For the first time probably on the entire trip, we got an early start! We were fed, loaded up, and on the road by about 9:30! We were done with New York City, and it was time to head through New Jersey and beyond! Traffic was INSANE. We only had to drive about 100 miles but between the city traffic, accidents, and other slowdowns we managed to miss our scheduled tour at noon. by about 15 minutes, despite GPS initially forecasting we would make it there about 30 minutes early.
We were bummed that we missed our tour of Independence Hall, but we still planned to make the most of our trip to Philadelphia regardless. The sun was shining and it was pretty warm, but we parked in a parking garage not very far from where we planned to spend the day. We only had to walk a few blocks, but my forehead was glistening by the time we made it into the visitor's center's air conditioned halls. We used the bathroom, looked around, and watched a quick video on the city and its fame. After about 30 minutes, we were ready to venture across the street to our first point of interest: The Liberty Bell.
We opened the door to some sprinkles falling. It wasn't awful, but everyone was definitely getting wet. The Liberty Bell was right across the street from where we were and right next to George Washington's former home (well, really just a mockup foundation on the site). There was quite a line of people waiting to get through security to see the Bell, so we just kept getting more and more wet, but the rain finally let up about the time we reached the front of the line - it figures that the rain would stop when we were finally able to get out of it.
There was a little museum full of lots of interesting information and history about the bell, its creation, repair efforts, movements, controversy, and more. It was pretty interesting. We posed for a picture before heading out to the door for our next stop - Independence Hall.
The rain was back, and it was back with a vengeance. It must have been mad that we sought shelter, because it was coming down in sheets. We started getting flash flood and severe thunder storm warnings on our phones, but we were committed. We talked to the guard at the door who said we needed to go in at the corner across the street, so we took to the rainy streets with confidence, started crossing the street, and promptly got yelled at by the police that THIS was not the corner to enter, we needed to go down the block to the other corner. We backtracked slightly, and headed for the other corner. By the time we made it to the crosswalk at the corner, we were all thoroughly drenched. "C" was living her best life, happily dancing, splashing in every puddle she saw, and trying to eat the rain. We passed through security's tent where they wished us luck in finding an archway to stand in for cover but made it abundantly clear that we were not welcome to stay in their tent. We were already thoroughly soaked, though, so we just kept on trucking. There was a tour of an old government building happening in about 10 minutes, so we waited for that.
We finally made it in, took our seats, and the park ranger started talking about the historical significance of the room and what kinds of things went on in here, but "C" was not willing to sit still or be quiet. We tried for a few minutes before I just took her outside where she could run around and play. And guess what! The rain STOPPED. Again, just waiting for us to get under cover before it gave up. Ugh. There were still plenty of puddles for "C" to jump in, though. After about 15 more minutes, everybody else came out and we went into the building next door.
This building housed some pretty important documents from our history, like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Yeah, the real documents. Pretty cool to see them in person, in my opinion
Our next stop was Washington Square, home of the Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary Soldier. If I were smarter or better
informed, or even a better reader, I might have caught on to the fact that this wasn't "THE" Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier - that's in a completely different state. This was still a cool, beautiful park and somber place, but not what I
was anticipating. There was a monument honoring the thousands of soldiers buried in the park since the Revolutionary
War.
Our last stop in Philly was, of course, for a Philly Cheesesteak. I spent a whopping 10 minutes looking online before settling on Sonny's Cheesesteaks. It was a quarter of a mile away, looked incredible, and had 5,000+ great reviews. It was also located very very close to Gino's Cheesesteaks, which was my second choice if things didn't work out at Sonny's. But it was fantastic. Of course we had to pick Cheese Whiz, because we wanted it to be authentic. The kids all had some, and I ate a whole one. It was delicious - juicy, cheesy, the steak practically melted in your mouth, the bread was soft but firm. Heavenly.
We drove on to Delaware where we met up with "K"'s friend, "M" and her husband and their 2 kids. They were gracious hosts who even let me buy a new phone and ship it to their house! The kids played and had a wonderful time playing in their daughter's room, the living room, and the park near their house. They could not get enough of "T" - they thought he was hilarious, full of energy, and they kept describing him as a cannonball -just a never ending explosion, hurtling from one thing to the next. He kept calling "M"'s husband 'dudette'. We stayed there probably long past when we should have left, but everyone was having such a great time that it was hard to go. "B" caught a firefly on her way to the car. We piled back into the car and drove to our hotel for the night. The youngest 3 kids all crashed before we maid it to the highway.