Historic Eastern Seaboard Day 15

Today was a trip back in History.  We left for Philadelphia and Independence National Historical Park, where so much of our Colonial, Revolutionary, and Federal-period heritage is preserved.  Americans begain there quest for freedom and independence.  Here, too, the United States was born, and its ideals enacted in the Constitution.
As we drove up to the National Constitution Center.

Right across the street is the United States Mint, wanted to go over and see if they would give us any free samples, but no one would come to the door and let us in.

Our next stop was Liberty Bell Center to see orginal Liberty Bell, and right across the street

This is were the Liberty Bell hung tell it was moved here, this is Independence Hall.  As you can see they are doing some restoration to the building.  We went across the street to the Supreme Court Chambers in Old City Hall.

This is were the Supreme Court argued a lot of the first cases in the new America.

This room is were the first congress of the 13 colonies meet to bring about the laws for the new country.  The chair at the head table was George Washingtons chair during the first few years of congress froming the constitution.

One of the rooms that were used by the Revolutionary Army to plan the attacks agains British.

Our next stop was Independence Hall were the House of Respersentives meet.

The chambers for the House of Respersentives.

The US Senate chambers.

This crest was in the celling of the Senate repersititing the 15 new states with the stars around the eagle.

Next stop was Benjamin Franklin's house and printing shop.

Printing shop.

His first printing press, they could do 1000 sheets a day off of two of these printing press.

This is the first and oldest church in the US.

This Christ Church was modeled after the British Church's, you have to remember that this church was built during the British rule of the colonies.

This was on the wall out side of the church.
From here we loaded back on the bus for a final tour of Philly new town. 

These steps played a big role in a movie that was filmed here in Philly.

Maybe this will help or the next picture will!

Yes, Rocky was filmed here.
We had a great day and so much history we saw.  I just wished I would of payed a little bit better attention in my History classes.

Historic Eastern Seaboard Day 14

Today was a slow start, we were able to sleep end and have a very slow morning to ourselves.  At 12:30 PM we loaded the bus for Valley Forge National Historical Park.  Just a little bit of history about this place.  The name Valley Forge comes from the iron forge built along Valley Creek in the 1740's.  By the time of the American Revolution, a sawmill and gristmill had been added, making this place an important American supply base.  The British burned the forge and other buildings shortly before the Continental Army arrived.
We stopped by the Visitors Center and picked up our guide for the area.  This area was all farm land before the Continental Army arrived.  SO some of this area has trees that were not here in the 1740's.

One thing to remember is that when the Continental Army  was stationed here there were over 20,000 men here.  They never had a encounter with the British all the time they were here.

When the men showed up here it was the end of November and all they had were tents.  They build ed cabins that would hold 12 men and by the end of December they had all finished there cabins.  Washington offered the first platoon to finish there cabin per regiment would receive a $12.00.

This was Washington's Headquarters.

This was the officers office.

The group was were listening to what the solders did while staying here.

Washington's bedroom, wouldn't like to sleep on this bed, looks so nice and soft.

Kitchen area.

The back of Washington's Headquarters and house.

Washington Memorial Chapel

The inside of the church was what it was like back in 1776. 
We enjoyed the short day, and looking forward to the trip to Philadelphia tomorrow seeing all the historic sights.

Historic Eastern Seaboard Days 12 & 13

Today we started a our day at 9:00 AM and we will not be back tell 11:30 PM.  What a busy day we have, with the first stop at Rockefeller Center.  We arrived at about 10:00 AM, and headed to the top of the Rock.

Cyndy even made it up to the top and this is what we got to see.

How would you like to live down town New York and look out over Central Park.  It is about the only green patch here, they have a few other smaller parks but this is the main one.

Empire State building is the center, a lot of concrete in this city and people everywhere.

The view from the Rock is great, it is hard to explain it, but we spent over and hour just walking around and looking at the view.  It is breath taking.  We went down and had lunch and walked around looking at some of the shops here in Rockefeller Center. 

This is a chandelier that is 3 floors high and takes 5 works 8 hours to clean.

we went on a hunt to find the subway so we could see what it looked like, they wanted $2.50 to just go down to the platform to take a picture, so this is the best I could do.

Some of the shops in Rockefeller Center.

Then at 1:00 PM we head to Radio City Music Hall for a Back Stage tour.

We headed inside for the back stage tour.  This theater has been here sense 1932, and is now on the Historic Land Mark.  They have keep it the same as it was back in 1932.

 This is as it was in 1932.

We were not aloud to take any pictures inside of the theater, because of the show that is going on now.

Rocketts gowns

We walked down the street for a short visit of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

These is were they had the memorial for all the firefighters that were killed in 9-11, 10 years after.

These pictures inside the Church shows how beautiful it is.

We have really been busy so far to day and we haven't even got half way done.  Our next stop is Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

These are some of the planes that flew off of the Intrepid.

This was a great display of the USS Intrepid Aircraft Carrier.

We got to spend about 2 hours here looking around and see how this fine ship spent its time making the USA  a free country.
We then loaded the bus went for a short drive to a place were we could change our cloths for the New York Dinner cruise.

Yes we all clean up well.

The city lights up real good at night, we went up the Hudson River to see the city at night.

Our last stop was back down the Hudson.

The Statue Of Liberty at night and she looked beautiful.  We got in late tonight and tomorrow we are heading out on day 13 to Philadelphia West Chester KOA.

It wasn't a bad drive today, 136 miles of mostly freeway driving.  We got to the park and had a potluck meal.  Everyone had a great drive today.