jason. So good! (Thanks Jason!!)
After the fantastic food (not a crumb left on either plate!), we headed over to Independence Hall and the surrounding area. I could go on and on about how amazing it was to be here! So I'll spare you all the words and show you the pictures of all that we saw that day....
Independence Hall. The Liberty Bell is in the building to the right.
The US Mint doesn't allow photos inside, so this was the outside. The security guard standing just off camera to the left was hilarious and had us laughing! :)
The grave of Ben Franklin. We couldn't figure out why people toss coins on it?? Anyone??
The cemetary that has Ben Franklin's grave. It's across the street from Independence Hall. All the gravestones were seriously decaying but it is a beautiful park. (I should mention this is not the first time I have visited and photographed a cemetary while on vacation. On the east coast... odd habit? Anyone else a cemetary tourist like me?!)
The Liberty Bell! The museum is so beautiful with all the natural daylight. Best part of the display of the Bell is that you are about 2 feet away from it and the only thing behind it is a two story plexiglass wall overlooking Independence Hall.
Cheesesteak for lunch.... more on the food in a separate post soon. It was YUMMY and had Cheez Whiz. Yes, I broke down and ate the stuff.... I paid for it later too! :)
We walked to get our lunch and saw these beautiful streets on our way back and forth to Independence Hall.
Washington Square.... would you believe that this park is actually a mass grave from the Revolutionary War?
The memorial for the park -- the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers.
National Portrait Gallery at Philadelphia.
Inside of the Gallery... hundreds of original portraits by Charles Peale. He painted all the men he saw as important political figures in the Revolution. He was actually the first artist to paint George Washington.
Our touristy trip ended with a tour of Independence Hall. The Tour Guide was sarcastic and ruled over the noisy fieldtrip kids with an iron fist. No joke! It was awesome.... We had a good laugh at his "if you don't zip it, I'll end this tour right now" speech!
Meeting room of the Continental Congress (original furniture and layout!). I got chills... it's really amazing to stand in that room.
Directly opposite the meeting room is this room - the original Supreme Court!
And finally, my first scrapbook layout for the trip album:
More info on the Flamingo Scraps blog.
This was just my first day in Philadelphia, we came back to see the landmarks in downtown. Rocky... the stairs... the Love sculpture and City Hall!
Thanks for hanging in for this long post. I'll try to make the next ones shorter! I'll be back soon with posts about Hershey, DC and all the places in-between. :)
7 comments:
Oh I hope that other passenger is okay too....how scary! I loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee the photos!! I visited there last summer ... and I JUST loved it!!! GREAT photos!!! I saw the pennies on Ben Franklin's grave and didn't get that one either!!! We took one of those horse drawn carriage tours...and he was telling us something about the little mirrors outside the homes....I think they called them "peeping toms"....but I'm not positive of that.... GREAT lo too! :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)
What an exciting first day, I can't wait to see more.
Great photography! I look forward to seeing more of your work on examiner.com and Gonescrapbooking.com.
Hey Amanda! Great pics! Pitching pennies on to Franklin's grave is just for luck according to Lil Lenny
It sounds like a super fun trip Amanda! I really loved seeing all of the photos.
Oh and the coin tossing thing... I found this about it.
"People do it due an ancient superstition that says that if you drop a coin and make a wish, the dead person can help you. It's the same superstition that makes people throw coins in fountains and wells. I presume it started in Antiquity, since Greeks and Romans made these things to invoke protection from their gods. Also, they usually buried their deads with coins inside the mouths because they believe deads must pay an Dead Oarman to cross a Deads River under the earth."
This looks super fun! I took a trip to that area when I was younger and I remember it being so interesting and fun. We loved Hershey. Looking forward to your next post. =)
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