Philadelphia 2022

The Macgills are back with a recap of our summer trip to Philadelphia!

First, we started at Valley Forge. They have a wonderful visitor center and we learned so much. 

I learned about these powder horns. I have seen them many times in museums, but this time I actually stopped to read about them. The soldiers would also inscribe their names or pictures on them. They were quite beautiful.

We rode the 10 mile circuit in the air conditioned car and found a statue of my man... Major General von Steuben. He was in the Prussian military and came to Valley Forge and really got our troops' act together. He wrote The Blue Book which helped explain military training. They still use parts of his book in training today. Between von Steuben and Lafayette, I really see how fortunate we were to have such good friends from overseas. They helped us so much during the Revolution.

We also walked down to the house where George Washington stayed that winter in Valley Forge. The banister on the steps was original and it was really cool to touch something Washington himself touched.

The next day, we headed into downtown Philly. First up, was a walk around the UPenn campus. We stumbled upon Franklin Field which is where the Penn Relays have been held since 1895. I was super excited! The gate was open and we snuck in for some photos. 

UPenn was a very pretty campus. 

Ben got many pictures with another famous Ben!

Then we headed to the historical part of the city where we captured this photo of every teenage boy's dream. 

We began our tour at Independence Hall. 

This room was a courtroom. The area on the right is a gate where the defendant would "stand trial". They were locked in a gate and forced to stand. 

It was so neat to see the rooms where our country worked hard to gain their independence. We learned there are, in fact, many dates that could have been chosen to mark our Independence Day. I don't think I would have voted for July 4th to be it.

I didn't get to run up the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps this time or get my picture with the Rocky statue, but fortunately, the Visitor Center had another Rocky statue to make me happy. 

Next up was the walk to Reading Terminal Market for lunch. I always get excited about a federal detention center. 

We walked through Chinatown and no, we didn't stop for a tattoo. 

The market was amazing!! Anything you could ever want to eat. Eddie and Ben ate Philly soft pretzels (and a pretzel dog for Ben) and Peirce and I had Indian. 

We topped it off with a trip to the candy stall. Ben was in heaven!

On the way back to the car, we sped through the Liberty Bell to get a photo. We were sweaty and our feet were so tired.

But, everyone hung in there for one more photo. 

The next morning we went downtown to find Schuykill River Park. We got to see more of the city living and different neighborhoods. I was very impressed. 

This building was called Locust Point! 

We had an early lunch at a less touristy sub shop...Joe's Steak and Soda shop. We all got a fun soda drink. 

Peirce and I got cheesesteaks. Ben got another cheese hot dog and Eddie got grilled cheese and pizza fries. My taste buds were very happy!

We found another park...the Penn Treaty Park. It was a great view of the Ben Franklin Bridge into New Jersey. 

At this point, we just needed air conditioning, so we rode around different areas to keep cool until it was time to go to our museum tour. We rode past Rocky's House in Rocky II. I was so excited!

Yes, Sylvester Stallone actually touched that same lamp!

We finished our day with a trip to the Mutter Museum. It is an old medical museum which has many skulls and specimens. Many people raved about it, but it was a little depressing for us. 

I forgot to mention that we also went to the Shrine of Saint John Neumann. We went through the museum and learned about his life and went down into the shrine where his body lays in a glass coffin in front of the altar. As luck would have it, a mass was going on and we were able to receive communion. It was very special. Overall, we loved our trip and learned so much! Thank you Philadelphia!