Philadelphia!
As usual we're making our current location an educational experience and trying to see it all! This time we took advantage of a three day weekend to visit Philadelphia. Bug in particular was excited about just passing through the edge of NYC on our way there and getting to spot the skyscrapers and drive across a double-decker bridge. Once in Philly we occupied a hotel room on the 24 floor with a view down Benjamin Franklin Parkway to the art museum--so cool! In addition to visiting with some friends, here are the sights we managed to see during those three days:

Liberty Bell & Independence Hall
The girls and I have been studying Pennsylvania colonial history and its place in the Revolutionary War, so getting to actually see these places was pretty neat. We also stepped into the west wing of Independence Hall to see an original print of the Declaration of Independence, the inkwell used to sign it the hand written original, and several original drafts of the Constitution.

In the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed.
(Monkey is having a good time, I promise. She just didn't want to be in the picture.)

Benjamin Franklin Museum
Down the street from Independence Hall was this fun museum with interactive displays about Benjamin Franklin's life and inventions. Highlights: virtual typesetting and printing press demonstration, a trivia game/puzzle, an exhibit about Franklin's experiments with electricity (including a replica of a hand-cranked machine to generate and store static electricity), a glass armonica demonstration, and a reproduction of Franklin's sedan chair (photo at right).

Reading Terminal Market
The sights! The smells! The sounds! The crowds of people! The introverts among us were overwhelmed and breathed a sigh of relief when we left, but we all agreed: The food was awesome and definitely worth braving the lunch crowd for.

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Someday the girls will understand
why this is a fun picture. Showing
them the clip of Rocky running
up the stairs doesn't do it justice.

We spent several hours at the Museum of Art and took in a lot more of the exhibits than I expected--these girls can race through a museum at an incredible rate! (Please note: this wasn't a rush to get it over with--they just couldn't wait to see everything!) Plus, this is an art museum that includes a lot more than your typical "art"; it has an armory (think knights in armor, not modern soldiers), a reconstructed Japanese tea house, a medieval Spanish courtyard, ancient arches and doorways from all over the world, and American furniture from all eras. Of course, we went through the traditional galleries of American and European paintings too. We discussed Medieval and Renaissance triptychs and the symbolism in religious art (i.e., Mary is usually painted wearing blue, Jesus usually has a halo); the difference between a landscape, a portrait, and a still life; noticing the subtleties of the differences in style between artists (this came up with the Impressionists--telling Monet, from Renoir, from Van Gogh). Though Daddy and I probably would have skipped it, Monkey really wanted to see the contemporary art exhibit, and obviously we obliged. She and her sisters had fun picking out which paintings they thought they could duplicate, but Monkey's favorites were definitely Picasso's Cubism paintings.

Pat's and Gino's
Dinner was a Philly classic: cheesesteak from Pat's and Gino's (technically, I think we were at Gino's). The girls agreed--totally worth waiting in line in the cold for!

Valley Forge
Winter weather threatened to ruin our plans for the next day, but things cleared up enough by late morning that we were able to see a few friends and visit Valley Forge anyway (sadly much of the park was closed, but we got to see the highlights). On the upside, we got a very authentic perspective on life in the encampment that winter! After watching a video about the Continental soldiers experience here, we perused the small museum (lots of good daily life artifacts to examine--cooking, weapons, entertainment, medical treatment, etc.), then drove out to see the redoubts (and discuss why they would have been effective had the British ever arrived) and the reconstructed cabins (very small, very dark, but probably reasonably warm with a fire going and 12 men packed inside). At Bug's request we also drove to see the Memorial Arch (at the very end of the passable roads).

Discussing the redoubts with Daddy from the top of them.

Trying out the bunks in one of the cabins.
Bug: "This would not be very comfortable!"

The Crossing of the Delaware
The day we drove home we visited the site of Washington's crossing of the Delaware. We were very disappointed to find the museums closed on both sides of the river, but Daddy and I remembered enough of the story plus information on outdoor signs to make it a worthwhile stop. We also got to peak into the windows of a few Colonial era homes (usually manned by historical reenactors). The girls thought Washington's plan to sneak up on the Hessians on Christmas under the cover of dark and by an unexpected route was pretty clever.