We visited major tourist destinations like the Independence National Historical Park, home to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall (meeting place for the Second Continental Congress, and where both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were drafted and adopted), and the Second Bank of the United States, among other things.
Liberty Bell
Independence Hall
Statue of George Washington at Independence Hall
Independence Hall
I remember purchasing a replica of the Declaration of Independence at a gift shop in the park. It was printed on paper designed to look like aged parchment.The Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape until Europeans arrived in the 1600s, and the city was founded in 1682. It played a major role in the American Revolution. So much history happened there. It was the first old (by American standards) city I'd visited, and I felt the ghosts of history walking beside me.
We also visited the Powel House, which was once owned by Samuel Powel, twice the mayor of Philadelphia (1775-76, 1789-90) and my maternal second cousin seven times removed (his carriage gifted to his friend George Washington was on display at Mount Vernon, as we'd seen days earlier). The house had been fully restored and opened to tourists. The tour guide was thrilled to learn that we were related to the man himself. Tthey didn't allow interior photography, so I have no photos of that.
Powel House
Sign outside the Powel House
Portrait of my cousin Samuel Powel
Powel House
My grandmother and mother in the garden of the Powel House
Garden of the Powel House
As powerful as the atmosphere at a historical site can be, the effect is enhanced when the site has a personal connection to you, even if only through a distant relation.
I have other family connections to Philadelphia. My maternal 8th-great-grandfather Barnabas Willcox settled in the city after immigrating from Bristol, England with his family in 1683 at the personal invitation of William Penn. Being a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and a prosperous ropemaker, Willcox was seen by Penn as an ideal candidate to help settle and build his Pennsylvania Colony.
Willcox built the first ropewalk in Philadelphia shortly after his arrival, later serving as a colonial assemblyman and a justice of the peace before dying at the age of 45 in 1690, leaving behind a widow and several children, including daughter Rachel (my 7th-great-grandmother) and son Joseph (who was a colonial assemblyman like his father and also served as mayor of Philadelphia for a term in 1705-06). Several of his descendants were movers and shakers in the Philadelphia political world of the 18th century, including his great-grandson, the aforementioned Samuel Powel.
History aside, there was some culture shock for us in Philadelphia. People there had a more brusque style of personal communication than we Seattleites with our almost formal politeness were used to. One suspects the City of Brotherly Love is meant ironically in modern times.
The most bizarre thing we witnessed in Philadelphia that day, or indeed anywhere on the entire trip, was an overweight middle-aged man walking down the street wearing a rubber Batman costume, with a lit cigarette in one hand and a bag of Doritos in the other. His nonchalant manner just added to the bizarreness.
After a long day of walking, we ate dinner, then drove 12.5 miles (20 km) back to our rooms at the Red Roof Inn in Essington.
Total Travel Distance: 25 miles (40 km)
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