Philadelphia - The Liberty Bell

This is the second post about our time at Independence National Historic Park:

http://www.nps.gov/inde/index.htm

There are three basic sections, though you could break them down further.

With something as iconic as the Liberty Bell that is still relatively small, it would be easy to just file past it, think "Yep, that's a bell", and move on. The park makes that a better experience.

First of all you start with the foundation of the President's House. When the government was still based in Philadelphia and Washington DC was under construction, George Washington lived here. Although the building has been gone for years, the foundations were discovered and it is set up so that you can get a glimpse of the archaeological dig, with information about that.

You can then follow walls that are set up to give a sense of continuity between the two, which also hold many placards with information about the bell. This includes not just its early history, but people who have come to see it, tours it has taken, and even when there was an April Fool's joke that Taco Bell was buying it and changing the name.

This way, once you get to the bell you have a context and appreciation for it, and you still may not spend that long looking at it, but you may feel more about it. It was excellently done.

The third part is still my favorite though. We'll cover that next week.

Philadelphia - Independence National Historic Park, Visitors Center

There is a lot to the park itself, so I am going to break it down into three sections, starting with the easiest, with the visitors center.

It was an important part of our tour. We started the day with one full bus tour around the city, and by then we were hungry and thirsty - especially thirsty. Later on when we got to the tour (part 3), we were talking with some of the park rangers, and they referred to the TV series "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and told us that actually it's always humid in Philadelphia. I'm sure it can't always be as hot and humid as it was while we were there, but it was pretty bad. Hydration was very important.

One thing I want to stress is that all of the employees there were wonderful. Many of them were park rangers, and some were not, but all of them were friendly and helpful.

Our first stop was to get some food and drink and the visitors center is the only place in the park for that, though you are in the middle of a city with many options.

There are also options for selfies. You can take your picture with Rocky or the Philly Phanatic, for whom they have statues, but as everyone was getting excited about the Pope's visit, there was also a cardboard cutout of him.

We were especially grateful for the air condition, but there was also an arbor with some shade and a statue that seemed to me like a reference to the statue in Love Park, but it might not have been. Philadelphia is still the City of Brotherly Love, so any references to love can stand on their own.

The gift shop was also there. There were some really cool things, including Ben Franklin dolls that had attached kites with keys, and were wearing cute little glasses, but they were very expensive.

One thing that was interesting was that in connection with the Pope's visit they had many rosaries available, and I believe some Catholic themed books. In addition they had some posters up for observances at local churches. Without having been at the visitors center at any other time, I suspect this means that they keep in touch with things going on in the community and respond to that.

I value that, but this picture is primarily because I thought St. John Neumann looked so much like Martin Sheen.

We also took advantage of their theaters to watch two movies: Independence and Choosing Sides: Young Voices of the Revolution.

I have seen some great movies at national parks, especially Pearl Harbor. I didn't like these as much. Independence seemed a little stodgy, and Choosing Sides seemed to be trying a little too hard to appeal to the young people. My interest grew when I saw that the young Quakeress was being portrayed by Kristen Bell, but what really amazed me was how much I hated Mireille Enos' character. She was playing a Tory, so it was probably that.

If you are in Philadelphia, you absolutely should visit Independence National Historic Park, and the visitors center can be a good part of that visit.

You may love it.

http://www.nps.gov/inde/index.htm

Philadelphia - Cinema Philadelphia

In planning our trip to Philadelphia, I was only thinking of historical locations, not movie locations.

I did know that Rocky was filmed there, and there were the steps, and that there would be nothing more touristy that you could do than run up the steps and jump around, but that was all I had in mind.

There was a lot more.

We learned that the Eastern State Penitentiary has been used as a filming location often. I don't seem to have seen any movies shot there, but I have seen the music video for Tina Turner's "We Don't Need Another Hero". You can't really tell it's there - they just needed someplace big and dark - but since then I have watched "Punk Rock Girl" by The Dead Kennedy's, and you can totally see that.

Actually, that is a very Philadelphia video and song. We did not stop at the Hard Rock Cafe, so I do not have photographs of memorabilia of Philadelphia groups like Hall & Oates and Boyz II Men, so I will probably not do a post on Philadelphia music and I feel bad about that now.

The bus tour let us know about other films too. We passed by the house where the birthday party in The Sixth Sense was filmed, and the Wells Fargo Building that stood in for Duke and Duke in Trading Places.

(I know. I was on a moving vehicle and my camera kept dying.)

I liked both of these movies, but I had not strongly associated them with Philadelphia. I think I was just never familiar enough with it before.

Having been there now, I believe it will be different. I saw some news footage recently and without hearing where it was I recognized (correctly) City Hall right away.

But the coolest movie location for us was one my sisters knew about already. They started talking about Mannequin while we were en route, and I had not known that at all, so I looked it up, and there was an address, 1313 Chestnut Street, that was right by our hotel.

Prince & Company was basically Wanamakers (now a Macy's but still in the Wanamaker Building), and our hotel was next to it. Actually, in this video about filming locations for Mannequin, you can see our hotel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la7sIrNo8Sw&feature=youtu.be&list=UUjU-Cwjfqbo2hMRItlXwnnQ

This was very cool to me, but looking around it became kind of sad. The windows don't have those cool displays any more, for the most part. We only found one with actual mannequins in it, and they had no heads. Stairways are closed off. I get that people could fall, but then the balconies become dumping grounds for boxes, when there could probably still be some cool displays set up.

The one legacy that they do still honor is the Wanamaker Organ, which is important historically, is huge, and which still has regular concerts. That is probably only because they have a society of friends of the organ keeping it going:

http://www.wanamakerorgan.com/

It feels like there are some lost opportunities there. I feel pretty comfortable blaming Macy's.

I'm still glad I got to see it.

Philadelphia - Big Bus Tours

http://eng.bigbustours.com/philadelphia/home.html

In a heavy tourist city there may often be multiple tours, and it can be somewhat confusing.

We ended up with the Big Bus company, and that was mainly because it came with our City Pass.  That is nonetheless a combination that I recommend, and we were happy with it.

There were two points of confusion, which aren't necessarily horrible. One was finding the right bus. We requested a hotel pickup, which they do via a shuttle van. We got in the van, and they picked up some others, and then we were directed to different buses at the departure point. Was it that we got on a van that was coming for someone else? There could be many shuttle vans going around at a time. Was it that the different bus companies share a shuttle service? Not impossible. I really don't know.

The other thing that was confusing was that looking at the list of stops the number kept changing. I think some of the numbers were 22, 23 and 27, but I was never sure. There could be several reasons for this.

One is that some stops may be seasonal or for certain times of day. Construction in preparation for the Pope's visit made some stops unavailable too, though that would probably not affect the literature.

Another possibility is that there are stops and there are attractions, but some stops have multiple attractions. The main starting point is right by Independence National Historic Park. Not only is that an attraction by itself, but you can divide it into multiple attractions. Independence Hall itself is part of a tour of three buildings, there is also the Liberty Bell, including the site of the first presidential home, and the visitors center.

Also, on one round of the bus tour there seemed to be another stop nearby for the Betsy Ross house, Christchurch Cemetery, and Elfreth Alley, but that did not seem to be available when we wanted to go there, so we walked to all three from that main stop, and it was not that far. In the process we also passed by an old Quaker meeting house and Girard Fountain Park, and we had walked to the Lyle exhibit from there. Also, I believe we were quite near the Philadelphia Mint there.

One point of this is that Philadelphia is pretty walkable, but also there is a lot packed closely together. The tour bus will pass near some things multiple times from different sides as they try to show you everything. This can be handy as you can walk from one stop past various attractions and then board again at a different stop, which can be wonderful for time and efficiency as long as you keep your bearings.

I have said this about other cities too, but again, taking that tour first thing, so you get a chance to see where the things are that you know you want to see, but also to learn about things you didn't know about, is always a smart move.

Philadelphia - Lyle at the National Museum of American Jewish History

We had our set itinerary of things to do in Philadelphia, but we did not expect to find this:

There were sections of the sidewalk with little crocodile feet everywhere.

Traveling with a kindergarten teacher may let you know that these are the feet of Lyle Lyle Crocodile. It may also make it necessary to find out why they are there. Fortunately the internet makes this easy. There was an exhibit of the art of Bernard Waber at the National Museum of American Jewish History.

http://www.nmajh.org/pastexhibitions.aspx

We were spending more time in Philadelphia than any other stop, but it was because there was so much to do. Could we make time for this additional stop? It seemed more possible when at the main check-in point for our bus tour, we found more footprints and banners.

 The museum was right in the area that we were going to be at at least twice a day. Still, we had a lot to see.

We ended up going in just to ask, and they were near closing time, but the staff was very friendly and helpful.

Many museums have the gift shop located before the entrance, so that you can go in and spend money without paying the admission. That was not the case here, where you do have to pass the admission desk and security before you can get to the store. However, given the lateness of the hour, and their kindness, they let us through to the gift shop, which allowed us to at least see the merchandise and pick up information, because they were also helpful in advising how to find out if the exhibit would be coming near us, or possibly to request a visit here if it wasn't. (Portland has both a children's museum and a Jewish museum - either would be a natural fit.)

We did not see the exhibit, but having talked to various staff I feel like there is a great level of customer orientation. In addition, the lure of the crocodile prints and the signage and everything that they did to ensure that visitors with no idea about the museum or the exhibit would not be capable of missing that the exhibit was happening also makes me think that they are good at what they do.

