On our last day in Philadelphia, we were blessed with mild weather and small crowds. We began in downtown Philadelphia for our 11:00 tour of Independence Hall. Independence Hall is the Old State House of Pennsylvania, the site where the First and Second Continental Congresses met to sign both the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution.
Tickets to tour this building are available for free on a first-come first serve basis, but we highly recommend reserving them online (for a small convenience fee) if you are planning on visiting. The tickets seemed to go pretty quickly each day we were there because there are only a limited number of spaces to take the tour.
A Park Ranger leads the very informative, guided tour through the Hall, which is divided into two main rooms. The room where both the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were signed is arranged the way it looked in the late 1700s, and still contains the chair that George Washington sat in during the Constitutional Conventions. Even the items on each desk are consistent with the period. Once again we were filled with amazement to be standing in a building filled with such historical significance.
At the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin observed the symbol of a half-sun on George Washington’s chair and remarked, “I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.”
The second room in the Hall served as a the main courtroom in Philadelphia. We learned that the US Court System is based on the British legal system of the time. The defendant was made to stand during his entire trial in a “cage” of iron bars in the center of the room. This is where the phrase “to stand trial” originates.
After this tour we headed a few blocks South to visit St. Mary’s Catholic Church. This church is the oldest Catholic Church in Philadelphia, and George Washington once attended a service here in 1789 to celebrate the two year anniversary of the signing of the Constitution. We had been in the church for a few minutes enjoying the beauty of the sanctuary when we realized that a midday Mass was starting. The priest celebrating this Mass was blind, and it was very humbling and inspiring to see how he flawlessly performed all of his duties without the ability of sight.
St. Mary's Catholic Church
After Mass and a quick lunch back at the Bourse, we made one last trip to the Independence Visitor Center. The kids turned in their completed Junior Ranger books and received their badges. The Park Ranger spent about 15 minutes talking with them about what they had seen and learned, and he gave them all the Philadelphia historical site trading cards still needed to complete the set.
While Mom hit the gift shop, Dad and the kids played football on the grassy lawn outside the Visitor Center.
We then said goodbye to Philadelphia and drove onward to our nation’s capital. We drove through the states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia all in about three hours. Being able to drive through 5 states in such a short time period is a little strange for people coming from a state the size of Texas.
Year Long Adventure 