Our two days in Philadelphia were amazing and exhausting!
There was this old fashioned candy store we went to--way cool!
It was my teammate, Ryan's, birthday and he wanted to go to this museum that had weird medical experiments. Very creepy, but surprisingly, very enjoyable and interesting
U.S. Mint--very disappointing
Meeting some characters from history
It was flag day so outside of Independence Hall they had this really cool flag display
Saw the famouse LOVE statue--a lot smaller than I had pictured, but still cool
Went to a famous cathedral. It was beautiful, but interesting
Got to pretend we were having a confessional--that was fun!
We then went to a Masonic temple...talk about weird...and a little creepy. There were altars like this in every room. I know that's like our temple, but without the spirit there it just felt wrong
They had all these different rooms for who knows what?! My favorite room was this one...the Egyptian room. It was cool!
And I enjoyed finding a hidden Mickey in one of the rooms. At least that was fun! ;-)
They had big pictures of some of the presidents too so it wasn't a total loss.
After we went to the these two places, we learned that the Philadelphia temple was being built just a few buildings away. We, of course, had to go see it. Cool! The story of how this temple was even approved is awesome. Look it up!
Then we walked to the Rocky Statue
and Rocky stairs
I made it!
My group didn't want to go in to see the Liberty Bell, but I talked them into it. I'm so glad I did! This was one of the things I was looking forward to.
The best thing in Philadelphia was our last night there. We went to an after hours presentation on the declaration. We first started by meeting this man named John Dunlop
and he walked us to at the colonial City Tavern that's been around since before the Declaration of Independence. We ate a super yummy dinner.
Made a lot of toasts to independence (and Ryan's birthday)
and then proceeded to walk back to Independence Hall (with a cool photo op along the way)
Where we learned about the courtroom where I got to be the defendant.
Then as we were all talking, we heard voices outside. We walked out into the hall.....
and there was Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin standing before our eyes!
It was incredible to see them discussing parts of the Declaration of Independence like we were really there. It was very awe inspiring!! After this we went back into the signers room and with even more appreciation than before were asked to sing My Country 'Tis of Thee. There were a few tears and lots of goosebumps!! Incredible night!!
We had to stop by Betsy Ross's house
That ended our night in Philadelphia. A night I'll never forget!
The next morning we packed up and headed to Valley Forge.
These are what the huts looked like there.
A soldier ready for photos
Another Washington arch
Went to Washington's home during Valley Forge
This banister is original and Washington's room was up it, so we got to touch the same banister as George Washington!! :-)
This was such an amazing trip! A trip of a lifetime so far! I'm so extremely grateful to the Larry H. Miller Driven to Teach foundation for giving a little teacher like me such an amazing opportunity to learn and then give this knowledge to my students!!
