Saturday, 4 November; NJ and Philly

It's really nippy this morning.  They said the weather was going to change and that it was going to get colder and boy is it.  
I worked on the blog for awhile and Rob got all the bikes and stuff together.
We loaded up and drove, headed to the base of the Ben Franklin Bridge NJ.  Along the Freeway outside of Camden, NJ we encountered a gal walking, carrying a gas can.  We pulled over and gave her a ride.  She was in tears.  Her car ran out of gas and she only had a dollar and she was walking to, in her belief, the very worst city in all of New Jersey.  We gave her a ride to a gas station, filled up her gas can and and drove her back to her car.  The poor thing was soooo appreciative. 
We drove on to the bridge. We looked for a place to park, but I pointed out to Rob that Bella would be quite afraid of the ride across the bridge.  She is afraid of heights and of loud trucks and busses.  Based on that we decided to drive across the bridge and find a place to park in Philly.  That was our true destination anyway.  And so we did.

Philly's Historic District is amazing.  I alway love the Historic Districts of towns and this one is right up there with Boston, Lexington & Concord.  Well of course, all the colonial towns make my "amazing" list.

We stopped in first at the Visitor Center to get our bearings.  Then we walked across the street 

to where the Liberty Bell is housed.  There was a huge long line so we decided to mosey on. As we walked by we could see the Bell through the window, so we naturally had to take a picture of it

That is not me in the picture, that is someone inside the building.

We continued walking to the Independence Hall National Park.  We were not allowed to go inside, and were only allowed to walk in the park behind the buildings.

It is a lovely park with all sorts of statues.

We continued walking and went by the 2nd Bank of the United States.  It is also part of the park

Across the street were the Carpenter's House.  There are people in costume giving tours all over the Historic District.

From here we decided to get something to eat.  Rob looked at Yelp and found the Sony's was the most recommended for "Philly steak sandwiches"  When in Rome!  

We found it. The place was packed with a big line out on the sidewalk.  There were a couple tables and some chairs outside.

Rob stood in line and I sat down in one of the chairs with Bella on my lap.  I started chatting with this nice lade who was sitting at a table.  Eventually the people sitting next to her left so I grabbed two of the seats at the table.  She is from Toronto and here sister, from Montreal, was standing in line.   Soon another woman sat across from us and saved a seat for her husband.  They were from Arkansas. She and her husband work for an educational software company and travel.  They were here on a business trip.

Soon the sister, Rob and the Husband all joined us.  So we continued chatting while enjoying our Philly steak sandwiches.  Yum!

We all said our goodbyes and headed off in different directions.  We came upon the Betsy Ross home and Grave.

I liked this fountain with the cats playing

We continued on until we found Elfreth's Alley

one of the courtyard behind the homes

From there we decided to head back and get the bikes that were still chained up at the visitor's center.
We came upon a cemetery where Benjamin Franklin is buried.

His motto was, "a penny saved is a penny earned" so people are tossing pennies onto his grave.

On our way back we came upon a wedding.  We saw the groom's men and the Brides maids running about. As we were waiting to see if we would see the bride she arrived in a lovely carriage.  It was really pretty.

She got out of the carriage and went inside the little building where the Bride's Maids were. We waited around for a bit to see if we would see the procession, but it took to long so we went on.

We got our bikes and rode over to the Philadelphia Art Museum.  The steps leading up to it are famous because Rocky Balboa ran up them in the movie "Rocky.  It is amazing how many people run up them now!  Including, My Dearest Rob!!

It is a beautiful building.

And the view from up there is very pretty.

This statue is amazing! Such detail!

We grabbed our bikes again and headed out down the Schuylkill River.  There is a really nice multi-use trail.

It's sort of like the Charles River in Boston.  People are rowing and sculling on it and there are several Rowing clubs each having their own boathouse/clubhouse.

There were also interesting monuments and sculptures along the way.

We decided it was time to head back to the truck.  It was starting to get late. We rode back though the Benjamin Franklin Parkway which has flags from all Nations and the street names leading off of it are also named after the nations. When we got to Logan Square we stopped to take pictures.

We got to the truck and loaded up the bikes and headed out.  We went to Costco on the way home.  We were tired when we got back to the rig and didn't even feel like unloading the bikes or putting the bike stuff away.  We did unload and put away the groceries.  

We fixed some dinner and watched a movie and went to bed.  It was a wonderful day.