Happy Easter in Philly- Sunday, April 8, 2007

The Easter bunny found us, somehow, and the girls woke up to look for their Easter baskets. We then started again down at Independence Hall, but this time we went prepared. Scott stood in line from about 7:30 to 8:30, so we were the first ones in to get tickets. We left the stroller in the car so it wouldn't have to go through security. And we put pull-ups on Emma. We were ready to go on the first tour at 9:00.

When we got into the Signing Room, it was just about like Scott had pictured it. It's hard to think of a single more important room in American history. Both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed there.

From there, since we had left all our baggage behind to get through security faster, we also went to the Liberty Bell. Anna liked taking pictures there. We then went to the Independence Visitors Center for the gift shop and the movie that is shown there. After seeing that the National Constitution Center was not open until noon, and charged an admission anyway, we decided we were about ready to leave the old part of Philadelphia. We paid our respects at Ben Franklin's grave, and we left.

We then went to Delaware because we wanted to be able to say we had been to Delaware. We had lunch at a McDonald's near Wilmington, and returned to Pennsylvania.

We spent the large part of the afternoon at Valley Forge. After our manditory visit to the visitor's center to pick up a copy of the audio tour (and some souveniers too) we drove around the site of the encampment. The three girls were amazed at the deer that we saw. Without exaggeration, we must have seen fifty in a small area of the park. Of course, Scott had to get out his Revolutionary War uniform again, and took lots of pictures. He could have gone to the Sabres-Flyers game, but decided against it in order to spend time with the family instead. Of course, it was a beautiful day to be out. Although it was cool, the sun was shining.

We then returned to the hotel, ordered pizza, and let Anna swim in what was becoming a very cold pool.

We'll be going to Gettysburg tomorrow, via Lancaster and Amish country. We don't know if it will be as easy to blog there, but we'll try. If we don't check in for a day or two, that's why.