The last time I was in Philadelphia was March 2019 when Wendy and I cleaned out Maurice's apartment a few days after we were stunned with the news that he had passed away suddenly. The last time my kids were in Philadelphia was November 2019 when we spent the day with Maurice not knowing at the time that it would be the last time the four of us would see him here on earth. In 2020 I had made plans for us to attend an educational program on the Battleship New Jersey, but it was cancelled. I've also had it in the back of my mind for a few years to come to Philadelphia on a Constitution Day so that we could attend the National Constitution Center for free and also visit two small National Park sites in the city that are only open on the weekend. Earlier this year we couldn't have come to Philadelphia because of the vaccine mandates that were in place. I assumed that it would be an emotional experience for me to return. I knew I wasn't ready to visit the Penn Museum yet, although I wish we had gone there in November 2018 with Maurice. The only time I cried during our two days in Philly was when we walked past the Museum of the American Revolution as that was one of the places we toured with Maurice.
We left our house a little after 7am on Friday. Our first stop was the National Constitution Center. We then walked to Betsy Ross's House and the Fireman's Hall Museum. The first and third stops were free. They had a variety of programs going on at the Constitution Center including birthday cake. We attended one show titled Freedom Rising. We walked between those three sites, but then we got in our van and drove to the Eastern State Penitentiary. Thankfully they had free (parallel) parking around the site as we had already paid $24 to use a parking garage in the morning. At Betsy Ross's house I paid $2 extra per person so that we could have an audio tour. At the penitentiary, the audio tour was automatically included. I had considered arranging it so we could attend a guided tour, but the tours are only offered on Saturdays and Sundays. In the end I chose to sign up for a guided tour at the Battleship New Jersey on Saturday instead because they don't have an audio tour there. I think this was the right call as it turned out there were some shorter guided tours called "hands-on history" at the penitentiary. We participated in two of them.
I had selected a pizza place for dinner that night. We ended up driving toward the Franklin Institute and randomly picked another pizza place. This was a mistake! I had researched the price of the pizza at the place I had chosen ahead of time. We sat down at Pizzaria Vetri without asking to see the menu. The pizza was the type we were accustomed to eating in Europe, which was a first for the kids. The downside was that it was much smaller and a lot more expensive. Normally sharing a large pizza is the cheapest way for the five of us to eat dinner at a restaurant if we don't use a gift card. That wasn't true at this place. We then walked to Franklin Institute for the Harry Potter Exhibition. This stop was the kids' favorite. We walked to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. We saw the statue of Rocky outside the museum, but we never made it in the museum because the employees were on strike. I was very, very disappointed. On Fridays the museum is open later than usual, and admission is by donation during that time. I had made a donation online the previous day as they are utilizing timed admission. The museum was still open, but we would have had to cross the picket line to enter the museum. This probably means the kids will never visit that art museum unless they visit as adults in the future. Paul and I were unable to visit the British Museum in 2002 because they were on strike the day we attempted to go there. We're hoping to visit the British Museum for the first time in 2025.
When we spent one night in Philadelphia in the spring of 2018, we utilized the (paid) parking at the hotel and hoofed it around the city. This time our paid parking at the hotel was only used for our night at the hotel. We paid $97 just for parking over the two days and that was with utilizing parking on the street some of the time (which cost from $1.50 to $2.50 per hour). This is just one of MANY reasons Paul and I have zero desire to ever live in a city. We're also not big fans of the traffic.
For quite a while the plan had been to spend time at the Franklin Institute on Saturday morning as we can go there for free with our ASTC membership. A couple of days before we left, we decided to visit the Philadelphia Zoo instead. It was the very first zoo in the United States. We had taken Ian and Nadia there when they were very young. Oliver had never been. Because of our zoo membership we got in for 50% off. The kids would have liked to feed the giraffes again, but since we had paid for that experience at another zoo last month, we didn't do that again. The kids really enjoyed the primates who were swinging all over the place. Having a tiger walk over our heads was also a unique experience. At the zoos we visited in June and August the petting zoo portion was closed due to COVID, but it was open at this zoo. Although they also would have enjoyed the Franklin Institute, I'm glad we chose the zoo as it was the kids' second favorite experience from our getaway. We would have spent more than 2 hours at the zoo, but we had to drive to Camden for our guided tour of the Battleship New Jersey. After that we visited two small National Park sites. The first one was about Thaddeus Kosciusko. The first task was to learn how to say his name! That is the smallest site of all the 400+ National Park sites. The kids earned two Junior Ranger badges - one there and another at Edgar Allen Poe's home. We used a gift card for dinner at TGI Fridays. I don't plan on getting gift cards for that restaurant again any time soon because first of all the prices were rather steep and secondly the music was VERY loud (headache inspiring!). After dinner we drove home, which made Milo very happy.
I am thankful that Paul was able to take those days off of work to join us and that we were able to spend two days in Philly. I don't anticipate us returning there for the foreseeable future unless we go with the group from our church that ministers to the homeless/drug addicts near Kensington Place a few times a year. The next day at church the sermon was on Revelation 3:7-13 which is about the church of Philadelphia (in what is now Turkey). A couple of days before we went on the trip, we had been talking about the meanings of some of the different Greek words for "love" in history. I know Maurice is much better off where he is now, but I miss him very much!
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