Philadelphia

October 23

The train ride into Philly was quite different from those of Boston or New York. The villages in the suburbs appear tight knit and each appears to have their own train station. Thus there seemed to be a stop every five miles or so and the train speed never appeared to be above 30 MPH. It was a slow ride so we didn’t get in to downtown until around noon. But we saw the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Congress Hall (site of our first Congress), Carpenters Hall (site of the first Continental Congress) and we ate lunch at the City Tavern, a restored pub that was the “unofficial meeting place”. After lunch we visited Christ’s Church, Betsy Ross’s home, Franklin’s grave, and his shop/commercial buildings.
The middle picture is the room where the Second Continental Congress was held. The last is Ben's auto epitaph.

By 4:30 my ankles were firing off growls of disrespect so we boarded the train for the trip home.

We did not give Philly its due. There was so much to see, but what we did see we felt we covered adequately. Things moved quickly as the historical area which, during the summer, directs and transports thousands, only had to deal with a few hundred of us. There were no lines or crowds.

Tomorrow, we leave here and head south and west to visit the Lerdas, our friends from Puyallup who now live in Chambersburg, PA. From there we hope to visit Gettysburg and, perhaps, Lancaster County (Amish).