Day Ten!

We checked out of our hotel in the late morning, stowing our luggage for the day there so we could stay and do some more sightseeing. Philadelphia is a very historical place, yet it is easily do-able in just a couple of days. We did even use any public transportation while we were in town. We just walked to everything and it was perfect.



After a wonderful repeat visit to Reading Terminal Market for breakfast, we headed for what is known as Independence National Historical Park. This includes some of the historical attractions such as Liberty Bell Center and Independence Hall. Since we saw the Liberty Bell on our first day in town, we headed to Independence Hall for our free 12:00 tour. It was so interesting! The hall was built in the mid 1700’s as the State House of the province of Pennsylvania. Talk about getting goosebumps to be standing in the very same room where George Washington was appointed Commander in Chief of the Continental Army in 1775 as well as the place that the American Flag was agreed upon, where the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation were adopted, and last but not least, where the Constitution was drafted in 1787. They still have the actual chair that George himself sat in. Outside in the plaza was where the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence was held.


Independence Hall - think National Treasure 1




Inside Independence Hall- there's George's chair in between the fireplaces.


If that wasn’t enough, we then visited Congress Hall, where the first ever passing of presidential power was exchanged – from George Washington to John Adams. The Senate and House of Representatives met here and the First Bank and U.S. Mint were also established here. This building served as the U.S. Capitol from 1790-1800 (Bit of trivia: Pennsylvania was the 2nd U.S. Capitol. It was appointed to be the Capitol for 10 years while D.C. was readied. New York was the 1st Capitol.) We had a superb and very articulate park ranger describe these events. Because she did such a great job, I found myself visualizing our first two presidents in the room, standing where she pointed, making that historic change of power. Totally cool.


I'm entering a little museum; on left is Congress Hall



Up this staircase to the place where the Senate and House once met


One of the meeting rooms upstairs



The place the ranger is standing is where George Washington handed off the presidency to John Adams


We now had a few hours at our disposal for touring some of the other attractions in town. Among some of the interesting places we visited were:

Betsy Ross House (her residence and burial place) – kind of funny to have Betsy Ross’ house on one side of the street, and a Starbucks on the other side!


Betsy Ross House (above and below pics)




Ben Franklin's Grave Even in death, the man is quite savvy. You can go see his grave, at Christ Church, for a fee of $2 each! Sorry, but dead Ben Franklin wasn’t worth eight bucks to us. But we did send Emma in (she was still kid price - $1) and commissioned her to go get a picture and take a look. She came back laughing – right where his grave is, they have removed the brick wall and put in steel bars for viewing from the outside! At least we weren’t TOTAL suckers, anyways!





I don't know why people throw coins on his grave. You already have to pay to get in!



Incidentally, wasn't it Ben Franklin who said "a penny saved is a penny earned" ?

Elfreth's Alley
This alley was built in 1702 and was simply a row of attached houses. Still owner occupied, it is one of the oldest continuously occupied housing in the country. I tried to peek in people’s windows.


















The Second Bank of the U.S. Portrait Gallery
When we walked into this magnificent building, a ranger asked us if we had any questions. At the same time, Rich and I both blurted out, “Where’s the 1st bank?” (And I thought I was the only pop-off of the family.) This building, that was once the 2nd bank of the U.S. is now converted into a wonderful art gallery, filled with actual paintings done in the 1700’s of many famous people such as George Washington, many other presidents as well as some signers of the Declaration of Independence. It is stunning that these paintings still exist in such good shape. Most of them were done by one artist, Charles Willson Peale.


Second Bank of the U.S.


Actual painting of George Washington from 1700s


Tasting Philadelphia’s Famous Pretzels
We had to be sure we found an authentic Philly soft pretzel before leaving the city. We walked quite a bit only to find a dumpy shop with one guy inside, selling pretzels. They were smaller in size than what we are used to having, but had five pretzels attached together. We had difficulty in finding out how much they cost. It was hard to believe that THREE of the stuck together pretzel “rows” sold for $1.50. We thought it had to be THREE pretzels (broken off the row) for $1.50. But the guy insisted it was the former, so no argument there. We plunked down $1.50 for more than enough pretzels for all of us (and several cheese sauces for $.50 each, I guess that’s where they get you.). The shop had no indoor seating whatsoever, so we found a little place outside to sit and eat. After one bite, we were all rather unimpressed (think cold SuperPretzel), but Drew tasted it and exclaimed, “Man, if I were a kid walking home from school, I’d stop here every day!!!” But then again, that boy has a passion for all things ‘white bread’. We all did agree that Auntie Anne’s, though they cost $3.50 for only one, is much, much better.





