Exploring Philadelphia–in history and food!

I’ve wanted to visit Philadelphia for a quite a while, so when our New England tour brought us around this way, I made sure we planned a stop here. 

Our location in Delaware was about 50 miles away, but it actually was quicker & easier drive than our shorter drive to Boston a few weeks ago.  It was an interesting drive into the city – we passed the football, baseball and basketball venues, as well as the airport and a large Navy Shipyard and the Port of Wilmington.

The historical area of Philadelphia is very close the the Delaware River, and we quickly found the parking structure at Independence Square – another $20 day.

I had read online that tickets for the tour of Independence Hall can run out early, so our first stop was the NPS desk at the Visitor Center to get our tour tickets.  Surprisingly, we received tickets for the 11:40am tour – and it was only 11:15 am!  The Ranger directed us to go straight over to the security check across the street to check in for our tour.

The security check is pretty thorough . . . probably the most we’ve seen at a National Park . . . just like going into a Federal building.

We were standing there waiting for our tour with the rest of the group when the guy next to us (20-something) was telling his wife that she needed to distract the tour guide long enough for him to get away from the group and climb to the top of the clock tower so he could find the glasses to decipher the code . . . oh wait, they were supposed to steal the Declaration of Independence first!

We laughed, because that is exactly something that Nicolas would be saying if he were there! (From the first “National Treasure” movie, in case you were wondering.)

We continued to talk to them while we waited for the tour, and they passed on a tip they received from locals for the best Philly Cheesesteak in town.

OK . . . lunch plans solidified!

Our tour started, and we entered Independence Hall.  Seated in front of the painting of the “Signing of the Declaration of Independence”,

we learned about the history of the building that started out as the Pennsylvania State House and was the location of the 1st and 2nd Meetings of the Continental Congress, as well as where both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed.

Following our history lesson, we entered Independence Hall.

The first room we entered was the Supreme Court Room,

and then we moved to the Assembly Room, otherwise known as the Signing Room.

That was the end of our ticketed tour, but we somehow ended up on a tour of Congress Hall with a group of 5th Graders.

Following the end of the Revolutionary War, Philadelphia was our Nation’s capital and the location of our federal government.  On the first floor of Congress Hall was the House Chamber,

and the Senate Chamber was on the 2nd floor.

This is the room where John Adams was inaugurated as the 2nd President of the United States, with George Washington in attendance as a spectator – the first peaceful transfer of power from one leader to another in the history of the world.

With only 13 states at the time of the revolution, and increasing to just 16 by the year 1800, our government quickly outgrew this space and was moved to Washington DC.

With our tour of Independence Hall complete, we had one more thing to see – the Liberty Bell.

By then, we were ready for lunch, so we looked up Jim’s Steaks and Ishkabibble Cheesesteaks – both recommended as top cheesesteaks by locals.  Both locations were in South Philly, about a 1 mile walk from Independence Hall.

Not too far, so we passed on the horse & carriage ride . . . and walked down 6th St. to South St., with plenty of interesting sites along the way.

We passed Trinity Church (also from National Treasure),

and Mother Bethel A.M.E, the first African Methodist Evangelical Church in the United States.

We reached South St., and it was definitely an interesting neighborhood.  Lots of businesses that I didn’t dare take a picture of! 

We found Jim’s Steaks, and it looked like a respectable location – there were plenty of people eating there – so we went in.  We had no idea how or what to order, so one of the regulars recommended the classic authentic – “Whiz wit”.  Translation:  Philly Cheesesteak with cheeze whiz and onions.  Tom with with that, but I played it safe and ordered provolone and light onions on mine.

Both were delicious!

We could definitely see why this place is famous!

Not sure who these guys were, but they were leaving Jim’s as we got there!

Fully stuffed, we continued walking down South St. . . . more interesting businesses, but most of these I could photograph.

The couples we met on our Independence Hall tour showed up at Jim’s right behind us, and afterwards we spotted one of the couples at Iskabibble’s getting another sandwich – they wanted to see how they compared!  I don’t know how they ate another one!

The others were down the block, getting a slice of Lorenzo’s pizza . . . so as if the cheesesteak wasn’t enough, Tom decided he needed a slice of pizza, too!

That was one HUGE slice of pizza – cheese only, no toppings!  I took one bite to see how it tasted (it was good), but that’s all the help I could give him – he was on his own!

Another interesting sign

After all that food, we were glad we walked . . .

Our new friends also told us about the “Oldest residential street in the US”, so we made our way towards that – photo ops!!

On the way, we passed more cute residential areas,

and more old churches and cemeteries.

We made our way back to the area of Independence Square, where we saw the Museum of the American Revolution,

the meeting location of the Continental Congress,

the first Bank of the United States,

and a Quaker Community.

With more history to see, we kept moving . . .

and completely by accident, we found the home of Betsy Ross,

and her grave.

Her home was just around the corner from Elfreth’s Alley – the oldest residential street in the Us, dating back to the 1720s.

It’s a cute little alley . . . with perfectly preserved buildings.

With several miles behind us, we started making our way back to the parking structure.  Our path took us past the burial site of Benjamin Franklin, but we didn’t see his actual grave because we didn’t want to pay $6 each to walk through the cemetery.

Oh well!

I took a picture through the fence, but I have no idea if I got Franklin’s grave!

We were just across the street from the parking garage when we spotted the US Mint,

and Tom said, “Hey, let’s go see if we can take a tour.”

There were self-guided tours, but no photography allowed, so I can’s show you what we saw!  It was a very interesting tour which demonstrated how our coins are designed and manufactured, and included observation windows of the entire mint . . . and added another mile or two to our total for the day!

With that, we were done!  We made our way back to the Jeep and then home.  It was a tiring day, but very fun and interesting!  I think I enjoyed Philly more than I did Boston . . . not a bad “big city” to tour!