A little slice of American History….Philadelphia –The Cradle of Liberty

After breakfast and negotiating the first morning with 5 in the motorhome, we got into our routine. Jean and Gordon, sleeping on what we called “The High Altar of Love” (instead of sleeping on the inflatable mattress on the floor, we had to put the mattress on top of the extended sofa). While the view was lovely—window level, the drop off the side would be catastrophic. They got the coffee going in the morning, Chloe managed to sleep in until 7 AM and then she’d give them the greeting of a lifetime every morning…thrilled to have 2 more adults paying attention to her.

The day was a bit cloudy and not exactly hot so we decided to make the trip to Philadelphia and do the obligatory American history tour along with a trolley tour of the city. While a visit to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall may be a thrill for the patriot from the Midwest, we were trying to be sensitive to the needs of our holidaying Brits and minimize the lessons on American history. We didn’t make them sit through the multiple videos in the Visitor’s Center, but did sign them up for the guided tour of Independence Hall.

We made a side visit to see the Liberty Bell before starting the short tour. The group on our tour was very white and mostly old (lots of WWII vets and their wives). Jean and Gordon did a yeoman’s job of feigning interest in the rooms in Independence Hall.

We heard the story of this “the birthplace of America”- built in 1732 as the Pennsylvania State House. Within the hall, the Second Continental Congress met in May 1775, and The Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776.

It’s also where the Constitutional Convention met to draft, debate and then sign The United States Constitution on September 17, 1787. Not exactly a grabber for the Brits, but as always they were real troopers.

We finished the tour and jumped on the City Trolley for a double decker view of Philly.

We got to the center of the city- seeing the interesting architecture of City Hall (as we waited in the Philly traffic) – before getting off at the Reading Terminal Market.

What an amazing place—aisles and aisles of food stands. We hit it right at noon and it was packed with the lunch time business crowd.

John grabbed a table while Jean and Gordon stood in line for the DiNic’s Roast Pork Sandwich-a huge sandwich of roasted pork, provolone cheese and greens.

I raced over to Salumenia for a classic Italian hoagie. Before we waddled back to the bus, we managed to try an Amish hot pretzel and buy some chocolate covered expresso beans. Just making sure we were covering all the food groups.

The bus took us from central Philly, past the Love Fountain in the center of the city to the outskirts of town, past the famous “Rocky Steps” and the countless Philly museums and through the colonial city back to the Visitors Center.

On the way home, we stopped by the ShopRite and picked up fixings for dinner. With Chef Gordon in town, we wouldn’t have to bother with going out to get great, gourmet food. Jean and I, with wine in hand, took on the sous chef role, helping with the chopping while Gordon prepared the chicken for the grill. Our campground was perfect—a firepit, gas grill and our own personal hot tub. The first attempt at starting a fire was a challenge. We had more smoke than fire and our neighbor decided to rescue us with a supply of dry bark to get a real fire going. Wine, great food, a smokin’ fire let to the first of our drunken hot tub parties.

We got back into the coach to find that we had been infested with flies—they were everywhere and Gordon went from Chef Gordon to the Great White Fly Hunter. Armed with John’s fly gun, he must have brought down at least 30 of them, losing all of our rubber bands in the process.

Gordon- The Great White Fly Hunter (Note the angle of the slider room on the right side!)