Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love

Since Brooklynn planned a visit to see her friend in Indianan,  John and I decided to hit the road too. The road we hit was in Pennsylvania...Philadelphia to be exact. Why Philly? To walk in the footsteps of our Country's Founding Fathers! We stayed in the center of town so we almost, quite literally, walked John's feet off! (He was on crutches for a couple of days after we got home.)

This airplane is a sculpture outside of the University of the Arts. The town is FULL of sculptures and murals. The mural story is that when anyone is caught doing graffiti, they have the choice of going to jail or of helping paint a gigantic mural. We hardly saw any graffiti, lots of homeless, but not graffiti.

Our first stop was to see the Liberty Bell and to go to Independence Hall, where the signing of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence took place. I felt a definite patriotic feeling in Independence Hall. I am so grateful for our free country and the men who framed our government. It is awe-inspiring when you really think about what they did...created a government with checks and balances that has lasted over 200 years and has been a standard of excellence to all nations! 

 The Liberty Bell hung in the belfry of Independence Hall (left) until the crack became too big and was taken down for repair. When it wasn't able to be repaired successfully, it became a symbol throughout the USA and world of freedom. It toured the country and people from everywhere would come just to get to touch it. Other countries too, would ask that it be rung on special occasions.

 These are a couple of the different characters wandering the site of Independence Hall in the 90% humidity!

 Behind John is Ben Franklin's resting place (Died in 1790) in this ancient cemetery where 5 other signers of the Declaration of Independence are also buried. The earliest grave marker reads 1723! Many headstones are too old to read.

 Philly has a China Town where this bridge, The Friendship Bridge, is built as a gift from the Chinese.  It has no nails and was put together lika a giant jigsaw puzzle. It weighs many tons. Our gift to them was a replica of The Liberty Bell.

We stayed at the Residence Inn which happened to be right across from the City Hall. This totally amazing place took 30 years to build back in the 1700's and has the tallest statue of a person on a building in the world. (William Penn-the city planner) 

 This is the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, the largest Catholic Cathedral in the city. Further below are some of the pictures of the inside. It looks a little spooky to me, but it is beautiful inside and it is very old!

 Notice that there is no flag on this post office? That is because it is the oldest post office in America and was built before the flag was made! It is still in use today!

 Here is the room where the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution were signed. It is replicated exactly as it was in the 1700's. The chair at the front table is THE chair that George Washington presided over the meetings in. (Not a copy) Everything else in the room are replicas. This is a hallowed place.

 This is the original design of the flag made by Betsy Ross. We toured her home and learned that she was quite brave to dare stitch a symbol of the rebellious citizens of England. If she had been caught, and she could have been with so many English soldiers patrolling the streets, she would have been put to death for treason.

 The people back then were taxed according to the width of their homes so instead of building out, they built up. Betsy's home had two rooms per floor, with four floors and VERY steep staircases!






In the Franklin Museum (below) were hundreds of displays and activities that showed all kinds of advances in science, machines, our bodies, transportation, space...In the picture below a boy is riding a 'sky bike.'  It rolled on a wire high above the museum's three floors.

 A HUGE highlight of the trip was getting to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit which just happened to be at the Franklin Museum for a limited time. To see artifacts that date back to way before Christ was fascinating! We were not allowed to take pictures of the actual scrolls, but the one I found most interesting was the one called "The Book of Abraham". It's language sounded exactly like our book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price! The scrolls were found in 1947 by a Bedouin who happened upon a cave and threw a rock into it. He heard pottery breaking so he went to explore and found many jars all with scrolls rolled up inside. He didn't think anything about them so he tried to sell them to a 'pawn broker' type of guy in Egypt. (I think it was Egypt.) That guy contacted someone who had an idea of what a treasure they were and from there, they have been handled with extreme care, stored in cases at the perfect temperature and translated from Hebrew so that we, everyday people, get to witness what 2000 year old scriptures look like in their purest form. I just had a thought...we also get to witness, touch, ponder, carry, 2000 year old scriptures with us and have them in our homes! Everyday we can have the privilege of reading the words of prophets who speak to us from the grave, trying to give us tools to enable us to live happier lives. I am grateful for the scriptures and try not to take them for granted. I love the specific blessings that come when I am reading with pure intent. Those blessings are many and priceless!

 This is inside the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. I had never seen with my own eyes the confession booths! (They are exactly like we see in the movies!) And here I saw what times you might want to confess!

 Just gorgeous!

We toured the Philadelphia Mint.  Did you know that when coins were first made back in the 1793, it took a month to make a eleven thousand of them.? Now look what they can do! It is quite a process!

George and Martha Washington donated some of their own silver utensils to make the first coins in the Philadelphia Mint.

 This is a well-known park called LOVE park. It was laid out and planned by the actor, Kevin Bacon's father. He rode a skateboard through the park when he was 82 years old just to spite the city regulations that skateboarding in the park is against the law.
Did you know the game "Monopoly" was based on the city of Philadelphia! The Reading Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad are two of the game cards based on this city.

 This is another view of City Hall. It is such a cool building!

 This is one view from our balcony on the 21st floor. The buildings seem to be right on top of each other!

 We took some time to see the Masonic Temple and although we didn't get to take a tour because we needed to get to the airport, we got to see the museum. Masons are men (No women allowed) who want to make the world a better place. Many of our country's presidents were Masons up until the 1950's or so. The Prophet Joseph Smith was a Mason. This piece of wood is from George Washington's original casket. In his will he asked that his sepulcher and casket be rebuilt out of stone. When we visited Mount Vernon last April, we saw his first sepulcher that was wooden and still standing. We also saw his stone one.

This is a replica "the breastplate of Aaron" as described in the book of Exodus. If you enlarge the picture you will see what stone each tribe of Israel represented.

There you have a small part of your history lesson of the greatest land on earth!

May I just say, please get out and vote for a president who will uphold our Constitution and respect our rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness!