Fourth of July

We drove up to Philly Thursday evening. Despite leaving just after 8pm we encountered traffic delays. We also encountered children delays which led to 4 brief stops. Bohdin told us he needed to pee while we were in line waiting to pay the toll. There really isn't a much worse time to have to pee since we can't pull over. We debated just taking him out of his seat and having him pee in the potty in the car. Since there were only about 5 cars in front of us we decided to wait until getting through the toll when we could stop the car. Bohdin didn't make it. It was an easy and quick cleanup.

Nyla woke up as soon as I parked the car and had a hard time going back to sleep. Bohdin basically slept through the transfer from car to bed. We tried to get an early start on the day. Independence Hall requires free timed tour tickets every day of the year except July 4th so we wanted to get there early before the rush started. I looked at their online reservation ticket system and they had no tickets available through July of 2009 so either the system is broken or tickets are hard to come by. It was kind of fun to see it on July 4th anyway. The hall is actually the Pennsylvania state house so we've now seen 2 colonial state houses. Buddy said he was distracted and didn't hear much of the tour guide's speech. That's the problem with traveling with 2 small children. It was a short tour and we saw the courtroom side and the room where the delagates argued over the wording of the Declaration of Independence and other things. I thought it was neat to see.

The Liberty Bell is in a building across the street. There are signs outside saying there are no public restrooms in the building so of course Bohdin needed one when we went inside. After the previous night's accident we weren't pushing our luck much and took a quick photo as we rushed out of there and to the bathroom. We made it in time but we ran by the front row of chairs that were set up to listen to the mayor speak. Hopefully we didn't bother anyone too much. In the picture below you can see Independence Hall in the background. We didn't want to wait in line to see the bell again. It's just a poorly made bell anyway.

Later that day we went to the ice cream festival. It was a fundraiser for pediatric leukemia and many local ice cream places were involved. They set out samples of ice cream and the local favorite of water ice. Bohdin stuck to the water ice.

 
 
 

After nap time we headed out for dinner at a bar. Bars that serve food are common around here. Buddy really enjoyed his beer and meal. I had a burger and really good fries. Buddy was drenched in ice water that Bohdin accidently spilled on him. When we went outside it had started drizzling. The plan was to go to the Philadelhia Art Museum by bus to catch the concert and fireworks show. Buddy wouldn't believe me that the fireworks were going to start late. We missed our original bus stop and assumed we would see another but never did. We decided to just go back to the hotel and regroup. We ended up just staying in. The fireworks didn't start until 10:45 and it drizzled the whole evening. There is another fireworks show tonight. It's earlier and within walking distance so we'll try for that one.