Philadelphia Spring Break Trip–Day 2 “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

I was so very excited to visit Independence Hall. My family is pretty patriotic and as a kid I remember watching the musical 1776 year after year. Pretty much the entire time we were there, we would spontaneously quote a line from it. Growing up we’d visited a lot of historic sites as a family, but never Philadelphia.

We had tickets to visit Independence Hall at 11:15, so we headed over to see the Liberty Bell first. There wasn’t a line to get in that early so we zipped through the search area and headed inside. Before you get to the actual bell, there are exhibits that give you a quick overview of the history of the bell, including the crack.

The Liberty Bell

From the back

We had some time before we could visit Independence Hall, so we walked over to Carpenter’s Hall.

The First Continental Congress met in Carpenter’s Hall in 1774. It was really an interesting and beautiful building.

Some of the original eighteenth century furnishings.

We wrapped things up at Carpenter’s Hall then headed over to Independence Hall.

The south side of Independence Hall (or the Pennsylvania State House)

The north side

We were able to catch the 11:00 tour with a really great Park Ranger, Jay. There were three very eager kids in our group who really knew their US history and were happy to answer the Ranger’s questions. We started out in the reconstructed East Wing then headed over to the main building.

The first stop was the Supreme Court Room.

Next, the Assembly Room.

It’s pretty amazing to think just how much of our country’s history was shaped in this room. From Washington’s appointment as the commander in chief of the continental army, to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, to the drafting of the Constitution. Pretty significant events.

It’s also amazing to me that the building has survived, even through the Revolution when the British occupied Philadelphia.

The tower stair hall. As soon as I saw this (and even looking at it now), I can’t help but think, “We may see murder, yet!”

“Mr. Adams, I say you should write it…”

Next, we stopped by the Great Essentials exhibit in the West Wing to see early copies of the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and Constitution.

We came across a lot of great quotes in Philadelphia, this was, by far, my favorite.

Next, we went through Congress Hall. Once again, Jay, the Park Ranger, led our group.

The House of Representatives met on the ground floor. It was here that John Adams was sworn in as the second president of the United States of America. I had never really thought of the historical significance of this, but really, nothing like that had ever happened before where a ruling power voluntarily and willingly stepped aside for someone else to lead.

Upstairs, we visited the Senate Chamber.

By this point, we were ready to take a break and grab a bite to eat. We headed over to The Bourse, a late nineteenth century building that’s been converted for retail and office space. There’s a big food court on the main floor.

We got sandwiches and coleslaw from Bain’s. While in line for our food, I felt someone behind me start playing with my hair. I could clearly see Jonathan in front of me and knew that I didn’t know anyone else in Philadelphia. I turned around and the woman who had been twisting my hair gasped and exclaimed, “I thought you were my daughter! I’m SO sorry!” We laughed. I had a good 15 years (probably more!) on her daughter.

Our roast beef sandwiches and coleslaw

After lunch, we headed over to Betsy Ross’ house, walking past Benjamin Franklin’s gravesite on the way.

We opted for the audio tour through the house.

Last Flag Day, we’d read a couple of books about Betsy Ross so it was fun to see the house. I think the kids will enjoy seeing it too when they’re older.

From the Ross house, we continued heading east to Penn’s Landing to look across the Delaware River to New Jersey.

On the way back, we stopped by Christ’s Church.

At the time it was built, this steeple was the tallest building in America.

The interior

George Washington’s pew

Next, we stopped by Franklin Court on Market Street and saw the Printing Office, where we once again saw Park Ranger Jay. He was everywhere.

I thought that this stretch of Market Street gave an interesting glimpse of Philadelphia. On the right side, there’s the Fox TV station, obviously a twentieth century building, then beside it you have eighteenth century buildings, then some nineteenth. Such a historic city, but still very much alive.

It was getting close to 4pm, so we headed back to our hotel so Jonathan could get to his first session. After that, we met up with his co-workers who were also attending the conference to head to dinner at the Victor Café.

