Philadelphia, PA - INDEPENDENCE HALL

Philadelphia, PA - 

INDEPENDENCE HALL
& 
THE LIBERTY BELL

We continued riding the on & off bus and saw all kinds of places and ended the day with a scheduled tour at Independence Hall.

Here were some places that we saw while riding on the bus.

The clock tower with William Penn standing at the top.

A quick stop at the Franklin Institute.  We have to get back to Independence Hall for our tour but we will be back tomorrow and I can't wait because it looks like it's going to be so much fun!

A painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence hanging in Independence Hall.

A panoramic view that my mom took of Independence Hall.

The actual room where our founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence.

Our guide was full of information and I wish I could remember everything he said.  I would suggest if you go on guided tours to record it all so you can re-listen to it because there is too much to remember in one day!

Although most of the furniture in the room were replicas of the originals, this was the actual chair that George Washington sat in!

It was such an amazing feeling standing in the same room where Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and all of the other incredible men who founded our beautiful nation.

I also was able to go into the building where Congress met.

If you look closely at the 4th Congress' seating chart, you will see where James Madison sat on the far left in the first row.

This was the Supreme Court.

DID YOU KNOW?

Today was an incredible day!  We will be coming back tomorrow to check out the Franklin Institute.  

Philadelphia, PA - Our first stop ~BETSY ROSS' HOUSE~

Our time in Philadelphia was really fun but I must say it was a bit stressful!!  When we first arrived we began to see tents and detour signs.

 We quickly realized that the POPE was coming to Philadelphia.  And to make matters worse, we were told we could park our RV at the Marriott hotel downtown (which is where we were staying) because they had an open parking lot, but when we arrived the man told us that it would be $180 a night to park, but money wasn't the problem because he had nowhere for us to park our RV anyway!  So we had to find another hotel (which luckily for us was only about 20 minutes away) BUT, trying to get there was a nightmare!  We could only go down one way streets and one of the streets we were directed to drive down had cars parked on BOTH SIDES OF THE STREET making it impossible for us to turn right or left.  We continued driving because we thought surely we would come across a two way intersection, but no... we came to a dead end and were forced to maneuver our 33' RV down a narrow one way street with cars parked down BOTH SIDES OF THE STREET.

Since we were no longer within walking distance of everything like we had originally planned, instead we were able to enjoy taking the SEPTA (the local commuter train) which was fun.

Once we got off the train, we walked up the steps to an alley way and walked through what I call "Weirdoville." People were panhandling for money and sleeping on the sides of the street!  We finally arrived at Independence Hall's Visitor Center where we found out about the double decker BigB bus tour and so we hoped on!  First it took us to Betsy Ross' House, where we took an audio tour.  We learned so much about her, we didn't realize that she had had such a sad life.

Here are some pictures that we took of the house she lived in...

                                                                 

 A lady showed us how to make chocolate! Yum!!!

 The actual room that George Washington sat in with Betsy Ross when he asked her to make the American Flag.

 A picture that hung on her living room wall of the meeting she had in that same room with George Washington.

Betsy Ross' original Bible from 1794

 Betsy's actual reading glasses, her husband's actual cane and the silver tin (on the right) was Betsy's snuff container.  Snuff was thought to have medicinal purposes.

 This is the actual bedroom where she made the American flag!  

She had to make it in hiding for her safety!

 This was what the original American flag looked when Betsy made it.

 This was Betsy's 3rd husband, John Claypoole,"who helped her with her upholstery business because having a woman run a business back then wasn't proper.

 And this was the kitchen.

Auburn, IN ~ Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum

AUBURN, IN

Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum

My time at the Auburn Cord Duesenburger Automobile Museum in Auburn Indiana.

We left Illinois and heeded towards Indiana today.  While we were on the road my mom was helping my dad with directions when she saw, out of the corner of her eye, the sign for the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum and said, "I think my grandfathers car is there." Then she told me the story about how her grandpa use to buy and fix up old cars and restore them. He had an old 1930 Auburn that her grandmother donated when he died to the Museum so I just had to go see it. We walked in and asked if they had an old baby blue Auburn. They showed us one car but it was not it and then another guy said, "We have a beautiful one from LA that is in the shop and the guys last name is Myers."  My mom said, “My families last name is Myers!” So excitedly we walked over to the shop and my mom said, “That's my Papa's car!!!” 

 We called my Meema on Face Time to show her the car. She cried because she misses her dad.

I looked at it and it was beautiful!  It had wood rims, white tires and so much more. I looked inside the trunk and saw two old license plates that where old and dirty so I took them out and showed my mom.

With tears in her eyes she said, "Those are his old license plates that he ordered for the car when he had it." Because they weren't using them anymore (as they had expired the year he died) we asked the guy if we could keep one and he said yes. My mom hugged and thanked him.  Then we got back on the road because we are excited to get to Philadelphia, PA.    

        

Chicago - IL ~ Navy Pier & Architectural Tour

THE WINDY CITY

Chicago, Illinois

 Our first day in Chicago was nice and sunny. A very nice taxi driver named Tony drove us to the Navy Pier. He dropped us off at the Navy Pier, which is at the tip of lake Michigan. The lake looked so big it was like an ocean! It looked endless.

 I learned to shoot trick photography when I was in 4th grade and thought it would be funny to show my mom how to make it look like I was drinking water from one of the big fountains.

                    My mom & dad                          and me... photo bombing! :)

A beautiful day in Chicago!

Since it was such a beautiful day, we decided to take the Architectural boat tour on the Chicago River to see and hear about all the history like the

Sears Tower...

 and many more!

 Trump Tower   

As soon as we got off of the boat it poured rain!  

We caught a taxi back to the train station and took a double decker train back to our hotel where we watched the lightning storm from our hotel room.

Overall it was a really good day and I had a lot of fun!