Philadelphia Minus the Airport

This last week our friends from back home, Carly and Adam, flew out for an East Coast adventure and stayed with us at our place. They had a busy vacation, traversing New York City for four days and Philadelphia for one day. We joined them for two of those days, one of them being a trip to Philly. We had never really spent time in Philadelphia before - we'd driven to the airport several times, gotten lost in the city trying to get home from the airport, and then we went to a Fleet Foxes concert at a Unitarian Church in Philly. But none of that really counts as a city visit - so we finally got a chance to explore the history of Philadelphia.

It was a rather quick trip – we didn’t even get there until 4:00pm. But we covered a lot of ground – historic Philly, downtown Philly, and Chinatown. And keeping up with our great tradition, we got lost on the way home (James and I have a knack for this when we got lost in conversation). Somehow we thought we were on US 1 North almost back in Princeton, when all of a sudden what do you know – we see an “Entering Philadelphia” sign. I still have no idea how that happened…so it was a long drive home.

View of the capitol building from down-town Philly in the evening. I loved down-town: tons of great restaurants with outdoor seating along the streets and plenty of urban energy.


Carly and I loved all the beautiful, old brick homes and buildings.


James and I in front of Independence Hall, the building where both the Declaration of Independence and the U. S. Constitution were signed.


This is the room where the Declaration and Consitution were signed inside Independence Hall. General Washington sat at the desk up front, and John Adams sat in the chair at the very bottom of this pic. I think Ben Franklin sat in the chair to the left of General Washington's desk.


The infamous Liberty Bell. Yes - it has a big crack in it, and has had this crack for quite awhile.


Carly, Adam, and James taking in the scene at Independence Square, the square where the Declaration of Independence was first publicly read on July 6, 1776.


Another view of Independence Hall.