The food was great here too, but what made this place so special was the fact that there’s live opera! Every 10 minutes or so, one of the servers would ring a bell, announce what song they were about to sing, then sing it. Such a fun night.

The OUR group.

Thus we wrapped up a very full and wonderful day. At dinner, Betsy asked me what my plans were for the next day. I responded that I was going to try to sleep in. :-)

Philadelphia Spring Break Trip–Day 1

The last few years, Jonathan has attended a national conference with the Registrar’s Office. (Two years ago we went to New Orleans, last year he went to Seattle). This year, the conference was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and as it worked out, the dates fell during the week of our Spring Break so I was able to go along this year too. Neither of us had visited Philadelphia before, so we were really looking forward to the trip.

Things looked pretty iffy about a week before we were to leave when Charlotte came down with a fever. It came and went over a 10 day period, jumping up to 104.9 at one point. I had pretty much come to terms with the fact that I wouldn’t be going knowing that if I did and she wasn’t better, my thoughts would always be on her. But thankfully, the day before we were to leave town, the fever broke. So with our doctor’s blessing, we took the kids to Jonathan’s parents and boarded a plane to head up north.

We arrived in Philadelphia on Saturday in the early afternoon and it was chilly! We bundled up in our fleeces and took a taxi to our hotel, the Downtown Marriot. We checked in, dropped off our luggage, and headed right back out to go to the Independence Visitors Center.

After getting some info at the visitors center, we headed for an early-ish dinner at City Tavern. It’s a reconstructed building, but still was pretty fun.

We ate in one of the rooms on the first floor.

I ordered a pork chop but the waiter made sure to let me know that it was, in fact, ham. So I had ham, sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes. It was great. (Be ready, we took a lot of pictures of our food!) We ate so much while we were gone.

Jonathan had turkey pot pie. It was so good too!

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel.

School Stuff

A few things we’ve done school-wise and otherwise in the last month or so…

We read A New Coat for Anna and did a dye experiment with cotton balls in cranberry juice, yellow food coloring, and crushed blueberries. In the book, Anna’s coat is dyed with lingonberries, which made me think of IKEA. Since we were fresh out of lingonberries, we worked with what we had.

We got out the Legos and the kids have really enjoyed them. Rosemary made “princesses.” From the left you have Belle, Cinderella, Aurora, and Tiana. Not sure what the thing on the right is…

We read Mrs. Katz and Tush and talked about Passover. So we made bread last week. One batch with yeast, one without. Rosemary chose to make hers without.

Rosemary with her two loaves of unleavened bread.

A bit closer. I should have weighed them. They were like bricks, but tasted okay. The kids really liked it actually.

The no-yeast and the yeast bread.

While Ben’s bread was still a bit dense, I found it to be much more appetizing.

Along with our bread, we had some tea and jam. Then we had to listen to the song from The Sound of Music. The kids got a kick out of that.

Charlotte is Walking

Our baby is walking. We knew it would be soon and on Friday, March 2 (my mom’s birthday) Charlotte officially became a walker. She started walking at a younger age than either Ben or Rosemary…by one day if you consider that this year is a leap year…just 8 days shy of being 14 months old.

Standing on her own on March 2.

A few tentative steps

Through the weekend she was taking more and more steps. And now, a week and half later, she’s walking up a storm. It was like flipping a switch with her. While she’d taken a tentative step here and there for the last few weeks, she really started last week.

Here comes toddlerhood!

Girl Scout Cookies

I’ve mentioned before that Rosemary is a Daisy Scout. Well, this spring was her first foray into the world of selling Girl Scout cookies. To kick things off, her troop had an info meeting for parents and for the girls. In the girls’ meeting, they each set their goal. Rosemary decided she wanted to sell 1,000 boxes of cookies because she wanted to get the digital camera that was the 1,000 box incentive. She aims high.

