Philly Pass and Paid Attractions, and a baseball game

Battleship New Jersey

There is a lot to do in Philly. You can take in the highlights of Independence Hall and all the historical stuff. I'd wager almost all tourists go to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.  However, Philly is a city that clearly wants tourists to visit. They give people plenty to do. There are art museums, historical museums, professional sports, zoo, aquarium and many other attractions that will help you part with your money.

Happily, you can go to  many attractions for one price. The Pilly Pass works like this; you buy a pass for as many days as you'd like, 1,2,3,5 days. Passes start at $59 and go up the longer you use it. The great thing about it is, you can choose to go to as many attractions as you can fit into your day. As I mentioned, we bought a three day pass, the cost (seemingly, perpetually on sale) was $89 each. In three days we went to $235 worth of attractions (each). When you go to a ticket booth, they take your pass and scan it. Then they give it back to you along with a ticket. It is that simple. We bought the pass online and picked them up on Monday. The pass doesn't start getting used until you use it the first time. Meaning my three days of use don't start until I use it. I can pick it up anytime but the particular days are not reserved.

http://www.philadelphiapass.com/En/

Nile Crocodile at the
Philadelphia Zoo

Attractions- I'm going to do a quick write up for anyone that may be interested in Philly. I'm going to save art museums for a later post. Remember these are just one man's opinions. Just because I thought something was really fun doesn't mean you will.

Philadelphia Zoo- The zoo is the oldest zoo in the country. It is pretty big. Since there is so much to see in the city we kind of rushed through it. Since we went to Southwick Zoo last week, we didn't stop at the really common animals for long. How many lemurs can you really see in a week? The zoo does have a large primate building and a big cat area. There are tons on different monkeys. There is a bird house and a small mammal house. There is a predator area which I thought was highlighted by Giant River Otters from South America

Sharks swim right over you at Adventure Aquarium

Aquarium- You have to cross the Delaware River to get to the Adventure Aquarium in New Jersey. Again, I've been to aquariums, so I wasn't going to stay hours at the coral reef tank. Still, there are some pretty cool highlights. The aquarium has hippos. There are multiple feeding times throughout the day. There is also a shark tunnel. This is a huge tank with  a tunnel going through it for you to walk through. the sharks swim right over you. Really neat. Adventure aquarium also has the only captive Giant Hammerhead in America. Then you had basic aquarium tanks. Pretty large aquarium.

Battleship New Jersey- This battleship was active from WWII until the 1990's. It is the most decorated battleship in US history. The tour is self guided, you follow a red line through the ship. It is gigantic. If you have been to Battleship Cove in Fall River, the NJ is larger. It was also fit with tomahawk cruise missiles which I thought were awesome.

Riverlink Ferry- To get to and from Camden we took the Riverlink Ferry. The ferry ports at Penn Landing in Philly and right next to the aquarium in Camden. The ride is about 20 minutes. It could be quicker if it went straight across the river. Instead it takes the scenic route. From Philly it goes upriver a bit and you get a great view of the Ben Franklin Bridge. On the way back it goes downriver and goes right along the battleship. I got some good pictures and really liked taking the ferry.

Big Bus Company- With the Philly Pass we could ride the Big Bus two out of our three days. There are multiple tour bus companies, but this one was free with the pass. The buses run every 20-25 minutes and you can hope on and off as you wish. They go through the tourist loop and by some damn good food options. The tours are narrated. They are two stories with the top being open air. It is tall enough where I had to duck small tree branches which I thought was fun. We were sad when our two days were up. Really liked the narrated ride.

Betsy Ross House

Betsy Ross House- The Betsy Ross House is only $5 without the pass but it is included. Betsy Ross sowed the flag for Washington. I had pictured a little old lady but she was only 24 at the time.  The house (which may be a replica) is self guided. You see where and how she lived. Betsy is also buried at the site.

One Liberty Observation Deck- In downtown is a skyscraper that you can take an elevator to the top. Like the Prudential in Boston, the view is very awesome. You can see the whole city. We stayed up top for over an hour taking in the view.

Franklin Institute-  This is Philly's Museum of Science. We only went in for a short time. It was late and we were hungry. It had many different rooms dedicated to astronomy, electricity, the heart, the brain, etc. Honestly, we did not see enough to form an opinion. All we really did was go to the planetarium and watch the show. We both love planetariums, so we made a point to check it out. The topic was the night sky. It was well done.

