On The Road

Philthydelphia

When I told Mike I was going to Philly for almost four days he asked me what on earth there is to do in Philly that could take four days to do.  I wasn’t really sure but it turns out there is plenty to do.

On Monday we went and did some of the historical stuff.  We went to Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and other assorted sites in that area.  We tried to go to the U.S. Mint but it closes at 3:00 and we were a bit late for that.

That night Karleigh’s nephew, Lincoln, wanted to play Twister so Karleigh, Lincoln, and Colby (Karleigh’s brother) played twister for a little while which was quite entertaining.  Fun was had by all.

On Tuesday we decided to go to Valley Forge.  First though, it was Lincoln’s first day of pre-school so while he was doing whatever little kids do, we went to visit Trader Joe’s.  I showed Alyssa (Karleigh’s sister-in-law) all of my favorite stuff there and I think she found some new favorites of her own.  After that we went home, dropped all off the goodies, picked up Lincoln and we took off for Valley Forge.

Alyssa borrowed a CD that gave an audio tour so after a quick stop in the visitor center we drove all over Valley Forge which was really pretty cool.  We skipped the twister that night and just watched Colby and Karleigh do a little sibling butt kicking for a bit which was also quite entertaining.

On Wednesday we went to the USS New Jersey.  The USS New Jersey is the largest battleship in U.S. history, the most decorated battleship in U.S. history and the last operating battleship in the U.S. fleet.  It was really cool.

The ship was commissioned one year after Pearl Harbor and it’s final decommission was in 1991.  It actually served off the coast of Lebanon during the whole Beirut fiasco of the late ’80s.  It was also the first U.S. naval vessel to fire a tomahawk cruise missile.

We took the guided ‘Firepower’ tour which took as all over the ship and even into one of the main 16″ gun turrets.  Those things are huge.  If anyone goes to Philly I serious recommend seeing it, it’s really cool and has a ton of history.  The ship is still floating unlike some other naval vessels that become museums which I think is pretty cool.

Since the tour took about two hours, Lincoln was pretty tired after all of the climbing and stuff so we went back to Colby and Alyssa’s place and chilled for a while.  We went to feed the ducks in a stream not far form their apartment and just kinda hung out.  Colby went off that night to work his rounds at the Emergency Room at some downtown hospital and we got ready to leave.

At eight the next morning we said our goodbyes and were dropped off at the airport to head off to Pittsburgh.  Thus ends part two of the East Coast Extravaganza.