Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Visited June 16 - 23, 2022

By Marty

For our Philadelphia exploration we stayed in a KOA RV park in Clarksboro, NJ, across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. We went into Philly on three consecutive days, taking the train in twice and driving once. 

The Reading Terminal Market is one of America's largest and oldest public markets, opening for business in 1893. There are over 140 vendors in the market today. 

We got to Reading Terminal Market right around lunch time and had a hankering to try a genuine Philly Cheesestake. We were too hungry to spend time investigating the various options so we just picked the first place we saw that had a long line! The strategy paid off: the cheesestake sandwich was the best of the three that we had while in Philly.

This will get your mouth watering...

Best Things to Eat in Reading Terminal Market

Philadelphia City Hall is the largest municipal building in the United States, with over 14.5 acres of floor space.

Topped with an iconic statue of Philadelphia founder William Penn, the 548 foot tower is the tallest masonry structure in the world without a steel frame, and it was the tallest building in Philadelphia until 1987.

The William Penn statue is over 36' tall and weighs more than 53,000 pounds. From his installation atop City Hall in 1894 William Penn was the dominant feature on the Philadelphia skyline because of a "gentleman's agreement" that no skyscraper would be built higher than the brim of Penn's hat. In 1986 the gentleman's agreement was finally broken but today "Billy Penn" still commands long vistas of Broad Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

The plaza across the street from City Hall had a "game" theme for it's public art. Janell was in her element!

A roller rink outside City Hall. Look closely and you'll see that some of the "skaters" are using wheeled "walkers" to keep them upright while they learn to skate. Sorry, not a fan!  When we were young you learned to skate by falling down and getting up and falling down and getting up...   Falling is no fun so you focused on learning to not fall so much!  In another post I'll share with you the conditions under which I had to walk to school as a youth.  Yes, I actually WALKED to school!

Opening in 1877 the Wanamaker Building was one of the first American department stores. The Wanamaker Organ, formerly the St. Louis World's Fair pipe organ, is the largest operational organ in the world.

 

The first three levels of the building are occupied by Macy's

 

The Dream Garden

 

This glass mosaic is located in the Curtis Building lobby. Designed by artist Maxfield Parrish in 1916 the work was fabricated by Louis Comfort Tiffany (yes, that Tiffany) using over 100,000 pieces of favrile glass in more than 260 color tones, and weighing in excess of four tons. Suffice to say, the photo does NOT do the mural justice.

Independence Hall, as we call it today

The building was constructed to be the Pennsylvania State House. It once housed all three branches of Pennsylvania's colonial government.

The Assembly Room, where, in 1776, the Second Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence.  Eleven years later delegates to the Constitutional Convention created and signed the United States Constitution in this room.

George Washington

We took a historic Philadelphia walking tour. Our guide Casey, also a high school history teacher, was quite entertaining and informative.

This statue of Ben Franklin and the mural commemorating the Philadelphia fire department are located adjacent to a Philadelphia fire station.

From the Benjamin Franklin Historical Society:

On December 7, 1736 Ben Franklin co-founded the Union Fire Company, also known as the "Bucket Brigade". It was the first formally organized all volunteer fire company in the colonies and was fashioned after Boston's Mutual Fire Societies. The difference between the fire societies of Boston and Franklin's Union Fire Company was that the former protected its members only, while the latter protected the entire community. 

Our tour guide, Casey, highly recommended the Ken Burns documentary on Benjamin Franklin. We were inspired to watch it and thought it was quite good.  If you are intrigued, check out the trailer:

Elfreth's Alley is the nation's oldest continuously inhabited residential street. The 32 houses that line the street, constructed between 1703 and 1836, were home to the eighteenth century artisans and tradespeople who were the backbone of Colonial Philadelphia.

The Museum of the American Revolution

Casey called our attention to the contradiction between the text of the Declaration of Independence and it's adjacency to the banner of the black woman on the exterior of the museum.

We saw this cool flag mural from the train into Philadelphia

So, when we took the car into Philly, we made a point of driving closer to get a better look and a photo.

From Mural Arts Philadelphia: In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, artist Meg Saligman volunteered to paint this now iconic mural on the massive south facing wall of the Philadelphia Warehousing and Cold Storage building. The design was intended to appear slightly sad, as if unfurling down the side of the building. 

The mural was intended to be temporary, but has been become an iconic image for the city. It was refreshed in 2016.

Doing my best, but not very good, Rocky imitation in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

City view from the "Rocky Steps"

Now that's better!

The statue was created for a scene in Rocky III and was subsequently donated by Sylvester Stallone to the City of Philadelphia.

The Card Players - by Paul Cezanne

We are not big art museum people, but we do fit one in from time to time. We read and heard about The Barnes Foundation: that if you only see one museum in Philadelphia this is the one to visit.