Ghost Tours of Philly- this is your typical ghost tour. It starts around dusk and goes by haunted houses. It lasted about 90 minutes. I don't believe in ghosts, but enjoyed the stories

Grimm Tour- This is another ghost tour. This one, however, is R-rated. The guide tells stories about brothels, ghosts, and murders. The tour lasted two hours. If you only have time for one, this is the more fun ghost tour.

We did all these things with the Philadelphia Pass along with three art museums (later post). There were plenty of other things we did not do that were lower on our list or ran out of time. For example, the Eastern State Penitentiary is very popular. The National Liberty Museum and National Constitution Center were both on our list but we just didn't make it. There are historic walking tours, tours of the Phillies stadium, and tours of murals through the city. There is a museum with a large fossil collection and many other cool attractions. The Philly Pass really was a great bargain.

British Dragoon at the Museum of the
American Revolution

Museum of the American Revolution-

This is a new museum that just opened up in April. It is not part of the Philly pass. The admission fee is $20. The museum, in case you hadn't figured it out is about the American Revolution. It is set up room to room from the beginning of the war to the end. There are artifacts from many major battles. The highlight of the museum is, by far, Washington's tent that was used as his headquarters when in the field. I suggest seeing this museum just for that.

View from our seats

Phillies vs. Cubs Baseball Game-

While we were in Philly the World Series champions were in town to play the dreadful Phillies. Laurie actually wanted to go to the game more than me. I'd have been content to sit at the motel our last night and relax. We ended up buying tickets and I'm glad we did. Lincoln Financial Field is awesome. It is a state of the art ballpark and makes the green ballpark in the Back Bay of Boston look like a dump. We got seats behind home plate but pretty high up. They were still really nice, and half the price for the same tickets at Fenway. We didn't eat much at the game because we had gotten food at the Reading Market. The Phillies got off to a 6-2 lead after two innings so the game wasn't that good, but it was really fun to be there.

The Philly Fanatic is really entertaining

The Philly skyline is over the outfield wall

Once Upon a Nation, Rocky Stairs, and Free Stuff to do in Philadelphia

Once Upon a Nation Bench

It doesn't matter how much money you have budgeted for a trip to Philly, you can't just keep going to paid attractions. For one thing, most close at 5 pm. This leaves many daylight hours in the summer to find things to do. Also, your gonna get burned out if you just keep pushing. You'll need some time to relax. Lastly, many of the things to do are free. So even though some may close at 4 or 5 pm you could still have a great time without spending much cash.

I have already wrote about most of the historical free things in Philly such as the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. I won't repeat them in this post.

Once Upon a Nation Benches

I had read about these when looking up free things to do in Philly. What they are, are benches that a storyteller simply tells you story. You sit down and an actor tells a story that lasts about five minutes. The story teller doesn't just sit there. They sort of act out the scene. Many of them are actors or young people with a drama background.

 The stories are historical and give you inside information that you may not have ever heard. For instance in Jefferson Davis's house a free black lady was "hired" out to be a slave in his house. This was a rouse because she was a spy. She reported back to her friend and "pretend master". It wasn't until the very last day of the Civil War that Jeff Davis declared he thought there was a spy in in his house.  It's unknown stories like this you will learn about at the benches.

There are 13 benches in Philly. Check the days and times they are open. They change throughout the summer. While we were thee in late August, the storytellers were only at the benches Fri/Sat 10-4. If you plan on going to many of them, a storyteller can give you a flag. For each story they tell you, you can get a star to put on the flag. If you go to ten benches or more you can get a free ride on the carousel in Franklin Square.

We knew we were not going to go to Franklin Square even if we got to ten benches. Yet, we were having so much fun chasing stories we got a flag. We ended up hearing nine stories on Friday afternoon before they closed at 4 pm.. Our original plan was to go to the National Liberty Museum on Friday but we were having so much fun going to the benches that we blew it off. If you take a trip to Philly, I strongly recommend you check the times the benches are open. A really fun and free experience.

Washed out photo of the Rocky Statue
GRRR!!!!!!

Rocky!!!

Running up the Rocky stairs

The two most famous Philadelphia residents are Ben Franklin (born in Boston) and Rocky Balboa (not a real person). You kind of feel their presence anywhere you go. When you walk into the Independence Visitor Center, there is a statue of both.

