Philadelphia

I didn't mean to take as long of a break as I did from posting vacation pictures, and I am resuming with a huge post about Philadelphia. Something I should have mentioned before is that some of the photos I have shared were taken either by me or Dave, but many, many of them were taken by Dave's dad. He is great about taking time to get family pictures along with more candid shots as well, so I always enjoy looking through his photos after our trips. Thank you so much for all the great pictures!
 The girls with Grandmommy and Granddaddy in the heart of downtown Philadelphia.


The history in Philadelphia is so amazing, historically speaking it's probably one of the coolest places I've ever been.
 This is Independence Hall. We walked through each room and there was a new wow around every corner. When we stood in the room where all the details of The Declaration of Independence and later The Constitution were ironed out and these documents were eventually signed, we looked at the actual chair George Washington sat in as he addressed the First and Second Continental Congresses. It was about 95 degrees and I had the chills.

In the building right to the left of what is shown in the above picture, the first peaceful transition of power in human history occurred when George Washington handed the presidency over to John Adams after his second term in office. At this time there were no limits on presidential terms yet, and there was some speculation that George Washington may not want to give it up. He was, after all, the first ever leader of the free world and he was wildly popular with Americans. There had never been a precedent set in any other form of government as to how leadership should agreeably change hands. In monarchies when a king died a family member would assume the role, and in other less peaceful terms a nation that was overpowered by an enemy would be forced to accept a new leader in whatever form that was given to them.

Here George Washington seemed to know that the best interest of this young nation would be best served by him passing the presidency on to John Adams, and he did so in a quiet, history making ceremony. And after all that we read about him and his role in the Revolutionary War, I have to assume he was growing a bit tired too, the poor guy needed a break. One of our girls favorite books is called George Washington's Teeth, and it recounts how he lost many of his teeth during the war {probably due in part to poor hygiene in the war camps, and in part to stress}. He tried to hide it as best he could because he didn't want to be perceived as weak by his soldiers. But it isn't too far of a stretch to think that he saw his goals accomplished with the birth of a new nation and he just wanted to retire.


 Here the girls are sitting by a side door to Independence Hall. Later in the day, Alyssa picked out a souvenir key to Independence Hall and she kept trying it in every lock we saw in the hisotoric buildings of the city. Because of course, they just sell keys to the place by the dozen in the gift shops :-)



Below is a slide show of our Philadelphia sight seeing. The city is so diverse in its rich history, but yet has a very urban and modern atmosphere as well. The public market was really unique with a huge variety of traditional and cultural items. It was neat!



I was going to include this next series of photos in the slide show, but it was one of the girls favorite things we did during the whole trip, so I felt like it deserved a little explanation of it's own.
 This picture was taken at one of the Valley Forge locations, but the city of Philadelphia and many of the historic sites in the surrounding area have the coolest thing called, Once Upon a Nation. There are frequent story benches where very dramatic and engaging story tellers retell the events that occurred there during the Revolutionary War. Many times the story benches are located directly outside a building or in a city square where the events actually took place.


 Maybe it's just their appreciation of good, well told story that I love, but seeing these pictures and remembering how exciting the stories were for the girls made me smile. We heard stories about how the eagle was chosen as the national symbol, how one of the worst battles of the war was fought against the body lice that some soldiers painfully experienced in the camps {essentially they ended up lathering a tar like substance on themselves and drinking something that sounded rather poisonous in an effort to get rid of them}, and we heard about little known heroes such as Naval Commander, John Barry. We only got through about 6 or 7 of the 13 stories in Philadelphia, but it was so cool. Our girls want to go back just to finish all the story benches.


The pictures below show just how interesting Once Upon a Nation is, and what a great job the story tellers do...
 


 


 


 


 


 The inscription on the Liberty Bell:
Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof.
Leviticus 25:10

There's also a great story our girls love about the Liberty Bell being "spirited away" by eleven year old John Jacob Mickley and his father when they kept it safe during a time that British soldiers were invading the large cities and stealing any metal they find in order to make ammunition. The Bell was kept in hiding under the floor boards of a church until the threat from British soldiers had passed and it later became a symbol of freedom during the Civil War.

Whenever we are watching movies or reading books, it is a very common question that the girls ask, Is this a true story? I love that they ask that, and I love reading books about history to them. As we read books in preparation for this trip, something that was quoted in the back of one of the books about Thomas Jefferson said of all the Founding Fathers, that they knew they were signing their own death warrants when they signed the Declaration of Independence and engaged in war against England. If their efforts to win the war and establish a new nation did not succeed, their actions would be considered treason and they would be hung. I had learned this elsewhere in a history class once upon a time, but explaining this to the girls was new to me. These were just ordinary people, who were convinced that there was a better, more fair way to run a nation. Now that's a really cool true story I'm glad they know.