Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell & Dinner with Friends [Philadelphia]

Time for the last vacation post! After our visit to the Franklin Park Zoo, we hopped in the car and got on the road to Philadelphia. I visited Philadelphia when I was 14 and I loved it. It's a city full of massive amounts of history and I wanted to take KBug to see just some bits and pieces of it. She has a love for historical places, so I thought it would be a lot of fun for her!

We got to Philadelphia at a little after 1 in the morning, checked into our hotel and crashed for the night. All of us were ridiculously tired!

The next morning we all woke up, showered, dressed and enjoyed a quick breakfast at the hotel. Mr. Boston loved our hotel room and decided he wanted picture proof that we had stayed there. So I have random pictures of our hotel room. He's a little weird, but I love him!

 

Anyways. Once we were all ready to go, we headed out! We had reserved our tickets for a tour of Independence Hall in advance, so all we had to do was drive into the city, find a parking garage and make our way to the Independence Visitor Center. It took some doing, but we eventually made it, found the ticket pick-up and set out to our tour. I got distracted by the gift shop on the way, though, and took some time to purchase a few new books for KBug!

We made it through security quickly and had about 15 minutes to wait. We took a few pictures, did some people watching and enjoyed the sunshine!

 

After a short wait, we stepped in line to begin our tour. KBug was really ready to get it going and couldn't hardly stand still. It was great to see her so excited about our nations history! We made our way into the room where they introduce the tour and tell you a little bit about the history of Independence Hall. After our short introduction, we were led into the hall to continue our history lesson.

 

 

By the end of the tour, KBug was ready for me to stop taking pictures of her. But I told her she was out of luck because I love taking pictures of her! So she relented and continued to let me snap away!

 

After the Independence Hall, we walked back across the street to tour the Liberty Bell Center. The Liberty Bell was my favorite part of visiting Philadelphia and I couldn't wait to go back and spend some time reading about it's history and the repairs that were made when the damage occurred. Unfortunately KBug wasn't as interested in reading her way, though, so I had to speed read, but I managed.

 

 

Once we reached the end of the Liberty Bell Center, KBug dragged Mr. Boston and I outside. She had seen an opportunity for a ride on a horse and carriage and she didn't want to leave Philadelphia without taking a ride. It was our last day of vacation and Mr. Boston and I were a bit weary of walking after everything we'd done over the last week that we easily agreed. So up in the carriage we went to enjoy a ride through Independence National Historical Park.

 

 

At the end of the carriage ride, we decided it was time to head back to the hotel. We had dinner plans with a few of my friends that evening and we all needed some rest and relaxation. So back we went. A few hours later we headed out to the Cheesecake Factory down the road to enjoy a nice evening with some fabulous people!

 

I've known my friend M since the day I moved to NC. He was literally the first person I met upon arriving. And he's been my friend ever since. When he started dating his wife, L, I was so excited for him. He was so happy and life was going wonderfully for them! Since then they've gotten married and had a beautiful baby, M Jr. It was great when they lived here because L has a daughter, too, and KC is only a couple of years older than KBug. So we were always able to get together and have some peaceful conversation while the girls were off playing. Win! Anyways. They moved away earlier this year and I've really missed them, so it was really awesome to see them again!

 

 

And that was our day in Philadelphia! We went back to the hotel that night, watched Tarzan (I told you all I wanted to watch it...), ran three loads of laundry and collapsed. After all of our vacation adventures we were pretty dead on our feet. But we had a long trip ahead of us the following morning and we couldn't wait to get back home!

Franklin Park Zoo [Boston]

If you've just started reading about our vacation, don't start here. Go back to the beginning and read them in order. Trust me, it will all be better in the end if you read from the start. And if you're behind, don't worry. You can catch up pretty quickly. Just follow the links below.

Day 1: Museum of Science

Day 2: Children's Museum

Day 3: 4th of July

Day 4: Canoe River Campground

Day 5: New England Aquarium

 

Alright, now I can talk about our last day in Boston, our last morning at the campground, and our visit to the Franklin Park Zoo. The morning started off slow. We woke up pretty early in the morning, but our entire site was in disarray. It had been late when we got back the night before and there was no packing happening after such a long day. Plus it was dark and I didn't want to pack with a flashlight.

 

That morning they were having a French Toast breakfast at the campground. It was quick and easy, so we headed out to meet some new friends for breakfast and to let KBug and their daughter play on the playground for a little while. The girls had a blast, and didn't want to leave when we told them it was time to go. V literally stood there while we walked away and didn't join us until we were almost out of sight. She and KBug were fast friends and it was adorable watching them play, but heartbreaking watching them say goodbye and give each other hugs.

 

 

After our long goodbyes, we wandered back to our campsite. Mr. Boston and I set out packing our belongings, breaking down the tent and being creative in putting everything back in the car. It was interesting and annoying, but we managed to get it all in and we set off for the zoo!

 

Again, I was smart. I checked ahead of time and we were able to get into the zoo for half price because of our membership at the NC Aquariums down here. Awesome? I think so! We made our way in and decided our first stop couldn't be anything other than a bathroom. So off we went. We managed to find one pretty close to the entrance and went on from there.

 

The first few exhibits we saw were pretty boring. The gorillas were all sleeping. How dare they be sleeping when we come to see them! We asked a member of the zoo staff if they would be awake at any point and they explained that they were sleeping in preparation for their lunch. We were told that they would likely be awake in an hour or so after they had been fed. We were also informed that the majority of the animals in that particular area would be sleeping and decided we would walk through, but then come back again later.

 

 

 

We continued on through the exhibits, seeing all that we could see. When we came around to the zebras and giraffes, one of Mr. Boston's step brothers joined us! He recently spent some time in the hospital and was in some pain, but he really wanted to see Mr. Boston and meet KBug and I so he joined us for the day. KBug was more than willing to slow down a bit for him and I thought it was really sweet of her to be so understanding.

 

 

 

We kept wandering around, going through the "Franklin Park Farm" and checking out the amazing playground they have in the middle of the zoo. Seriously, that park was awesome! I almost climbed up to play with KBug, but decided against it. She was off having fun and I didn't want to intrude on her good time.

 

After a couple of hours we made it through the entire zoo, and even remembered to go back to see if the gorillas were awake. I was so excited because we made it around to their exhibit and I was able to get some really great pictures of them! Plus I love seeing the gorillas... And I really wanted to watch Tarzan...

 

 

Now, most zoos and parks and such have gift shops at the entrances. This one was in the middle. So once we made it all the way back to the entrance, we had to walk all the way back to the middle for the gift shop. Honestly, I didn't have a problem with it because I'd spent our vacation locating AR books for KBug and I wanted to see if I could find another one. So KBug and I headed to the gift shop while Mr. Boston and his brother headed for the car as they were both in pain from the amount of walking we had done.

 

KBug and I had a successful visit to the gift shop. She was able to find a small toy and I found another AR book! Go me! I think that was the best part of our vacation for me. I love finding books that will challenge her.

 

Once we made it back to the car we said our goodbyes to Mr. Boston's brother. We also said our goodbyes to Boston. And with that we were on our way to our next adventure in Philadelphia!