When last we left you, we had just relocated to Philadelphia for the final four months of the year to take care of my mom and help her transition to a new living situation. That put a bit of a damper on our RVing plans for the remainder of the year.
But in late October, we got a day off from caregiving duties to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary and we chose to make it a touristy day, visiting some of the historical landmarks in downtown Philadelphia.
We took the commuter train downtown and headed for the Independence Hall Visitors Center where we got tickets for the 11 am tour. The tour moves quickly through just two rooms. The first is a courtroom where defendants literally stood for the entirety of the trial (it’s where we get the term “stand trial.”) Then you proceed to the main attraction, the room where the founding fathers debated whether to declare independence from England. It was no easy choice, because they knew it would mean war and that if they lost that war, they would all be hanged for treason. Fun fact: they voted for independence on July 2nd, not July 4th, and expected that would be the day we would have picnics, hot dogs and fireworks. That night, Thomas Jefferson got to work on the Declaration of Independence, thinking his draft was absolutely perfect. Nonetheless, the delegates from the states debated for two days on minor changes to the language before sending out the declaration to the printer. They printed 100 hundred copies and read the declaration in public for the first time on July 4th.
The complex around Independence Hall also includes the building where the first Congress of the United States met before Washington, D.C. became the capital. There’s also an interesting display of some of the original copies of the founding documents of our nation.
Across the street from Independence Hall is the Liberty Bell. It’s roped off but you can walk completely around it, and people take turns taking selfies in front of it.
We walked down to the Betsy Ross House, but didn’t feel like paying the $10 entrance fee. So we continued on to Elfreth Alley, which is one of the oldest continually inhabited streets in the U.S. Named for blacksmith and property owner Jeremiah Elfreth, the alley was home to 18th century artisans and tradespeople. The 32 houses that line the cobblestone street are more than 300 years old.
By then it was time for lunch so we walked to the Reading Terminal Market which houses about 40 food vendors, including a wide variety of international fare. Mrs. 123 had a Georgian bread known as a cheeseboat, while I had a Greek gyro.
After lunch, we decided to visit the U.S. Mint, which has a nice self-guided tour displaying the process by which coins are minted. There are some interesting displays about the U.S. monetary system, describing things like where we got the gold that sits in Fort Knox. I was fascinated by the examples of Hobo Nickels, which I had never heard of before.
Before dinner we snapped a couple of photos in front of the Love sculpture, a bookend to our wedding 25 years earlier.
The staff at P.J. Clarke’s by Independence Hall took good care of us. The bartender poured me a free beer after hearing it was our anniversary, and the waiter brought us champagne. We caught a late train back home.
It was a day to look back and look forward. We had fun reminiscing about our wedding and all our adventures over the 25 years of our marriage. But mostly we talked about our impending trip, which is now less than two months away.
