A few months ago, my daughter did a unit on American symbols in school. Ever since then, my daughter had one goal: see the Liberty Bell!
Since we have a number of relatives that live near Philly, my daughter was very excited to learn that we were planning a trip to see them. And, of course, how could we go without taking her to see her beloved Liberty Bell.
So, to the Liberty Bell we went and we had a good, albeit brief, visit. You see, all my daughter wanted to do was see the Liberty Bell, stop in the gift shop, and go.
We did learn a few things while visiting the Liberty Bell. First, get there early. Since we had arrived earlier in the morning, there was only a short line to get in to see the bell. Also, there is an underground parking garage right there, which is handy.
The visitor's center is well done and has a ton of information and people willing to help. There is also food available in the center. The bathrooms, though--a little nasty. Bring the hand sanitizer!
The gift shop is one of the best that I have seen. There is pretty much any Liberty Bell-Independence Hall item that you can think. We, of course, left with our own miniature Liberty Bell.
For those unfamiliar, the Liberty Bell is near Independence Hall. My daughter would barely let us take pictures of it, so we were unable to tour this time around.
Down Market Street, we discovered a post office that is housed in a home Ben Franklin once owned. The funny thing--I had read about it on MSNBC awhile back in an article about closing Post Offices. Besides being a Post Office, it also houses a museum.
Behind the Post Office is a structure commemorating the location of Ben Franklin's actual home that was torn down in the early 1800's. My daughter's favorite part of this side excursion: Franklin's privy pit. Honestly, I think that finding the location of Franklin's privy pit was the highlight of my daughter's whole trip!
If you do go to the Liberty Bell, I do recommend stopping at the Visitor's Center for area info. There are a lot of neat things to see in Old City and the guides will be able to help you.
Post a Comment