Well, she didn’t hit 1,000, but she did sell 226! I thought that was amazing. And as a result, she was one of the top three sellers and gets to see the Peking Acrobats and go to dinner at a Japanese steakhouse with the other two top sellers and her troop leaders.

Cookie boxes took over the living room. As you can see, Thin Mints are the clear winners. Samoas came in second (they’re the purple boxes that are in two separate columns). We bought at least one box of each kind. We’ve learned which ones we won’t need to buy again.

Getting ready to deliver some of our neighbor’s cookies.

Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure

At the end of February, Jonathan and I met up with Janey and Dwayne at Islands of Adventure. We hadn’t had a chance to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter yet. The timing just hadn’t worked out. When it first opened I was pregnant with Charlotte and I didn’t want to go when I couldn’t ride anything. Then we had a nursing newborn, then it was hot, then we we had the holidays…you get the picture. It just hadn’t worked out. Well, finally it did! But by the time we were able to go, Janey was pregnant so she didn’t get to ride all of the stuff (although she kindly waited through the lines with us).

We left the kids with my parents for the day. IoA isn’t really geared towards really young kids. It was crazy going to a theme park without a kid, stroller, or even a purse! We hadn’t done that in over six years. We moved so fast.

We got there before the park opened and got to see the opening ‘ceremony’ they did. Once inside, we headed straight for Hogsmeade. I was so happy that it was a little bit cold that day. It just seemed more appropriate to experience with a bit of chill in the air.

So exciting!

Zonko’s and Honeydukes (Hogsmeade meets Diagon Alley, which was kinda the story of the entire area). This was just after 9am. We came back around noon and this place was packed. We were thinking about eating lunch at the Three Broomsticks and there was a line just to get in! We think that’s why people were eating lunch at like 9:45…just to be able to find a table!

Outside Hogwarts (aka the Forbidden Journey ride) there was pram parking. Obviously, not a lot of strollers were here.

A glimpse of Hogwarts as we made our way to the Forbidden Journey. That ride is unlike anything I’ve ever ridden. But is it wrong that my favorite part was the line? Don’t get me wrong, the ride was amazing, but the line was incredible. I would have been fine if we’d had a longer wait just to watch the talking portraits more, see a bit more of Dumbledore, and see more of Ron, Harry, and Hermione. Amazing.

After the Forbidden Journey we rode Flight of the Hippogriff then went through a couple of the shops. The line for Ollivanders Wand Shop was really long so we skipped that. The guys then went and rode Dragon Challenge…both sides…while Janey and I grabbed some butterbeer. Wow, it was sweet. But such a fun touch!

I was so cold…but having so much fun!

After finishing up there, we headed over to The Cat in the Hat ride, where Jonathan worked during the summers and breaks when he was in college.

Getting ready to ride Cat in the Hat

After that, we rode the High in the Sky Trolley which we’d never ridden before. From there, we headed over to The Hulk. I don’t know what’s changed, but I get way more freaked out on rollercoasters than I used to. As soon as the ride started (which starts fast!) I just kept thinking, thank goodness we won’t slow down until it’s over! Whew.

We wrapped up all that we wanted to do by lunchtime. Since the Three Broomsticks was so full, we headed over to CityWalk and got a bite to eat at Margaritaville, where Dwayne works. All the food was so good. I probably could have had three meals out of my bbq sandwich. But I didn’t. :-)

We had such a great time with friends that day! It was great to spend the time in the park and at lunch just catching up and spending time together. I’m just so thankful that Janey and I have kept up through the years. It was a great day!

Icicles

A few weeks ago we had an overnight freeze. Jonathan set up the sprinkler and in the morning the kids woke up to bit of a winter wonderland.

The branches on the maple and loquat were sagging under the weight of the ice. We lost one of the loquat branches.

Ben and Rosemary bundled up in their heavy coats and pajamas to go outside and play with Jonathan. Charlotte and I stayed inside. Ben didn’t last too long before he came inside to get warm.

Rosemary enjoyed examining the icicles on the trees.