Sorry, but we are definitely not voting for Hillary!

Hillary and Obama were in town for a debate that evening, so people were out publicizing. Did I mention that Drew's only souvenir from Washington D.C. was a "Hillary for President" t-shirt? (as a joke of course.) So, Drew was happy to obtain an Obama sticker here in Philly to go with it.

Here are just some more pics of Philly that I liked.










































Cat lovers that we are, we had to go inside this animal shelter and visit.




Well, with tired feet we headed back to the hotel to pick up our car and luggage. We had a great dinner spot all picked out that would be on our way back to NY. You guessed it – from Guy Fieri’s show. This is the website that convinced Rich we had to go to this place called Mastoris (be sure to scroll down and look at the food pics). Upon arrival we found ourselves in a quite large restaurant with a huge menu. You have got to click that menu link and see it! I think Drew counted the menu items and there were 280! I knew after all this vacation food, I needed a salad, and believe it or not I think they had only three salad choices on that huge menu.


Shot of the back side and cool sign


Looks more like a public library than a diner!


Insanely huge menu...

So when you sit down, they plunk down a bread plate with what really should be called danish, not bread. These little mini loaves are made with danish-type dough; one was filled with a sweetened cream cheese, the other a cinnamon-sugar filling. YUM!!! They truly were more like dessert. In hindsight, I should have just ordered a cup of coffee, had one of these rolls, and called it a day! But, instead, I was the recipient of the world’s largest Cobb salad! Seriously, it was bigger than a salad I would make for my entire family! It had a whole quartered avocado, a quartered large tomatoe, a few hard boiled eggs, a least a couple large sliced chicken breasts. tons of bacon, blue cheese and fresh corn, along with a gargantuan pile of lettuce greens! My goodness. I ate and ate as much as I could and 90% of it still seemed to remain. Rich ordered a burger, Emma had the Caesar salad with crab cakes (really yummy) and Drew had this nacho thing that was over the top. Again, way too much food. But, very good food it was. If you’re ever in the New Jersey area, you have to check it out.



These rolls are evil!


Beautiful (but way too big) Cobb Salad


Have a little blue cheese with your burger!

After dinner, we began our trek back to New York, where we had one more night before flying home. Rich was to begin a 2 day business meeting, so the kids and I planned to fly home without him the next day, while he stayed one more night. It was really fun to drive back to New York at night – Emma got the cool picture of the skyline below from our moving car.




Well, that is it! Thanks to all of you who traveled along with us on our trip through this blog. I hope you had a nice time! I look forward to getting back to every-day type blogging soon.

Day Nine!

Today we headed out for a full day visiting Gettysburg National Military Park. As I'm sure you know, Gettysburg was the location of one of the most significant battles in the Civil War. In 1864, steps began to preserve the historic battlefield as a memorial to those who fought there. In 1895, the property was transferred to the Federal Government and Gettysburg National Military Park was established. I didn't know much about this place, or the Civil War for that matter. However, I can still recite a portion of The Gettysburg Address from grammar school days ("Four score and seven years ago...), but I never put that much thought to it's significance at that age! So, I was excited to get to visit this important site.

It took about 2 ½ hours to get there – well, perhaps a little longer than that because "Ursula" (our nickname for the GPS lady) took us on a very interesting route! It was kind of like “over the hills and through the woods..." Anyways, it was a beautiful drive through rural Pennsylvania so we didn’t mind the time on the road.

We were quite fortunate to visit Gettysburg when we did. Just THE DAY BEFORE, the National Park Service opened a brand new, huge $125 million dollar Visitor's Center! What timing, huh? It was very large and beautiful and totally Smithsonian quality. There was a wonderful movie, to help even the most pathetic history student (read: me) understand the Civil War. There were artifacts galore from the Civil War including guns, clothing, furniture, journals, etc. And there was also a large and very nice bookstore/gift shop. We had gotten a superb tip from our friends, Gene and Brenda, about utilizing a CD to guide us as we drove through the battlefields. We were able to purchase that at the gift shop there, and it guided us through 18 or so stops along the way. At each stop you are able to listen to what took place on that site, and learn interesting information about the battles and the people involved.



