Trip to Philadelphia

Be sure to read Sara's Blog. She did an excellent job of telling everything we did while we were there. But I want to show some of the pictures that Dad and I both took. When you look at the pictures you will have no idea that Sara was running a fever, could hardly swallow, and felt like she had been run over by a truck! When it comes to sightseeing, we just keep going!

On Saturday we went into Philly for the Italian Street Festival. It was great fun!



They were selling all kinds of things!



These were the strangest looking cakes---a wedding cake, no less. They looked like they were melting!


Sara didn't like the taste of the coconut milk--but it looked like a fun thing to try!



On Monday, we went to Longwood Gardens, which were part of the DuPont estate. It was incredibly beautiful and huge. Dad insisted that I have a cart to ride in, and I was so glad. It was really quite cold.


John and Jackie as we're starting our day at Longwood Gardens. The flowers were beautiful. They were in the process of digging up the tulip gardens, because the leaves turn brown after they are done blooming. They dig them up and mulch them, and replant new bulbs each year. One of the workers said they spend about five 10 hour days in the fall planting bulbs!



We had lots of fun taking pictures as each area had different flowers.




They even had a beautiful topiary garden.




They had a conservatory was I think they said was the largest in the United States, or some such thing. In one corner was a children's garden.



Some of the flowers inside other parts of the conservatory





The next day we drove around Valley Forge---in the pouring rain!
This was Washington's headquarters.



Wednesday we spent driving to Plymouth, which took about 6 1/2 hours. We stayed in a really nice B & B that Sara has pictures of on her Blog. Thurs. was spent walking around Boston. We discovered that many school groups were having field trips that week, and some of the things we had planned on seeing up close didn't happen because a couple of bus loads got there before we did!


We stopped at Quincy Market for lunch, and it was SWARMING with kids!
We only got to see the outside of Paul Revere's house.



We walked the Freedom Trail from Quincy Market, past Paul Revere's home,
and up to the Old North Church.



From there we went to see Old Iron Sides, the oldest commissioned ship in the US Navy. It was in the War of 1812. It was amazing!



The cannons were kept on the floor under the top deck, and the sailors slept on the floor under that, in hammocks, which they had to find in the dark, since there were no port holes down there. That level was also used for the sick-bay. They had about 400 sailors on that ship. When the cannons fired, they would kick back 6 to 8 feet. You can imagine that most of them had hearing loss.


That incredible looking thing in the middle is a bridge there in Boston.



Here we are at the end of our day in Boston, waiting for the subway to take us back to Plymouth.



Here is the replica of the Mayflower. They aren't positive about the dimensions, and there isn't anything authentic from the original Mayflower because it was dismantled and the wood used for other things. But it's beautiful to look at!



This is all we could see of Plymouth Rock. I'm sure it's in there somewhere! Long time ago they used to have a hammer by the rock so people could break off a piece to take with them!



Friday we drove down the coast to Cape Cod, and then on to New York City to say at the Ritz Hotel with Isaac's brother. Saturday we spent walking around New York. We had to go into Tiffany's to see all the diamonds!



There was a mime putting on a great show.



They were going to have a swimming race in the harbor, and these were the people there to help, but they called it off because the swells were too rough.



At the end of the day we finally took a taxi back to the hotel. Actually, we tried to take the subway, but partway back they announced they were going to stop at the next station, and we'd have to get off. That's when we took the taxi, and wondered why we didn't take it sooner!




We got back to Philly on Saturday night, and put Sara to bed. She always managed to have a good smile for the pictures, but she was really sick, and stayed in bed until we left of Tuesday afternoon. And then the next day Isaac started getting sick! Even so, it was wonderful to be with Sara and Isaac again!