Smithereens: An Historic Birthday

The continuing (neverending?) story of our trip to the east...

June 12, Emily's birthday, and we braved the Philly traffic (ugh) again to head into historic downtown. We began our day at the visitor center, which is kind of a parking garage and tourist history hub. We got our free tickets and assigned time (2:45 in the afternoon) to tour Independence Hall, and a map of the city so we could plan what we wanted to see.

We began with a visit to the Liberty Bell. We were joined by a grade level full of children from a local school, all of whom were evidently very excited to see the bell, and made their excitement known by loud exlamations and teeming about like ants at an abandoned picnic. We managed to squeeze in a pic, of not just the bell and our fam, but the crowd as well. We should have gone later in the day; when we walked by at 3:30, there was virtually no one there. Oh, well...live and learn.

I must confess here to a theme that permeated our day as we toured historic Philadelphia: Rich is forgetful. At the visitor center we picked up a map. By the time we left the Liberty Bell, I had already lost the map. We picked up another one at the visitor center, this time with some key directions from one of the locals (dressed in period costume, no less. She had never "heard" of Utah, but was familiar with the Indian and Mexican territories of the West where we had come from). Armed with this new, direction-filled,map, we headed out to see the Quaker Friends meeting house, Ben Franklin's grave and Betsy Ross' house.

Betsy's home was very small, as you can imagine, at least from our standards, but was supposedly average or better for her day. It felt a bit too close-quartered for Karen and Em (especially since there were hordes of others going through at the same time). While there, we met "Betsy" who told us that she was actually married three times (the first two husbands died) and that while her first married name was Ross, that wasn't her last name when she sewed the first flag (can't remember what it was then...I know, I'm a useless historian). However, her son from her first marriage was the one who passed on the story, and since he was a Ross, that's how everyone remembers her. She outlived her third husband as well, and died well into her 80's.

The oldest residential street that's still a residential street was our next stop. Here we are outside the homes.

Each is only 10-12 feet wide, but very deep and 3 stories high, usually with cellar as well. All are well maintained, and one even had a realtor's sign in front of it. Was a bit head scratching to see a historic home up for sale, because it felt like they should all be museum locations.

After a quick look at the church that Ben Franklin and many others attended, and is still holding services, we grabbed some lunch (Philly cheesesteaks, of course!), and saw the ruins and excavated remains of Ben Franklin's property, we stopped at the Living History Center. Here, archeologists were pieceing together remains from a dig in the city. They found pottery, china and other household goods from the 1700's, and we could watch as they put the pieces back together trying to reform the original items. There were some already reassembled, and many others that they were still working on right in front of us. We were all fascinated, and thought that Grandma, with her love of and skill at jigsaw puzzles would be really good at this job.

At some point during all this, I lost our second map, but we found a replacement, so we weren't wandering aimlessly.

We headed out to get some Water Ice (a unique Philly treat...kind of a high end slushee), and on the way realized that I hadn't lost our third map yet, but I had left our camera back at the History Center. So after our trek to the Water Ice, we trekked back to retrieve the camera. Fortunately, my 4 women did not deride me, but merely shook their heads and told me I could no longer carry anything.

Our next stop was our 2:45 appointment at Independence Hall! We toured the first supreme court room, and the room where the Declaration was signed, and was later the sight of the Constitutional convention.
That chair you see in the background is the actual chair George Washington sat in for the Constitutional Convention. I know, it sounds geeky, but being in this room was surprisingly moving for both Karen and I. It was humbling to be in this place, having spent the day thinking about all that happened in Philadelphia during the 1770's and 1780's, and realizing that these men and women poured so much energy, thought and commitment into forming a country, one that still stands today. I know they couldn't forsee where it would all lead, but we both just got a great sense, a perspective, of not only the importance and weight they felt, but the great significance of what and how they began our democracy. We both felt very sentimental being in that room where our nation was formed, at least on paper.