After a detour (all over Pennsylvania) we finally made it to our main destination for the day - Valley Forge. "Welcome to Shanghri La"...
Our 16 miles "scenic route: (we missed the exit) took us to another brown National Historic Site sign to the Hopewell Furnaces. Very well done site about the making of charcoal and iron works - pots, pans, stoves and Revolutionary War Cannons and the communities that set up to operated the "furnaces". Two thumbs up on this one!
Franklin Institute has the Star Trek Exhibit there for the summer - very well worth a trip to Philadelphia. This is an illegal picture with a bad disposable camera of the bridge of New Generation "Make it so number one!"
Joel love the Railroad exhibit at Franklin Institute. This 60000 train is a one and only of its kind. It was de-commissioned due to being so heavy that it damaged track and its coal and steam systems were too difficult to maintain. The museum has cool pictures of how they took out part of the wall to put the train in the basement of the museum in the 1920's. This could not have been an easy task...
Franklin Institute is a hands on science museum. The kids loved all the activities. Look at the screen in front and you will see the kids playing soccer for the fans. They are soccer super stars!
There are not enough sculptures of big birds. It is a Raven - at Edgar Allen Poe's home. He only lived here for about a year. It is in a rough area of Philly now - but worth the trip - just don't walk there from downtown, even though it is not that far (even if you have become a tough New Yorker).
It would not be Philly without Rocky. Dagny's 4th grade teacher is a huge Rocky fan, so Dagny had to get this picture for Mr. Schifano - who ran up the stairs in the ice for his Rocky version to prepare for the State Math tests. Funny tidbit - this statue was moved from the top of the steps to the bottom right of them, because it is not considered "art" to be on the property of the Art Institute, which is the building at the top of the steps.
Even a flabby 40 year old can run the "Rocky" steps - it is only 70 steps (Silvester Stallone only climbed the last 3 steps - he needed a body double for the other 67 steps - really?)
Day two of "wading/swimming" in a fountain. Good thing there are a lot of fountains in Philly and it was a warm weekend when we were there. Both days they returned to the hotel soaking wet. This is the Swan fountain in front of the Franklin Institute - when they were still dry - they did climb up in the center of the fountain behind them.
In front of the Franklin Institute - not to be confused with the Art Institute (Rocky Stairs) - Philly loved their columns! The banner behind us is for the summer Galileo exhibit. This is the first time ever many of the pieces have been outside of Italy - including a telescope he built. Amazing exhibit - another must see - Everyone visit Philly this summer! NYC is close too so you can visit us too...
Visiting our Quaker roots. Go mighty Bruins. The kids were excited to see the writings about a familiar name in the church - George Fox. Joel and Gwen's Alma Matre.
"A penny saved is a penny earned." -Benjamin Franklin
It is said to be good luck to through a penny on Franklin's grave. The church where the grave site is makes $3,000-$4,000 every year on these penny's. The girls and Gwen through their penny's - Joel "saved" his. We will see who is lucky and who is rich (either way we all win).
Their were several Peacocks - showing off. This one was quite close to us.
The zoo had an amazing exhibit on Madagascar. We learned a lot about lemurs, fooza, and elephant bird eggs.
