Day 9 - Valley Forge

After two long days in Philly, we wanted the last day in Pennsylvania to be more relaxing. So Valley Forge was the only thing on our itinerary. We slept late, and had a slow morning. So slow, in fact, that by the time we got out the door, it was closer to lunchtime. I had read in one of the guidebooks that Valley Forge has a cafe, so we decided to do that for lunch, and then go on the tour. Well, there was a cafe - but it was closed. On to Plan B - which definitely included feeding 5 hungry kids before trying to teach them about history. We relied on the Lady-in-the-box to direct us to a restaurant. The first one she picked was in a convention center. We thought that one might not appreciate the 5 bouncing kids. We decided to continue down the road, which looked promising, and see what we could find. There appeared to our left an oasis, a modern mecca, the destination for consumer therapy. My 10 year old daughter (who sometimes thinks she's 16) said "Let's go to the MALL!" with great glee in her voice. However, dragging five children through the mall also did not fit in with our plans for the day, so we continued on. Then we came upon a Chili's, which was acceptable to all in the car (no minor feat!)

After lunch we went back to Valley Forge. We had the ritual stamping of the passports, and then we went to see the movie, which was pretty good. I especially liked the description of the teams of 12 men building the huts and then living in them all winter (See M - being squished in a car with 6 other people is really not that bad - especially since we let you out to use the bathroom!)

We had some tired kids then, so we drove around the park, hitting the highlights. We did stop at George Washington's headquarters, at which point AtlMom remarked "Everybody take note - it's always better to be the General, not the foot soldier".

C was especially fascinated by where George Washington had stayed. With some of his tickets, he bought a set of plastic Revolutionary Army men. We are assuming that the red ones are British, the blue are American, and the black are the French. There is one white one which C immediately decided was George Washington. There is also a white horse, so that sounded fairly logical. I heard him playing with them this morning as I was getting ready. He was making booming cannon noises, gun shots, and wounded soldier noises. Then he picked up one of the "red guys", and said "I'm Cornwallis, I surrender!". So at least some of all this is sinking in!

At Valley Forge, there is also a cave in which a large number of fossils have been found. M liked the picture showing the relative size of a black bear compared to the lesser short-faced bear.

Back at the KOA, we needed to do laundry before heading on to Boston. M helped me to carry it down to laundry room. As I was feeding lots of quarters into the machines, the gentleman who was also doing his family's laundry stuck up a conversation with M. It turns out that he and his family were also Homeschoolers. They had bought an RV a couple of years ago, and they were on almost the exact same itinerary we were (They were from Texas). They had done the Historic Triangle, were almost done with Philly, and were heading to Boston. I think they were also going to Washington. He was amazed that we were doing it in a minivan. (We had seriously considered renting an RV, but somehow got talked out of it. Hindsight being 20/20, I am regretting not renting the RV. I am getting awfully tired of unpacking and repacking the car).

Tomorrow we will be travelling to Boston, with a stop in Sleepy Hollow on the way. Some of the kids are really excited about that, others are not so sure. I told them the Headless Horseman doesn't come out during the day.

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From the Kids: C

C: In Jamestown I liked the ships. The biggest one had armor in it. I liked trying the armor on because it felt like I was in the war. In Williamsburg I liked seeing them make the guns. At the Magazine I liked learning how to shoot a red suit guy.
I saw where George Washington slept and also his assistants. (Valley Forge)

From the Kids: A

A: Well, I like seeing the old liberty bell the best. In Jamestown I didn't like scraping the canoe because it got my hands dirty and Jaxmom's shirt too. (Note from JaxMom: My shirt got dirty because C and A wiped their dirty hands on it. I never got near the canoe!)

From the Kids: P

P: Seeing the huts (that the soldiers stayed in) at Valley Forge was fun. I liked Williamsburg because it was just like a Rennaissance Faire but in a different time zone. You got to see all this cool history stuff and actually touch it. The wigmaker told A and JaxMom that they were hussies because they had their hair down. AtlMom and I were ladies because we had ours up. She also offered to shave our heads to fit the wigs on us.

I liked the milliner’s shop because she told us about the different clothes and petticoats that ladies wore. We got to sign the Constitution in Philadelphia and got our picture taken with Ben Franklin. I liked seeing the real Liberty Bell.

Lights of Liberty: Great Idea, Mediocre Follow-Through

While investigating the wealth of educational opportunities available in Philly, I found the Lights of Liberty tour. Billed as "the first ambulatory sound and light show of its kind in the world," I was sure it would be the single thing that would pull together our Philadelphia experience, letting the knowledge the children had gained settle into their tiny little minds.

Not so much.