Brand new visitor center



So new, the landscape wasn't in yet (unless this is it?)



We had lunch at the cafeteria - pretty good fare.


Fireplace in cafeteria that we dined in front of


Our tour of he battlefield took a couple of hours, but we got out a few times to look around and take some pictures. There are many beautiful monuments and vast views of green fields, landscape, and old houses. There was even a barn still standing that had a hole in it where a cannon ball went through! (see photo) It was fascinating to learn more about the Civil War, and I tell you nothing makes history come alive more than actually being where it happened. Visiting Gettysburg is highly recommended.


Civil War cannon



View from high point

One of many statues

What a lot of the battlefield looks like

Wishing I lived here! I love this pic.

Barn with cannon ball hole (in brick part)

Nice b&w shot

Pennyslvania state monument -humongous!

Well, Gettysburg took most of the day, and we were now ready for dinner and to make the trek back to Philly. We were delighted to spot a Cracker Barrel restaurant right off the freeway not too far from Gettysburg. Have y’all been to a Cracker Barrel? You gotta say “y’all” because there is a large concentration of Cracker Barrels in the south. Rich and I went to one for the first time in Nashville, Tennessee many years ago, and our kids stopped at one on the way to church summer camp in Albuquerque. It’s just a great family kind of place. It’s got cute country décor, a great gift shop, and inexpensive home cookin’. They might just have the BEST biscuits on the face of this earth. And their fried apples are to die for as well. They have a huge menu and everything is comforting and homey. We were happy campers!

You know you're at Cracker Barrel when you see the rockers...

I drove the rest of the way back to Philly while Rich slept. He told me to drive for an hour on a certain highway and then wake him up, and to ignore anything "Ursula" said to do in the meantime! I really enjoyed the drive. Everyone is so much calmer on the road than in L.A. and the sights are all new. Plus, I was really digging the Ford Explorer we rented! There was a point when I was driving when there was literally NO other cars on the freeway with me. Well, we finally got back to Philly after a full and wonderful day and conked out! Only one more day to go before heading back to New York...

Day eight!

It was now Monday and time to bid the Big Apple farewell - well, for a few days anyhow. We loaded up our rental car with our many pieces of luggage, and headed for Philadelphia. On the way was a scheduled breakfast stop at The Brownstone Diner in Jersey City, New Jersey. This is a restaurant that we saw featured on Guy Fieri’s show, Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. It was fun to drive through New York city and into New Jersey. We even passed my dad's birthplace of Elizabeth, NJ. For some reason, I get a kick out of driving across state lines. But for Rich the thrill was knowing he was on his way to one of Guy's diners.



Well, the restaurant was the bomb! Thirty or so different pancakes were on the menu, but my husband has to invent his own (he wanted chocolate chips and coconut – and they were happy to oblige.) It was tough, but I settled on the pecan-chocolate chip pancakes, while Emma indulged in the Black Forest pancakes (chocolate chips, cherry pie filling, whipped cream). Drew ordered plain old bacon and eggs (Why? Here was his big chance to get "white flour" pancakes, something not often served at home. Oh well.). We just loved this place and the food, but the only regret was that Emma, Rich and I just didn’t share ONE order of pancakes! Each person had three giant pancakes –just too much food!

We rolled into Philly in the early afternoon. It is about a 2-3 hour drive from NYC. We dropped off our luggage (our room wasn’t ready yet) and embarked on foot to the historical part of town. There we saw the Liberty Bell and gathered some information for some more time in town Wednesday. Seeing the Liberty Bell in person was way cool!

The Liberty Bell - not the prettiest thing!