The Barnes is home to one of the world's finest collections of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings. 

The collection includes:

181 works by Pierre-August Renoir (the largest single group of the artist's paintings in the world)

69 works by Paul Cezanne (more than in all of France)

59 works by Henri Matisse 

46 works by Pablo Picasso

and multiple works by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, and Edgar Degas.

 

The Smoker - by Vincent van Gogh

Dr. Albert C. Barnes acquired and arranged all of the works in the galleries between 1912 and 1951. The museum is rather small, considering the magnitude of it's collection, and the layout is unusual with it's small rooms displaying many works of art on each wall, along with artifacts and furniture.

I did this one...   Just kidding, it's a tapestry by Pablo Picasso called "Secrets (Confidences) or Inspiration"

In Brittany (En Bretagne) - by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Something really unique about this museum is that there were no explanatory plaques next to the art pieces (title, artist, etc.). Instead, we just scanned the art with our phones, and an info page popped up instantly.

I highly recommend visiting The Barnes if you are in Philadelphia. We may not know art (and we certainly don't) but we know what we like. And we liked The Barnes!

But we never miss a good prison tour!

 

The Eastern State Penitentiary, located in the heart of Philadelphia, was operational from 1829 until 1971. At its completion the building was the largest and most expensive public structure ever erected in the United States.

Not gettin' over that wall...

From Wikipedia:

Eastern State is considered to be the world's first true penitentiary. Eastern State's revolutionary system of incarceration, dubbed the "Pennsylvania system" or separate system, encouraged separate confinement as a form of rehabilitation. The warden was legally required to visit every inmate every day, and the overseers were mandated to see each inmate three times a day. 

 

The Pennsylvania system was opposed contemporaneously by the Auburn system (also known as the New York system), which held that prisoners should be forced to work together in silence, and could be subjected to physical punishment (Sing Sing prison was an example of the Auburn system). Although the Auburn system was favored in the United States, Eastern State's radial floor plan and system of solitary confinement was the model for over 300 prisons worldwide.

 

The solitary confinement system eventually collapsed due to overcrowding problems. By 1913, Eastern State officially abandoned the solitary system and operated as a congregate prison until it closed in 1971.

 

If you want to do a deeper dive on the Eastern State Penitentiary here is the Wikipedia link:

 

Eastern State Penitentiary - Wikipedia

This cell was reputedly occupied by Al Capone. Capone got his first taste of prison life in Philadelphia, serving seven months at Eastern State in 1929 after his arrest outside a movie theater for carrying a concealed, unlicensed .38 caliber revolver. Nowadays they'd put you on the City Council for that...

The cell was restored to this condition based on descriptions found in a pair of 1929 newspaper articles.

On the south side of Philly are two of the better known Cheesesteak shops. Spending a few hours behind bars can work up an appetite so, after the Penitentiary tour, we drove to the south side to try Pat's King of Steaks.

While it was fun to see the south side, Pat's came in third of the three cheesesteaks we ate while in Philly.

It was fun to watch the guys from the neighborhood hoopin' at the park across from Pat's

Our last activity before leaving Philly was a 90 minute day trip to Lancaster County to see Amish country.

The Lancaster Amish community (including adjacent counties) includes roughly 40,000 Amish, making it the largest Amish settlement in the world. This is roughly 6% of the total Lancaster county population of a half million people. There are about 375,000 Amish in the U.S.

We saw plenty of Amish in their horse drawn buggies, but getting a decent photo while driving was a challenge.

We did a driving and farmhouse tour. The tour operator was not Amish, but some of their employees were. 

A few of the things we learned about the Amish:

- Separation from the outside world is paramount to the Amish. Thus the taboo on electricity and public utilities. Batteries, generators, solar panels, and propane appliances are permitted. But there are no power or water lines running to Amish homes.

- Personal photographs are not carried, displayed, or permitted. This is because they can accentuate individuality and call attention to one's self.  The Amish hold humility as a highly-cherished value and view pride as a threat to community harmony. Because of this prohibition on personal photographs the Amish do not carry government issued photo ID, precluding them from traveling by airplane.

- Owning or operating a motorized vehicle is not permitted. The automobile in America is a symbol of freedom, independence, and mobility, which clashes with the traditional values of Amish culture. In short, travel by horse and buggy keeps the Amish physically close to their community. However, the Amish are allowed to use public transportation and hire or accept rides. The Amish do take employment outside of their farms and communities, so this loophole facilitates getting to work.

- The families are large: seven to ten children are not uncommon. As a result the growth rate of the Amish community is significant, doubling about every twenty years over the past century. 

- Amish children attend small one room Amish schools but only through eighth grade. The teacher is almost always an Amish female who also has an eighth grade education. After eighth grade the education is complete and the Amish work on the farm or learn a trade. (It's a fair bet that there won't be an Amish person awarded a Nobel prize anytime soon.)