One of the most popular things to do in Philly is to run up the Rocky steps from the climax of his training scenes. These steps are actually at the Museum of Art. Of course, we went there and I recreated the scene along with scores of other people doing the same thing. At the top we all throw our hands in the air just as the Rock did. I am/was still having trouble walking so I gingerly jogged up the stairs. Laurie who was at the top took pictures.

Near the bottom of the steps is a real statue of Rocky Balboa. There is a continuous line to get a picture of yourself with him. It is damn near impossible to get a picture of the statue with no one next to it.
 For whatever reason, my camera started to wash out pictures that day. I don't know why,  but any view with sky in the background even with my back to the sun was washed out. This really sucked because the photo of yourself with Rocky is certainly a tourist right of passage.

Like cheesesteak, raising your
arms is a rite of passage in Philly

Poe House

Edgar Allen Poe House-

A Black Cat in the cellar

About a mile from the other touristy places is a house that Edgar Allen Poe lived in for seven years. He wrote a couple of famous pieces there. It is a National Historic site, thus it is free. We rode our bikes there to cut down on walking. It is eight or nine city blocks from the parking garage. It is only open a few days a week to visitors and closed from 12-1 pm for lunch. The Poe house was actually the first thing we did in Philly. We arrived on Sunday and it was going to be closed most of the weekdays so we hit it before going anywhere else.

The house is pretty cool. You can go down cellar which is a little creepy (in  a cool way) since Poe was a few stories about basements and underground crimes. That was my favorite room. There is another room called the "reading room" where you can read Poe's works. A ranger put on a cd for us of "The Raven" spoken by creepy voiced Christopher Walken.

Fountain in Franklin Square
Carousel to the left,
Mini golf to the right

Franklin Square-

There are a few city squares in Philly. This one is not far from the Poe house. It was a warm day and we got ice cream and a soda here. It is a small park. There is a fountain and benches. For a fee there is also the aforementioned carousel and mini golf. It is a nice little park in downtown Philly

Quickly relaxing on a hammock

Penn Landing and Spruce Street Park

Penn Landing is where the Riverlink Ferry docks. It is a scenic waterfront spot. They have free movie nights there on a large screen and there is a stage for bands. There is also a ferris wheel and a roller skating rink. Like Franklin Square it costs a few dollars to do these things, but it is nice for people that live in the city and need a break.

Spruce Street Harbor Park is adjacent to Penn Landing and I really don't know where one ends and the other starts. There are food vendors and little kid rides. The highlight is a bunch of free hammocks to lie on. They are set up anywhere two trees are close enough to hang one. I only spent a few minutes at Spruce Street because of time constraints, but it is a cool place to chill especially with small children.

Irish Monument and my partially Irish best friend

Vietnam, Korean, Irish, Scottish Monuments.

Almost across the street from Spruce Street is a city park with monuments dedicated to two wars and two nations of immigrants.

As a fan of monuments who would like to see them before being taken down, we searched them out. Laurie who is part Irish wanted a picture of herself near the Irish Monument. The monument represents the hardships and starvation of the Irish during the potato famine. There is a lot of history surrounding it.

Korean War Memorial

Korean War and Vietnam Memorials are a short distance away. They are dedicated to the Philadelphia's Vets of these wars. I liked the Korean monument better. It was full of all kinds of facts and figures and a timeline. Wish I had more time to read it all.

Philly Art

Museum of Art

This will be my last blog post about Philadelphia. If you have been reading, you can see that there is a lot to see in the city. We didn't see everything. We did see just about everything we wanted to without any regrets on the stuff we missed. In a day or so, I'm going to arrange the posts in an order where they make the most sense (obviously logistics should be the top post not the last)

There is a lot of art in Philadelphia. I understand not everyone is into art, museums, or art museums. That said, in my ever lasting quest to see greatness, art museums combine a lot of awe inspiring things under one roof (as opposed to driving for twelve hours to go from Mt. Rushmore to Old Faithful). We went to three art museums and there are more in the city. The three we went to are the Museum of Art, The Barnes Foundation, and the Rodin Museum.

Rodin Museum-

The Rodin Museum is by far the smallest of the three museums. It

Appropriately named,
The Kiss

is only two rooms. The museum is dedicated to Auguste Rodin. The man that started the museum was a Rodin fanatic and started buying up Rodin sculpture. The museum contains the largest amount of Rodin's outside of Paris. We went in the afternoon after a long day at the zoo. We were more than happy to sit in the small museum and take a load of our feet.

