Trip to Pennsylvania - Part I
Max’s civics club worked very hard this last year to raise enough funds to go on a trip to Pennsylvania. They did: bake sales, a car wash (did I mention it was 36 degrees the morning we started washing cars?), calendar sales, bulb sales, and more. Enough funds were raised to pay for seven students and two chaperones. Several other parents and two siblings (Colette included) went along on the trip as well. Technohubby had originally planned to go, but he used quite a bit of his vacation time with his hospital stay and recovery earlier this year, so opted not to spend most of the rest of it on the civics club's trip.
We traveled down to Pennsylvania on Monday. On Tuesday, we drove into Philadelphia for a full-day of touring the historic sites. The first stop of the day was the National Constitution Center.
Here is our group waiting to go into the National Constitution Center, with Independence Hall in the background.
Two quotes in the lobby poignantly display two opposing viewpoints on the Constitution.
Then it was time to move on for our tour of Indpendence Hall, my favorite place in Philadelphia!
The Assembly Room in Independence Hall. Oh, if these walls could talk! In this room, the wording of both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were debated and finalized. We held a special fondness for the table at the top left of the room, because that’s where the delegates from New Hampshire sat.
I love the beautiful, simple furnishings in this room. It makes me think of the small tables where Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott wrote their famous novels, in the sense that it reminds me that great thinking happens best when ensconced in simplicity.
The group then walked a few blocks on the cobblestone streets of historic Philadelphia…
Between the post office and the print shop (the print shop not being in its original location) is a brick tunnel. Benjamin Franklin’s home was originally situated through this tunnel.
I love the tools of historic print shops!…ink and letters and words and paper and smudgy aprons!
Once it was dark, it was time for s’mores…every night! In addition to preparing all the dinners ahead of time (even hamburger patties were seasoned and formed and frozen ahead), our family also provided the group with homemade marshmallows for s’mores. We made plain marshmallows and coconut ones. And let me just say that a coconut marshmallow…well…it takes a s’more to a whole new level!
Trip – Part II coming soon.