We got there, mingled in the lobby and gift shop (because we must visit every gift shop for every site we visit), and then were called for our tour. We were given headsets to listen to the "moving musical score" and various actors tell the tale of the 1770s. Except before we walked to the first scene, the headsets were nearly done with their part of it. We were all frustrated, as was every other member of the group. We did eventually catch up to the audio, and the middle and ending scenes were quite compelling.

I'm being supervised because I'm making it sound like it wasn't great. It was. The final scene had those rabble-rousers debating the Declaration of Independence, and finally coming to agreement. "We Hold These Truths. . ." Yes. I was moved. I laughed. I cried. I hugged my children. If you are in Philly, I recommend it overall.

Figuring into the recommendation was the very polite and apologetic way that they handled the chaos. They cheerfully refunded the arm and leg we were charged for the tour. I'm sure those will come in handy in Boston.

Day 8: Second Day in Philly

Thoroughly recovered from the events of the day before, we set out again to try and conquer Philly. The night before, AtlMom and I had pared down the tour list, and tried to arrive at a realistic goal for the day. We started out with a bribe for the kids if they had good behavior. All of them had been begging for a carriage ride the day before, so that was the reward for a good day.
We started out (as all families with small children do) at the bathrooms. One of us adamantly refused to go, and it came to blows. The offending child was promptly removed back to the car, and JaxMom continued with the other kids, while AtlMom had a “Come to Jesus Meeting” with the aberrant child.
The rest of the group proceeded to Christ Church Burying Ground to view Ben Franklin’s Grave. The tradition is that if you throw a penny on Ben Franklin’s grave you will have good luck. I threw a penny on for AtlMom, since she needed all the luck she could get.

Christ Church itself was beautiful. The docent was excellent, and we got to sit in George Washington’s, Betsy Ross’s, and Ben Franklin’s pews. The picture is in George Washington's pew. The organ still has some of the original pipes (over 6000 pipes in all). Christ Church has only had 9 rectors since the Revolutionary War!
A had finished her time out, so we met them for lunch and had an authentic Philly Cheese steak. M decided that it was his new favorite sandwich, and bought a magnet with the recipe on it.

Elfreth’s Alley is the oldest continually inhabited street in America. It is a small street of tiny row houses, with pretty window boxes. All the doors are different, and one of the gift stores had a book about the doors of Elfreth’s Alley. P’s favorite part was the cat sitting in one of the window boxes.

When we got to the Betsy Ross House, there was a performance going on in the courtyard. The comedy duo Joke and Dagger were entertaining the audience, while sneaking a bit of history in as well. As they asked the kids questions, the ones who got the answers right were invited up on the stage to learn sword fighting.

We were very proud of M as he knew the name of the book Thomas Payne had written. He and three other children went up on stage to learn to “sword fight”.

We decided that the carriage ride took precedence over touring the Betsy Ross House, so we skipped the inside. J had reached his limit, so he and AtlMom hung out watching the movie at the Visitor’s Center while the rest of us picked out our carriage. The carriage ride was very entertaining. My favorite part was the sign over one building that said “Hats trimmed free of charge”.

The big disappointment with running out of time in Philly was that we missed the Ben Franklin Museum, and the Please Touch Museum. For those of you who have never heard of the Please Touch Museum, it is the coolest children’s museum in the world (at least of the ones I’ve been to). When M was 4 and P was 2, we went to Philly to visit my brother (he lives in Jax now). We could have spent several days just at the Please Touch Museum. (Independence Hall was lost on them at that age)
Since we didn’t have time to go down to the Museums, we went to the Constitution Center, which is a fairly new museum right behind the Visitor’s Center, entirely devoted to the Constitution. It had some very interesting exhibits. You could sign the Constitution. You could participate in Supreme Court decisions, and the Passing of a Bill in Congress. There was a very interesting audiovisual exhibit about the balance of power between the three branches of government. You could take the Presidential Oath of Office.
(I’m going to preface this next story with some background info. M, P, and C’s father is in the Army. He is currently deployed for year in Africa) As we wandered through, I realized that we had lost C. I went back a couple of exhibits and found him in front of the “Provide for the Common Defense” exhibit. It had a video of a soldier marching that morphed into all of the different uniforms that the Army has worn since the Revolutionary War. C was marching back and forth, back and forth, with the soldier in the video.
After the Constitution Center, we split up and the Jax contingent went to church. We went to Old St Mary’s, which was beautiful. The ceiling was deep blue with gold stars, and a painting of Mary in Heaven. The stained glass windows were amazing. One row depicted scenes from Mary’s life and the upper row was pictures of the saints.
We were staying late in Philly tonight, because we were splurging on the Lights of Liberty show. More about that later.