6-27-22 Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, Franklin Court and Philadelphia Museum of Art

After breakfast this morning, we walked down to Independence Hall for our tour.  The tour guide was great!  He had a booming voice and a wonderful story to tell.  We all enjoyed the tour.  We visited two rooms of the hall, but the most interesting was the hall where the Declaration of Independence was written and signed.  The pic of the chair shows where George Washington sat.

We then walked across the street to see the liberty bell again.  There were not nearly as many people visiting this morning so we had plenty of space in which to read all of the information about the bell.  The second picture is of a human bell made up of soldiers from Fort Dix.

We then walked down the block and took a guided tour of the Ben Franklin printing press and home.  

The house is no longer there as the grandchildren had it torn down due to its deterioration over the years.  They instead put up steel beams to simulate where the house stood.  This guide was also very good, but she didn't have the projection the last guide had.  She gave us a brief history of Ben from politics through retirement.  It was all very interesting.  Our walk with her ended up back at Independence Hall.  An interesting fact is that Ben aged, he had arthritis and gout so had to be carried from his house to Independence Hall in a sedan chair by the local prisoners from the jail.  When the tour ended, we walked across the street and had lunch at The Red Owl Tavern.  Dave had fish and chips, Nathaniel had a marinated watermelon salad and I had a Caesar salad.  

We pointed Dave in the right direction to get back home for his nap while Nathaniel and I hopped on a Phlash Bus to go the the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  I followed Nathaniel's lead and we spent a bit of time with the Impressionists.  The first pic is by Camille Pisarro, then Nathaniel standing in front of a Renoir, a set of nested tables, a pic by Henri Cross using pointillism, and the final pic in this group is a Picasso - "Man with Guitar".

 We then moved on the modern and ultra-modern art.  The photos are as follows: a bird sculpture and kiss by Constantin Brancusi, and two cubism paintings by Theo van Doesburg.

We walked around the outside of the museum to reach the Rocky Steps.  Nathaniel ran up to the top and I took his picture while I was at the bottom of the steps.  He is the white dot in the top middle of the shot.  I then walked up to take some closer pics of him.

It was starting to rain a bit so we walked to the bus stop, but two busses went by without stopping for us so we called an Uber to take us home.  We relaxed for a short while and then walked to dinner.  We decided that tonight was Philly Cheesesteak night.  We had asked one of the guards at the museum where to go and she directed us to Ishkabibble"s.  We fell in love with the name (literal translation is "I should worry") so walked the two blocks to get our dinner.  It was great!  So now I have had two of them and I think that should be enough for a lifetime.  I could hear my arteries clogging as I ate!  Dave wisely got a flounder hoagie.  As we were finishing dinner the skies opened up and the rain pounded down.  Fortunately we had taken umbrellas with us so as soon as it let up a little we started home.  By the time we got there however, our shoes were soaked at the crosswalks were afloat in several places.  Our shoes are stuffed with paper towels for the night so we should be good for tomorrow.  Nathaniel wants to play pinochle after his shower so we will see how that goes.