From June 4 –
From the Liberty Bell Center we walked a few blocks over to the US Mint where many of the coins in circulation today are made. Several school field trips were there (schools in the area didn’t get out until late June!) so there was a pretty lengthy line to get in. Once we went through security we were able to see coins being made and also learn a lot about how money is made. However, the Mint doesn’t allow photography so we weren’t able to take any pictures inside.
Nearby was Benjamin Franklin’s grave so we walked by that as we headed back to our side of the city.
Lilli is learning a lot about Benjamin Franklin this year in Social Studies so she was excited to share these pictures with her class.
And his grave area.
We walked back a slightly different way than we’d came and looked for places to have lunch. Chinatown was so bright and vibrant and looked really authentic. We didn’t figure the girls would enjoy an authentic Chinese lunch so we kept walking.
We stopped at a really neat Market that was bustling with all kinds of tourist and local office workers enjoying lunch. It had dozens and dozens of restaurants and shops so we were all able to pick what we each wanted to eat.
And before we left we all got some delicious Whoopie Pies from a dessert stand for the walk back.
When we got back to our hotel we headed straight to the Franklin Institute right beside our hotel. With our local Adventure Science membership we got in for free to the main museum. It was huge and we only had a couple of hours left to visit so we didn’t pay for the extra exhibits. It was really a very fabulous museum with so much to do, definitely one of the best we visited on this trip.
Lilli with Ben.
There were so many areas for the kids to explore and enjoy all sort of science, math, body learning, and really anything you wanted to learn about. It was all very hands on and even though there were several field trips there we had plenty of space and could easily explore everything.
The girls could run and play and explore and really could have spent the entire day there easily.
Of course Abbi loved the airplane you could “fly”.
And plenty of things to climb and explore.
We stayed until the museum closed (our standard mode of operation….) and the girls had been dying to swim so I took them down to the indoor pool. They had it all to themselves and they loved splashing around.
For dinner we walked across the bridge to a different side of Philly and enjoyed a really delicious taco shop. It was in a cute up and coming area full of people walking home for the night, walking their dogs and eating outside.
Afterwards we got the girls some ice cream and we got some coffee. We wanted to walk back up the main road and Lilli was so excited to see the Ethiopia flag for the girl we sponsor through World Vision.
On our walk we wanted to stop by and see “The Thinker”, one of the most famous statues made by Rodin outside the Rodin Museum. The girls were happy to pose and maybe one day they’ll be excited to remember they saw one of the most famous sculptures made.
The Thinker, enjoying a sunset.
The fountain at night, so pretty.
At the end of the day – we’d walked some steps! I had gotten a little over two miles that morning on the treadmill, but we were really impressed that Abbi had walked nearly nine miles for the day!
Adventures of Two Monkeys 