Cheese Steak Anyone?

September 19-22, 2014

When in Philly you do as the locals do right? Well not for us. We landed at an RV Park about 30 miles from Philadelphia and when we went into the city to take in the history we didn’t have a philly cheese steak. More about that later.

The RV Park that was home for us had a wonderful view and the drive to and from the park was simply beautiful. Nice rolling green hills with plenty of trees hinting at the fall colors. We chose this area so we could visit some friends that lived nearby.

Our View at the RV Park

Eddie and Sarah met us on Saturday for a day of touring the Longwood Gardens. These gardens have quite the history and are definitely something to see if you are ever close to Philadelphia.  

Longwood Gardens was known as Pierce’s Park when Pierre S. DuPont purchased the land in 1906. His primary purpose at the time was to stop the selling of part of the acreage and the harvesting of trees. Over the years he developed the property and continued to purchase adjoining lands.

His master plan included adding many water features, specialty garden areas, green houses, and a conservatory. You can explore the gardens and if you really want to explore them you need to plan on one full day at a minimum. The current organization does a great job in maintaining the gardens and facilities and it continues today as an educational site. If you are curious about the 300+ years of history of this land you can check it out on their web site.

The Cat Loves Kids

Enjoying the Day

Enjoy the beauty of the gardens with us as you look at a few pictures from the day.

A Train Among the Garden

Work of art

Bonzai Beauty

East Indian Lotus

Field of Colors

Raining Fountains

Gorgeous Orchid

Longwood Hybrid Water Planter

The Tower

 Tropical Night-Flowering Water lily

Colors Abound

We had a great time hanging out with Eddie, Sarah, Emily and Andrew for a bit. Izzy had fun too and she was happy to get and explore some as well and hang out with Mickey.

We headed to Philadelphia Monday to check out Independence National Historical Park in downtown Philadelphia. We found the park easily enough but finding parking for “Big Red” proved to be challenging, but heck we were up for the challenge!

After getting tickets to go into Independence Hall we ventured over there amazed at the building and everything else in the area. They control the number of people entering the Hall each day and we were glad we were able to see it shortly after getting there.

Independence Hall

George Washington

The Delegates met in the Assembly Room (now Independence Hall) of the Pennsylvania State House creating the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We are standing in this room where history was made, pretty amazing.

 

Delegates Meeting

 

Assembly Room

The Court Room

Independence Square includes Congress Hall, Supreme Court Chamber in Old City Hall, and a statue of the father of the U.S. Navy, John Barry.

 

John Barry Father of the Navy

 

Liberty Bell Center houses the Liberty Bell and as you wander through the building you are engrossed with more history of our nation. The Liberty Bell went on tour in the country in the early 1900s and landed here for its permanent home.

The Dalai Lama Visiting the Liberty Bell

 

In this area Benjamin Franklin is buried and you can even walk through the graveyard. They have a plaque that lists what Mr. Franklin did during his life. It was great to relearn all of this as well as help you realize what a great man he was.

 

 

Textured with 1,000 Keys from Local Schoolchildren

 

 

We aren’t done with our history lessons during September as we will be venturing to the Washington DC area from here. Hopefully we will also be treated to some great autumn colors while our brains are treated to historical facts!

More to come from SIT so stay with us.