The most famous piece Rodin did is not in the museum, but outside. The Thinker sits on his pedastal near the walkway to the museum. Inside the museum, there are many other sculptures. To get in, you walk past his "Gates of Hell" doors. On it are many characters from Dante's Divine Comedy. Inside, there are multiple sculptures. They are spaced out. The rooms are open and do not feel cluttered. The most famous piece inside is "The Kiss". I certainly am no expert on sculpture, but I loved going to the museum, and would have loved to have had time to learn more.

Suggested donation (admission) is $10 however it is just

suggested, so you could go for free if you so choose. It was free for us with our Philly Pass

Barnes Foundation-

This was a private collection of a millionaire named Doctor Barnes. Barnes started getting into art so he had a friend go to Europe and buy some pieces. After a little while he became addicted and went to Europe himself  to art showings and buy from dealers. He ended up with one of the largest collections of Impressionist paintings in the world. You will see many Picasso's, Cezanne,  and Matisse. However, they will be hard to find. There are so many Renoir's in the building that your eyes will go into sensory overload. Dr. Barnes intended on buying these paintings up to put them into a collection for the public's enjoyment.

This is a large museum and if I was retired I'd spend a whole day there. As a tourist, you try to take in what interests you and move away from the ones that don't. This museum is unbelievable if you want to see late 19th century masters.
Cost is $25, but free with the Philly Pass
Of note, when we walked in we were greeted by the nicest people. In most of the rooms you will see a volunteer docent. They were among the nicest people we met on vacation.

On the down side, photographs are not allowed in the galleries, so I didn't get to take any photos.

Museum of Art-

Van Gogh

The Museum of Art is a ten minute walk from Barnes and Rodin. It is a huge building. The most famous thing to do is climb the Rocky steps and throw your arms in the air. But believe it or not, on top of the steps and through the glass doors there is an art museum.

The museum is two stories and set u plike most art museums by period and continent ( 1100-1500 European for example). Since no one can enjoy everything in a large art museum Laurie and I completely skip the stuff that we do not enjoy. We have no desire to look at Contemporary Art. Nor do we waste much time looking at black and white photographs. I don't look at Asian pottery much, but I will go through the Asian rooms because there are usually samurai swords and statues of Buddha. This gives us more time to enjoy American and European artists.

In the America's I found one Gilbert Stuart and a Bierstadt.

They had multiple rooms dedicated to furniture, pottery, and antiques which I breezed right through. However in the European section we counted TEN Monet's! Along with Claude, there were multiple paintings from famous artists such as Picasso, Cezanne, and Van Gogh. Laurie and I spent quite some time in those European rooms.

I also like the very old paintings from the end of the dark ages. They are usually religious paintings that tell a story. One such story I've seen multiple times is St. George killing a dragon. There was a painting of this story here. Of course, there are many paintings dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Jesus (Madonna and child).

Sword to the left is a Viking Sword in the
Museum of Art

The museum is really awesome. I couldn't believe there are 10 Claude Monet's there. He is by far my favorite Impressionist artist. I don't care if it is cliche' and unoriginal, but I enjoy his masterpieces the most. Cost for the museum is $20, but it free with the Philly Pass. Wednesday's and Friday's the museum is open until until 8:45

My favorite Monet in the museum

Valley Forge, yes, that Valley Forge

   For the past week Laurie and I have been in Philadelphia. We went to all the historical places along with many museums. The last day, before we came home, we took a detour to Valley Forge. In case you skipped school the week they taught about the Revolutionary War, Valley Forge was the winter encampment for Washington's rag tag army during the winter of 1777-78.

 The conditions were harsh and a lot of men died from disease. The army went into camp in January with about 6000 men. However they lost almost two thousand over the winter due to death and desertion. On the plus side, the army was also reinforced and when they marched out of camp in June Washington had 20,000 men. The last three months before leaving camp was a training period. During this time the army went from a bunch of small outfits to one uniform army. Much credit goes to German Von Steuben for training the army. 

We arrived at 9 am when the Visitor Center opened. Unfortunately, we had to drive home today so we had to leave fairly early. We left at 2 pm. The five hours flew by. We easily could have stayed all day. Taking in ranger programs and really stopping at all the monuments, I could squeeze two days if I had the free time. 

