Philadelphia to NYC - Keels go to Canada day 8

Remember when I said I had to dry the clothes three times? Well they were still not all dry so we had clothes laying out all over the room to dry as we slept... You do what you gotta do, they all ended up dry eventually.We had a pretty good system for packing and doing laundry on the road, I'll share more about that in a future post. Hint: mom does not do all the work.

The kids thoroughly enjoyed this hotel. We used the pull out bed from the couch, which is where PR and Sarah slept. The little extra couch area where you see Abby in the striped shirt, that was "her bed", she claimed it since it was just the right size.

Our first stop was to see the Liberty Bell. The line was not terribly long and even though the area where the picture above was taken is blocked off, the ranger moved the gate so we could take a picture there.

 

As I saw this display and saw the picture of Chief Little Bear standing next to the Liberty Bell, I wondered how exactly he felt. I wouldn't imagine the bell meant the same to him as it does to us.

After getting our picture with the Liberty Bell, we headed to the Thomas Jefferson House, the site where he wrote the Declaration of Independence

 

 

Paul thought it odd that there would be a dentist right next to Dairy Queen, then thought it was actually pretty smart. 

 We did end up eating at that Dairy Queen, we all got chili dogs, blizzards and chips. Chloe even enjoyed the chili dog.

 

Independence Hall was our last stop.  We did have to reserve our tour spot when we got to the visitors center that morning, it was really easy and best of all, free. 

  

It was surreal to imagine we were standing in the courtyard area where the Declaration of Independence was read for the very first time in public.

 

Do you know which bill Independence Hall is on? 

 

Our tour guide was great once again! It was so neat to be in the very room that the Declaration of Independence was signed. The chair in the back is the only original piece of furniture. Ask the kids about the decoration on top of the chair and if it is a sunrise or a sunset.

Still plenty of pictures to take after the tour.

Guess who found that book?

As we were leaving the visitors center to head out to our next location, NYC, we stopped at a table where the kids could use and old pen and ink to write their names. They enjoyed it quite a lot, even though it was a little bit of a struggle. Time to head out!

To say we were in shock with the sizes of the buildings in NYC is an understatement. We were staring in awe the whole time. We drove over the Brooklyn Bridge, Paul wanted us to walk it the next day, but I was find just driving over it.

After eating we walked and could see the World Trade Center, so beautiful at night!

 Now lets talk  about our hotel room for that night. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express - Wall Street. Basically this happy party of 6 stayed in a closet that night. We were on the 14th floor and there were only about 5 rooms per floor. Tiny.

 

Check out the video of the small room, and Abigails shout out to Branson. 
Neither Paul nor I slept all that well that night. This was a new place for both of us, and the 14th floor was not high enough to not hear all the road noise. The motorcycle revving their engine at midnight, sirens at 2am... and don't get me started on those crazy taxi drivers. I now know the inspiration for the game Crazy Taxi, my now former favorite arcade game.