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Published: October 7th 2008
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Cheez-it
Cheeze-it, a snack company, displayed this huge handcrafted cheddar cheese to celebrate the 4th of July. It was transferred in a refrigerated truck from Wisconsin. It took us almost a whole day to drive from Bar Harbor to Philly. Mostly because of heavy rain that lasted for a few hours.
There we were where The Declaration of Independence was signed and the U.S. constitution was written in 1776 and 1787 respectively. We slept in a bit and didn't get out to independence hall until around 10 am. It was crowded and seemed to get more and more crowded. We stopped by Independence Visitors Center to ask questions before heading to Independence Hall just a block south from there. We got in line and through the security check point and finally entered Independence Hall area, not the building. That was where we discovered that we really didn't have to see Independence Hall today. It was a very wise idea to not waste our time, probably an hour or more, there. The line inside the gate was just ridiculous. So we walked around a bit and watched the official opening of the event, gospel music, marching band, and a lot of guys in suits walking the flags.
We headed to Penn's Landing by Delaware river. I wanted to see the historic ships, Olympia, and the submarine,
Becuna. It was the first time I went inside a submarine so I was quite excited. Looking back I think Ikea ideas might work well with limited space the submarine, Becuna had. What I wondered most is how many times the crew banged their head into the bed above theirs or something else. That was a tight space to be staying in comfortably. In 1944, Becuna was commissioned to serve as submarine flagship of the Southwest Pacific Fleet. In fought in 5 wars and stopped at the end of WWII.
After the submarine, we walked over to the Olympia, one of America's first steel ships. Upon entering the ship, the hall with wooden floor is right before your eyes. Along both sides of the hall were cabins; some were bigger than others. Larger cabins were for higher ranked officials. We walked through a room that appeared to be either a meeting room or a dining room for high ranked officials. Further from there were also halls on each side of the ship where the crew worked, slept, and played. I couldn't help not to take too many pictures of cracked round windows. Looking through them made me feel as
Photo 3
a check point at Independence Hall. feel as if I were at the airport. if I could look through time back to those days.
From historic ships we walked to Penn's Landing festival pier where ice cream festival was going on. I was kind of interested but again the crowd changed my mind. Instead, we walked back toward Independence Hall looking for something to fill our hungry stomach. Strangely, the area where we were most restaurants closed during mid afternoon and would reopen at around 4 pm. There were maybe 2-3 places open and surely they were packed. We walked back and forth trying to make a decision what we were going to do. Eventually, we settled with one of the 3 and had pretty good caramari that afternoon.
WooW! it was already 5:30 pm and we should get going for the fireworks tonight at Philadelphia Museum of Art. We were planning to catch the purple trolley to the nearest stop to the museum but later we realized that we had walked on the wrong route so we missed the trolley and eventually had to walk to the museum. It was a long walk but I didn't mind because I got to see the city more closely.
We made it to
Photo 4
Long line stretched out to the other end of the field. Yep, we gave up the idea and planned to come back tomorrow, veeeery early. the museum at around 6:30 and got ourselves a decent spot. I tried to take pictures but the crowd got larger and larger that finding a good angle became such a pain or impossible. I later gave up and came back to our spot sitting there watching people. About an hour or so after that the rain started as predicted earlier that day. Luckily it was just light rain and we had tarp so we spread the tarp and used our hands to hold it up. For the whole time that we were there, we rearranged the tarp about 3-4 times to try to make it stay with minimal/no hand holding not to mention another uncountable times we rearranged it to protect ourselves from getting wet. I was somewhat wet and cold and from this point on I was quite miserable and frustrated. Doug kept playing with his mistress and didn't seem bothered by the rain. I pretty much just cuddled inside our little tarp tent. Part of my frustration also came from sucky concert. Why was I staying in the rain, being wet and cold, and listening to less than decent music! Finally, finally the moment Doug had waited
came. Boom! Boom! fireworks(no bombs) I got out of my little shelter to watch the fireworks. It was still raining but people were still standing watching the fireworks celebrating America's 232nd birthday. Happy birthday America.
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