Philadelphia

April 13, 2017

Philadelphia

Saturday- We drove 2 hours in the morning and stopped at the Pittsburgh's Children's Museum. We love this one and had a great time. Then we drove 3 more hours and stopped in Harrisburg and played at their science center. We arrived at our rental around 7:30.

Creation station

fun clay creations

Pittsburgh's children museum

The garage

Pittsburgh Children Museum

Harrisburg build your own car race track

Harrisburg science center

Crazy cool optical illusion

We love all our free museums with our ASTC pass

We made it! We had an awesome 2 bedroom rental in the historic district of Philly.

Sunday- The art museum was celebrating their tea house being 100 years old and admission was free toady so we decided that would be our main focus for the day.

Public Transportation is our way to see a city

They had traditional Japanese dancers to celebrate their Tea House

All 3 kids loved the dancing

The kids made tea bowls and got to take them home for free

Tea house

We of course we had to do the Rocky run up the stairs

Ice cream outside the museum

There was an awesome row of Revolutionary War statues outside the museum. Layfatte

Van gough's sunflowers

Monet's waterlilly bridge

The armory was pretty cool

Hanging out at the rental

Monday - Today was a big day. In the morning we started off with a tour of the first hospital in America. Then we saw Washington Square, the liberty bell, and toured Independence Hall. We did a picnic lunch and headed back to the rental. After Westin's we went to the seaport museum which included a tour of a 2 navy vessels. We then had dinner at the City Tavern.

First hospital 3 blocks from our rental

A cast made from a pregnant woman who died in child birth

Infected salivary gland

Surgical instruments from colonial times

First surgical amphitheater

Jesus healing the sick

Logo on the out side of the hospital; The Good Samaritan.

Washington Monument

Liberty Bell

Collecting historical figure trading cards

First Junior Ranger badge at the Independance Visitor center

Independence Hall

Where the declaration of independence and constitution was signed

Rising sun chair

First house of representative

Aboard the USS Becuna

Where the loaded the torpedo

Submarine fun

Aboard the USS Olympia, she is the oldest steel warship afloat in the world

Hanging around in the ship

Another great freebee from our ASTC membership

Both of these ships were apart of the Independence Seaport Museum.

Awesome experience. Many of the founding fathers ate together here.

Not only did we get to eat Thomas Jefferson's favorite bread recipe but they had coloring sheets for the kids.

We loved the traditional clothes the staffers wore.

Tuesday- We explored the Franklin Institute, Natural Science Museum, Chinatown, and Franklin Square today.

We spent the majority of the day at the Franklin Institute

Climbing structure to simulate how messages travel through the brain

The kids love the giant heart that you could walk through

This was our favorite. A real cow eye dissection performed by a doctor. We listened to him for more than 1/2. My kids were fascinated and learned a ton.

Looking at how animals hearts are different sizes.

Westin LOVED the train exhibit

He cried when we made him leave the trains.

Flight exhibit was pretty cool too.

Another great freebie with our ATSC pass

The natural science museum was really close so we stopped in to check it out. Digging for fossils here.

We didn't stay long at this one.

Glad this one was free too we didn't see the whole museum but in general the kids were not to impressed with this one.

Street sculptures outside the art school

Chinatown

Proud of my little chopstick user

Bubble tea!

Franklin Square

This was Caiden's favorite part of the trip

Yep he beat me. I loved the put put coarse. Caiden could name all the mini landmarks. It was like a little history review.

Wednesday- We spent the whole day at Valley forge

Heading in to the visitor center to get another junior ranger badge

Checking out the artifacts found at Valley Forge

Feeling how heavy the guns were that the soldiers carried.

The kids loved all the rock formations in the park

The kids liked playing on the fortifications

playing in the model log cabins

They built 2,000 log cabins in 1 month!

Revolutionary war monument

George Washington's living quarters

Valley Forge was about 45 minutes outside of the city but totally worth the drive. The kids loved it and learned a lot.

My awesome parents and my lovely Aunt. This park was right behind our rental and when we were too tiered to go back into the city it was the perfect option.