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We decided to 'do' Philadelphia mostly because we were in the neighborhood, so to speak. As you most likely have noted, we are largely avoiding large cities on this adventure, but we are making some exceptions; the revolutionary history of this very old city called to us. On the drive back East through Pennsylvania, Jody noted a small red square on our road atlas labeled "Coral Caves". As it looked to be only a few minutes off the interstate (we were attempting to cross the whole state in one day, and so chose the fastest route as opposed to the most interesting), we negotiated the small country roads to a small hilltop within the village of Mann's Choice, PA. The caves were entirely privately owned by a family. We paid the $8 or so a piece, and took the little tour. Our tour guide was very young and quite rigid in her delivery, but it was still fun and interesting. The caves were a nice cool 50 degrees, a welcome relief from the mid 80s. That is Joya below, looking up at some of the stalactites -- or are they stalagmites?
Apparently cave owners feel compelled to give names to imagined shapes found in caves; ours certainly did. The "dramatically lit" scene below they called the Nativity, with the lumpy shapes in the foreground serving as stand-in wise men. We oohed and aahed appropriately.
After the short tour covering about 600 feet, we returned to the surface and continued our drive East. As it turns out, the nearest campground to Philly is in New Jersey, so that was our destination. Philadelphia was an easy 20 minute drive across the Walt Whitman bridge. This early in the season, there was plenty of cheap parking down on the waterfront at Penn's Landing, which is very near to the historic district in South Philly. We started things off with a look at the National Liberty Museum, which is dedicated to those who have advanced the cause of Liberty both in the US and abroad. Below is a vase created by Dale Chilhuly, who you may remember from the Las Vegas segment of our little saga. Mr. Chilhuly has created large glass art installations all over the world.
Below we paused in a "Cosi" cafe for some smoothies and iced coffees -- it was very hot our entire stay in Philadelphia.
This is the required shot of the Liberty Bell, which is no longer hanging in Independence Hall, visible in the background of the picture below.
And this is the room where the 2nd Continental Congress met and drafted the Declaration of Independence. None of the furniture is original except for the large chair at the rear of the photo -- it was all auctioned off long ago, after it had become a bit worn.
For 10 years, Philadelphia was the capitol of the United States -- during the decade of the 1790s. The photo below show part of the Senate chamber used during that time.
The photo below is a reconstruction of what the Library of Congress looked like when it was first established -- the books you can see on those shelves were all they had. Remember that books back then were very expensive.
As interesting as all this revolutionary history was, the girls had pretty much had their fill of "monuments to dead white guys", as they began referring to them. So we segued into Philly's Chinatown, which was very fun. We found an excellent vegetarian Chinese restaurant not far from where the shot below was taken.
We also found time to take a self-guided tour of the Philadelphia Mint, which we all found interesting. This mint makes many military medals, including the Silver Star and Purple Heart, both of which Jody's cousin Phil had earned, so seeing those was nice.
After our Mint tour, we went over to Ben Franklin's former stomping grounds. The woman below is playing the first musical instrument invented in America. Called the "Armonica", it is a series of nesting crystal bowls which the player keeps wet. The nested bowls are rotated slowly as the player runs her fingers over them to create notes. The resulting music is beautiful, with a haunting quality. She played an astonishing version of amazing grace that sent shivers up our spines.
Next stop (and next day) was Little Italy in South Philly. It was grand -- just like being in a small neighborhood in Rome, with the bonus that everyone spoke English as well as Italian. The shot below is of the De Bruno brother's cheese store. We just stood in it, grinning, for perhaps 30 minutes, absorbing the odors and ambiance.
Another street shot of Little Italy. We especially enjoyed the paint job in process on the upper buildings.
I am not sure what Jordan is attempting to communicate here, but I loved the street scene surrounding her.
And so we left Philadelphia -- we stayed 2 days longer than we had originally planned -- and continued East towards New York. We did not make it across the New Jersey Turnpike without trouble, however. The photo below captures me untying the spare tire for the trailer. Yes, we had another blow out, this time on the inside, away from the traffic. The gentleman in white that you see is a NJ turnpike employee who noticed we were having problems and stopped to set up flares and make sure we could change the tire unaided (I did, although it is a mighty pain in the butt).
So, running on the spare, we limped into New York and continued driving through the nasty New York traffic, halfway up Long Island to our campground. June 22 to 24 - Mardi and Maria
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