A Day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

As I mentioned in my last post, we spent our second day at French Creek State Park sight-seeing in Philadelphia, a little over an hour's drive away. The traffic was pretty typical city traffic...in a word, awful. It was a good day, however, despite the traffic, and we were glad we went.

It's always a trick finding a place to park our pig of a truck. There was on-street metered parking, but no spaces large enough. After driving several blocks, we noticed a public lot, and just a block on, metered parking where we could fit. Mike had already circled around to the public lot, but then we noticed the price...flat rate of $20. Yikes. So we circled back around to the metered parking where we could purchase four hours for $6. Ahhhhhhh. Still expensive, but the $20 lot calibrated our expectations. From there, we walked to the object of our desire, Elfreth's Alley. The article that put me onto this place was this one, from Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. It was everything I'd hoped it would be.

Along the way, we noticed this sign. Ha! Philadelphia, you're so punny!

As it turns out, we were in the historic part of Philadelphia. The streets were cobblestone and the sidewalks were old brick. It was hard walking on this stuff because of the uneven surface.

It was just a few blocks, and we were there. Here's an information sign, but I encourage you to read the article. The place has a storied past...which makes sense because it's nearing 300 years old.

From one end, it looked like this.

Walking through to the other end, we looked back to see this:

As I mentioned yesterday, it was a paradise of windows and walls. I only wish the light had been a little better for taking pictures. I might have photographed every single residence.

This next one is going into my sketchbook.

My one word for this One Word Wonder: "Venerable."

It was lunch time by then, and so we found a restaurant nearby. We were hoping for Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches, but what we really wanted was a restroom. We found one here, and the menu looked good. 

It was a deli that specialized in cheeses. It was such a beautiful day, and so we sat outside. To get to the outdoor portion of the dining room, one had to go down this alleyway to the left of the front door.

Once there, we were in a cozy little alcove.

Looking up, we saw this:

It was a breakfast and lunch kind of place. Folks there were having breakfast on a lazy Saturday morning. We were in the mood for their sandwiches, which featured their own cheeses. Mike had the French Melt.

I had the Daryl Hall...yes, named for the musician, who happens to be from Philadelphia.

It was delicious. The restaurant was small, and with friendly service. From there, we realized we were just a few blocks from the Betsy Ross House.

This is ordinarily the sort of thing we'd avoid as a tourist trap, but it turned out to be great fun. It was just $4 each to go inside, so what the heck?

Inside, we learned that Betsy Ross was a Quaker, but she was being shunned by her Quaker community for marrying a man three times her age. She was also an upholsterer by trade, not a seamstress as I'd always thought.

And whoa! There's Betsy now...working away. We had a conversation with her! She was quite charming, and she looks amazing! I'm thinking Botox was involved.

Upstairs was her bedroom where the flag was in progress.

I forget where I saw this quilt there in the house, but I knew you'd want to see it.

Downstairs was the laundress. We talked with her too. She told us about why these folks would hire someone to wash their clothes. It was because most folks had just two sets of clothes, which they wore for around six months before washing them. The paddle there in front of her was used to beat the dirt out of the clothes when they came.

Our laundress didn't want to brag, but she said she could have a suit of clothes cleaned in three days!

Opposite her was this very steep set of stairs. Did you ever wonder what it looks like when you open those cellar doors on the street side of a house? Wonder no more. Just a few very steep steps down...a ladder, really.

This was in the kitchen area.

After leaving the Betsy Ross house, we realized we were just a few more blocks away from the Liberty Bell. Along the way, we passed the grave of Benjamin Franklin. He lived to a ripe old age for a man of his time.

The grave was modest.

Just around the corner was Independence Hall National Historic Site. The Liberty Bell could be seen here, but the line just to get through security was about 50 people deep...and then there was the whole security thing, which discouraged us. We've both seen the Liberty Bell before. Instead, we explored a few of the nearby structures. This is Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were both signed.

To its left was Old City Hall. We went inside here.

It was where the very first constitutionally-created Supreme Court sat with the original six justices. From the left side, it looked like this.

Walk to the right and look back, and it looked like this:

From there, we started our trek back to the truck. The architecture is so old and interesting in this part of Philadelphia.

On our way, we passed a structure that was the Second Bank of the United States. I couldn't get back far enough to get a good picture, and so I encourage you to click on the link I've given you to see how it looks. Inside was a portrait gallery. The usual characters are pictured inside: Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Merriweather Lewis, and many more people and names I didn't recognize. Also, I was interested to see Dolley Madison. Did you know her name was spelled with an "e"? There were other women pictured, but they were wives or daughters of famous men. Dolley kind of got there for her own work, and so I'm picturing her. It would have been hard in her day to have an opportunity to make a difference to future generations, but she managed it.

The restrooms in this building were downstairs, which gave us a chance to see the structure underground. The brick and mortar work was interesting from a historical standpoint.

Those ladies at the end there are wooden cutouts.

Back outside and above ground, we passed by this structure.

To the right of the frame above was the rest of the building, which you can see in the image below.

It was a few blocks down to the waterfront, and we walked along the Delaware River to get back to the truck. There, we passed under the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. On the other side of the river is New Jersey. Poor New Jersey...it's always "across the river" from something. And then there's Chris Christie. Enough said.

It was just a few more blocks to the truck, and that was the end of our day.

As I've said many times, we fear cities. When we set out on this day's journey, we had an idea that Elfreth's Alley was more at the edge of the city. It was...only it was at the water's edge. We had to drive through the main part of the city to reach it. Had we known that, we might not have gone, but I'm so glad we did. It was a day of simple pleasures, beautiful weather, and just spending it the way we wanted to. We were very glad we went.

This morning we're heading into Baltimore. Tomorrow we'll begin our sojourn into Washington, D.C. There's going to be a lot to tell you about. We spent last night familiarizing ourselves with the Metro subway system. There were SmarTrip cards for sale here in the park. We've registered them, and loaded money onto them. Now we're set to ride public transportation during our time here. There's even a bus that stops at the RV park, so we can park our truck and leave it. No parking hassles for us. We picked up a few groceries, and we're set for the next several days.