If I make it to Philadelphia again, that will be a stop.

http://www.nmajh.org/

Philadelphia - City Hall

http://www.visitphilly.com/history/philadelphia/city-hall/

We really lucked out with our hotel in Philadelphia. The staff of the Philadelphia Marriott Residence Inn was excellent and they had the best complimentary breakfast buffet we have ever attended.

Location was also helpful. Although our cab driver had a little bit of trouble finding it at first, once we were there we found that we were really close to many of the attractions, and we were just kitty-corner from City Hall, which was really convenient for navigation.

City Hall is easy to spot from many places. For a long time there was an informal agreement in place that nothing could be taller than William Penn's hat. That helps City Hall stand out. For those times when you can't spot it, pretty much everyone knows which direction it is in.

On our first day we wanted to keep things pretty easy, so we grabbed some lunch and took it into courtyard to eat. There were some tables and shade there.

There is also a lot to look at just around the building. It was built in the Second Empire style which has a strong baroque influence, which is especially noticeable walking around the outside.

Inside there is sculpture everywhere you look. There are 250 sculptures total, all designed by Alexander Milne Calder.

(I wondered if that was the mobile artist, but this is his grandfather. However, grandfather, father, and son, all have art featured prominently around Philadelphia.)

Our path to and from each day's adventure tended to lead through City Hall, so it was a big part of our time in Philadelphia, and seemed like a good place to start.

Ground transportation in non-Philadelphia Pennsylvania

There were a few reasons that we chose the hotel we did for Langhorne, but two big ones were that it was close to the park and also had a park shuttle.

We did appreciate the fact that they got into the local spirit by decorating the lobby with Sesame Street characters as well, and that is how we get our pictures for the day.

I want to focus a little more on the transportation aspects, and this becomes an issue for other areas in Pennsylvania. In Langhorne, Easton, and Hershey, at check in were were always asked for information on our car, not whether or not we had a car. The car was just assumed, which did not happen in Philadelphia or Minneapolis.

This made more sense as we began to observe how much these places were not designed for pedestrians.

Since Langhorne was our first destination, we noticed it first there. As we got into town we started looking around to get our bearings, and I saw that the only foot route between our hotel and the park was either via the highway overpass, which did not have great shoulders and sidewalks, or under the overpass along the train tracks, which somehow seemed even more dangerous.

There is a mall and a bus system, and apparently people will often park at the mall and bus to the park, but even if you are local you will probably not walk to the park.

We arrived late one night, and there was nowhere easy to get to, so we used the hotel sundries store, which meant basically cups of soup or oatmeal. Based on that, learning that there was not a free breakfast buffet was even more disappointing. Eating in the park was okay, and then the next night we ordered in, which was not great.

I'll get more into the other towns when we get to them, but as a general rule, shuttles are important, and cars are important. If the hotel has a shuttle but you don't have a car, plan ahead for meals and other needs.

They just aren't planning on you walking.

Sesame Place - Food and Souvenirs

The food was pretty standard for theme parks at Sesame Place. There were cookies at Cookie's Cafe that weren't at other places, but you could see that the Cookie Monster cupcakes at Cookie's Cafe and the Rubber Duckie cupcakes at Captain Ernie's Bistro were essentially the same things. Children's meals could come on cute Elmo or Cookie Monster plates.

Prices were about standard. One thing I noticed is that the annual membership prices seemed very reasonable. If you live nearby, season passes to a water park could very well be a reasonable investment. That being said, parking is quite expensive (I believe it was $38 for the day, with a discount to $17 for handicapped parking), and Langhorne is not walkable, which I will write about more next week.

Souvenirs are more expensive, but the have some adorable ones.

Just walking into the store there si all this cute, bright, colorful plush everywhere.

There is a good variety of popular characters, and they rotate in less popular characters on a regular basis. While we were there the classic character was Herry Monster.

There is an online store, and the site refers to mail-order also, but this may not show everything. Julie became aware of a Two-Headed Monster Plush through the Sesame Place Facebook page, where the order occurred via an e-mail contact. If there is someone you are hoping for and don't see, it doesn't hurt to ask.

http://shop.sesameplace.com/

https://www.facebook.com/SesamePlace/

There were non plush items as well, most of which did not interest me, except for some T-shirts.

You may also notice that the Sesame Place site features different store names now, and some things are missing. This is their seasonal retooling. It looks like the water attractions are shut down, which makes sense. I was not expecting the addition of stocking stuffers, but that's cool:

http://sesameplace.com/en/langhorne/shop/oscars-stocking-stuffers/

Obviously, my sisters focus more on plush, and looking at this little guy sticking out of the bag, I can't blame them.

Have a sunny day!

(They don't have to say that, but it's one of their options. The better, more into it employees tend to use that one. It is not like Disneyland where you have uniformity of cheerfulness.)