We also meandered wide-eyed through Reading Terminal Market. Inside an old train terminal is this public market, which was established in Philly in 1892. When William Penn designed Philadelphia in the 17th century, one of the first actions he took was to herd farmers, fishers, hunters, etc. together into an outdoor market. In the 1800’s these markets grew quite large and later thought to be “health hazards and nuisances,” and were moved indoors. When created, Reading Terminal Market was 78,000 square feet in size, with 800 merchant spaces of 6 feet each. After many years of reconstruction, the market today is home to about 80 merchants, most of them various culinary delights. 100,000 people pass through the market each week! It is such a fascinating place with jewelry/crafts, a produce market, fresh flowers, lots of amazing baked goods, candy galore, super quality fresh meat and fish for sale, gift-y items, every ethnic food you can imagine, Philadelphia cheese steaks, ice cream, crepes, beeswax products, and much more. And on certain days of the week, the Mennonite people come from Lancaster county and sell their amazing food and goods. Today we stopped in for a late afternoon snack and I had a fresh squeezed strawberry-pineapple juice, (another time, we came for breakfast I enjoyed a Mennonite Apple Dumpling which was pretty much one of the best things I have ever tasted.) Rich and the kids tasted their first cheesesteaks, but since I’m not much of a “cheez-whiz” fan, they weren’t of much interest to me! “Wit-Wiz” was Rich’s little catchphrase while we were in Philly. That is how you order your cheesesteak, wit wiz! Enjoy some of the photos of the market below, it was pure eye candy for me and I just kept snapping away!

Emma getting one of her favorites: strawberry and Nutella crepes!

Beautiful fresh flowers!

Mennonite merchants

Cute gift shop

Famous Philly soft pretzels - but we prefer Auntie Anne's!

This picture cracks me up! I personally don't think the word "fly" should be in any food item, but I'm not about to suggest that to this woman.

Got some potholders, pear butter, and amazing "burnt" hard pretzels here.

Drew cruising the market.

Emma and Drew enjoying breakfast (yes, Drew is having a cheesesteak!)

Mass Apple Dumplings for sale. I wish I could have packed them in my suitcase.

Mennonite man at juice stand

After walking around town we returned to our room for a little down time before heading out to yet another one of Guy’s finds (#2 of three we visited). We hopped in the car and drove to another part of town for a late dinner at Silk City Diner. It was a real diner car –very cool. Inside, it felt more like a swanky, hip lounge. The lights were very dim and there was a building attached which was a bar, so it didn’t feel so much like a typical diner. Their menu is very different than what you would expect from a diner (click above link to see it). The salad I had was not on the menu – it was mixed weeds (you know, mixed baby greens) with seared sushi grade tuna that had been encrusted with black sesame seeds. It had an Asian dressing and was really tasty. Rich had the fried chicken, Emma had the macaroni and cheese, and Drew had a burger. The food was pretty good, but the appetizers there really shine. It was fun to go and check it out.

By the way, the hotel we stayed in was a historical landmark and was really beautiful and elegant, though it was just a Marriott Courtyard. We had a wonderful view from our hotel window of the city and stunning City Hall, which is a grand, elegant building. It took over 20 years to build it and the detail is just amazing. Well, that pretty much completed our first day in Philly!

Front of hotel

Front lobby

Room off of lobby - shoe shine in back.

Hallway off lobby

This shot was taken from our hotel room window!

Day Seven!

Well, finally to day seven, our last day in NY but we aren’t winding down yet! We started the day attending church at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Both Rich and Rick had recommendations from acquaintances so we decided to try it. We grabbed a cab to Hunter College Auditorium, where the service was held at 10:30 am. Their pastor, Tim Keller, apparently travels to various locations around Manhattan preaching four times on Sundays.

Well, you could say it was different than what we are used to. The music/worship portion was quite good, but then they moved on to baptism… I was really caught off guard when they brought a little baby up to be baptized! As the pastor described the reason they baptize infants, I listened intently as I know that the bible does not command babies to be baptized (on the contrary, it makes the distinction that when you have made a profession of faith in Christ, it is then that you get baptized as an outward symbol of your faith). Never did the pastor say that the baptism “saved” the baby, so that was good, but he did say that faith was “not individual” but was encompassed in the family, therefore trying to justify infant baptism, I suppose. This is the complete opposite of what we believe -the bible is very clear that each person must have a personal relationship with Christ; being a member of a Christian family does not grant you automatic salvation. Each of us being born a sinner has a personal need for salvation. So, thus, faith is completely personal.

So that aside, we got onto the preaching. The topic of the “sermon” was music. Among mostly unmemorable things that the pastor said that morning, we will all never forget him saying that you can “evangelize about God” through music, and you “don’t even have to be a believer to do so.” Huh? Not sure exactly what he meant by that one. His message seemed more like a lecture in a college class - perhaps one at a really liberal Christian college. It was basically just really shallow. There wasn’t much tie in to Scripture (maybe a couple references to the Bible or God); I’m not sure if the pastor even had a bible with him- if he did I didn’t see it. I do know that no one in the congregation had a bible with them – apparently they don’t seem to need one there. That is a problem if you don’t need your bible in church! One thing we all talked about later was the fact that we are indeed so blessed to be taught from the Word every Sunday at Grace. The Word is our life! How can you even think to have a church without it? Very sad.