When we got to the V.C, we watched the movie about Valley Forge. It lasts about 20 minutes. Then we could have done the self guided audio tour. We could also listen to audio of various stops on our phone by dialing a number then punching in an extension.  There was a ranger lead program at 10:50 that was a walk. Lastly we could do the trolley tour of the encampment.

We chose to drive around until 10:45 then go for ranger walk. After that we were going to do the trolley. When we found out the trolley only went at 11 am and 1 pm (too late for us) we had to choose. We chose to ride the narrated trolley. 

The trolley ride lasted almost two hours. The girl that narrated it was a huge history geek. She knew everything, not only about Valley Forge, but was discussing battle strategies with some tourists. The trolley makes two stops where you get out. The first is at reconstructed soldiers quarters. You learn how the huts were made and how the soldiers lived. The second stop was at Washington's Headquarters.  There, a park ranger explains how busy his headquarters were and how crowded. The building is the original one that Washington lived and worked in. Seventy to eighty percent of the building is original. This includes the hand rail going up the stairs to the second floor. See pictures below.

The park is huge. It is over 6000 acres. There is no question that there is a Gettysburg feel there. There is twenty seven miles of trails. Many people were riding bikes on the paved trails. The scenery is beautiful rolling hills. 

The encampment was chosen for its defensive position. It was high ground with good sight lines. It was close enough to Philly that Washington could keep an eye on the British, but far enough away there couldn't be a surprise attack. The Continental Congress moved to Lancaster, PA after the British took Philly. Valley Forge kept the army between the Founding Fathers and the British Army. The defensive position was perfect. Washington was protected all many sides thanks to the river at his back and the high ground. The British knew where he was buy after looking at the map knew the position couldn't be taken so they never attacked. 

I highly recommend you visit Valley Forge if you have any interest in history. These is so much to learn. Give yourself a day if you go. Bringing your bike would absolutely enhance your experience. The trails are beautiful, but you would have to climb some hills.  From North Attleboro it would be a five hour drive. However, on our way home we got stuck in traffic in Connecticut and by, ironically, the George Washington Bridge.

. 

Inside staircase going up to the second floor
where you can see Washington's bed chambers

Yes, that is right, I got to put my hand on the
same hand rail on the staircase that General
Washington used!!!

Von Steuben who was responsible for whipping
the army into shape

Reconstructed soldiers quarters

Canon looking over the field

Once Upon a Nation Benches. You will read more about
them in later posts. 

General George Washington

These reconstructed huts are in the area where
Washington's personal guard lived. They are a
hundred yards from his headquarters. 

Southwick Zoo Photos

I went to Southwick Zoo in Mendon, MA with Laurie, Amber and Kirsten the other day. Southwick is a private zoo and considered the largest in New England.  The cost is a steep $25 for an adult, however we were ended up spending five and a half hours there. They sell food, but you are also allowed to go back to your car, eat, and come back in. The Zoo has a lot of exotic animals. Spme of which I have never even heard of. 

Lately I have been feeling nostalgic. I went to Roger Williams Zoo by myself two weeks ago. When I was a kid I asked my parents to take me every year. I didn't ask anyone to go with me, I wanted to be alone and remember my folks. Knowing I had all day and didn't have to rush, I took my time. Going slow, the zoo took less than two hours. This should give you perspective on the size difference of the two zoos.

I got some pretty good photos. If these photos make you want to go to Southwick Zoo, all information is easily found on their website.

Hyena

One of two Bengal Tigers

There is a parakeet landing. You walk in and the parakeets fly around and can land on you.  You can buy a food stick for a dollar and they will eat on your hand. This was really fun. Getting focused pictures of parakeets was almost impossible.

This is what happens when you let teenage girls have total
control of one camera- Selfies

My dad used to take me to Southwick Zoo. I drank out of this
same blubber many times. It is at least 38 years old. Talk
about feeling nostalgic. Thanks Dad.

There is a goat petting zoo. You can buy food to feed the goats. The goats are really your frineds when you have food in your hand, but when it's gone, your nothing to them

 By far my favorite part of Southwick Zoo is the deer forest. You walk into an enclosure that is at least twenty acres. Same as the goats, you can feed them (corn). The enclosure is huge. Some deer stay near the feeding stations while others go hide off in the forest away from people.  There are also wild turkeys.

The deer are shedding the velvet on there antlers right now. Some of the bucks still have velvet hanging off and blood on their antlers.