Anyways, when that service was over, we headed back to The Burger Joint to try again. This time, there wasn’t so much of a line – yeah! The place is hilarious. You enter the beautiful and elegant Le Parker Meridien hotel (rooms begin at $400+). You go through the lobby, and go behind a curtain. There you see a little neon burger sign with an arrow on the wall. Not a restaurant name or anything, just a little neon burger. You follow the arrow until you find yourself in a tiny dark room, which is the Burger Joint. You instantly feel like you are indeed in a joint (hence the name)! Their sign instructs you to order in the following manner: 1) what kind of burger (hamburger or cheeseburger), 2) how you want it cooked, and 3) what you want on it (and there is a list of toppings). And they want it in that order. Then there are two little sentences that come off as a strict warning at the bottom of the sign:

If you do not see it, we do not have it.


If you do not know your order,
go to the back of the line.

So, under fear and trepidation, we managed to order promptly and correctly and found a couple tables. The burgers were ready really quickly and boy were they yummy! Really good meat and a nice toasty/greasy bun. One of the best burgers I think I've ever had. The fries, which are thrown into a brown paper bag, are also amazing. Also, a real treat for me was washing it all down with a coke. Not diet coke, mind you, but a real coke. I never drink any soda (diet or regular), but I do allow myself the treat of a real coke about once a year when it is fitting. And this seemed the perfect time to have one.

After lunch we headed over to the Nokia Theater in Times Square, where Steven Curtis Chapman would be having his concert that evening. We got a chance to meet Steven and his wife, Mary Beth, and their two sons Caleb and Will Franklin. Then, we went off to Chinatown to shop! The girls loved all the knock off items. Emma picked up a few “designer” purses, while Kari found a cute hat!


A shot of Steven's name on the marquis of the theatre. It was so cute- he was so excited that his name was up there that he told his wife to be sure and get a picture of it!



Shopping in Chinatown - Emma on left.



Emma excited about her "genuine" Designer purse!

After a brief rest at the hotel after shopping, we headed to Times Square for dinner at John's pizza. The restaurant is housed in the coolest old church - lots of beautiful stained glass and huge ceilings! John’s is good, but have I mentioned that Lombardi's is the best?? (ha ha) After getting our last fill of NY pizza, we crossed the street to the Nokia theater for the concert.




Dinner at John's, both above photos

Steven generously comp'ed the Dempseys and us tickets – and nice seats they were too! This is the second time we’ve seen him in concert, as we saw him at the Greek theater a couple years ago. I guess he doesn’t make it to NYC too much, maybe once before, I think he said. It’s hard to imagine a group of Christians living in Manhattan, but maybe they came from neighboring areas because it was a full house. Steven is really good in concert. He talks a lot between each song, making it very personal by telling funny stories, and sharing his own spiritual journeys, so it's really cool to go to one of his concerts. Also, I really just love his music. It is so worshipful, and really encourages me in my Christian walk. And I would have to say there was more good theology spoken by Steven than by the pastor that morning at church. So it was a great evening. His two high school-aged sons have recently replaced former band members and our touring with him - one on drums and one on guitar. So that is really neat. They don’t seem to have a lot of confidence yet (not used to the limelight) but they seem to be having fun out there with their dad. Steven said it’s a blast performing with his boys, and Mary Beth said it has really energized Steven.


The music was really great...











Steven and his boys: left - Will Franklin, right- Caleb.


Steven and the kids backstage

Anyways, after getting to go hang out backstage for awhile (Dempsey perks again), we capped off the wonderful evening with dessert at Planet Hollywood. We were pretty worn out by now, but also disappointed that our adventure was coming to a close. We said our regretful goodbyes in our hotel lobby late that evening, and parted ways. In the morning, the Dempseys would be on an early flight home, and we would be on our way to Philly!



The girls sporting our "Pashmina" scarves ($5 on any NY corner)



Drew being K.O.'ed by Sly at Planet Hollywood