- The Amish are not baptized until early adulthood, so that each member can decide if he or she wants to commit to the church. Four out of five young adults choose to become baptized.

- The Amish are generally exempted from paying into, or receiving benefits from, the Social Security System. Per the SSA: "The Amish believe it is sinful not to provide for their own elderly and needy and therefore are religiously opposed to the national social security system."

 

 

We had a hard time deciding which candle to buy. We finally settled on Monkey Farts!

Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and Delmarva??

Visited June 12-15, 2022

By Janell

Delaware is the second smallest state by area, measuring 1,954 square miles; (behind Rhode Island, at 1,045 square miles). 

Take a look at the shape of Delaware below. The two bodies of water (or Rorschach test inkblots) on the southeastern shore of the state are Rehoboth Bay (northern body) and Indian River Bay (southern body); our campground was located on that little piece of land that juts out right between the two bodies of water.

So, what and where is Delmarva? You remember me telling you about Kentuckiana, right? Well, this is much like that. Delmarva is a large peninsula comprised of most of the state of Delaware, and parts of Maryland and Virginia. 

Above is a map of the Delmarva Peninsula. The southern yellow area is the eastern shore of Virginia; the orange area is the eastern shore of Maryland; and the northern yellow area is part of Delaware. And there you have it: Delmarva!

Back to our campground: it was more of a resort than a campground, although as per our usual, we didn’t spend much time doing things in the campground. When I booked the campground in late January it was called “The Resort at Massey’s Landing”, and somewhere between then and our stay in June, the name changed to “Sun Outdoors - Rehoboth Bay”. Sun Outdoors has 175 locations in the U.S. and Canada. While I'm sure the place probably warranted the term "resort" back when it was called Massey's, I'm also sure Sun made some improvements that made it even more resort-like.

The campground had many little cottages like these pink ones. Different rows of cottages were different pastel colors. 

Look at the fleet of golf carts for rent! We were here at a fairly quiet time, and even so there were quite a few golf cart families tooling around, back and forth to the pools, etc. We couldn't even imagine what a zoo it would be if all of these golf carts were in circulation.

Sunset at the campground.

I know it seems as if it should be sunrise, given that we were on the east coast and all, but I was there . . . it was definitely sunset. There are a lot of inlets in the area, and apparently we were standing at one and facing west.

We rented a canoe at Trap Pond for a couple of hours. Trap Pond is home to the northern-most, naturally occurring stand of bald cypress trees. Never having heard of a "bald cypress" before, I had to look it up. Wikipedia says: It is native to the southeastern United States. Hardy and tough, this tree adapts to a wide range of soil types, whether wet, salty, dry, or swampy. I guess so, because these trees at Trap Pond are literally standing in water, and they don't seem to mind. 

We saw a lot of blue herons, like the four above.

We also saw a lot of painted lady turtles at the pond, but we didn't get any decent photos of them, unfortunately. They seemed a little camera-shy, slipping into the water just as we snapped a pic.

Canoeing on Trap Pond was a little eerie, but it was awesome!

After our canoe trip, we headed to Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in the nearby town of Milton, DE.

The Steampunk Treehouse, outside of the brewery

The Steampunk Treehouse was created in 2007 by artist Sean Orlando and the 5-Ton Crane Arts Group of Oakland, CA. It was first exhibited at the 2007 Burning Man festival in Nevada. It was displayed at a few other festivals before finally finding a permanent home here at the Dogfish Head Brewery in 2010.

The tree is 40' tall, 40' wide, weighs 8 tons, and was crafted in part from recycled and reclaimed materials.

The interior of the treehouse is restricted to Dogfish Head employees only. They use the space to "share ideas in a creative environment". Sounds like a really cool place to work!

On another day, we bicycled 17 miles on the Junction and Breakwater trails and through part of Cape Henlopen State Park. This is a viewing platform overlooking Gordons Pond.

Do you see the two towers on the horizon to the right of us (above)? We wondered about them.

Wonder no more:

There are thirteen of these concrete observation towers, and they were built between 1939 and 1942. Two towers are on the coast of New Jersey, and the other eleven dot Delaware’s coastline. They were built to protect the entrance to Delaware Bay during World War II – and to last about 20 years. They are still standing some 80 years later! 

The towers have been abandoned since the early 1960’s, with the exception of Tower 7. Tower 7 has been renovated and is open to the public; as it was a fairly warm day, we did not go out of our way to pedal over to Tower 7. 

On our way back to where the car was parked, we pedaled through the town of Lewes (pronounced like "Lewis"), and then we had lunch at the Big Oyster Brewery. 

Did you know that Delaware considers itself the "first state". It was the first state to vote in favor of the Constitution, to ratify it, on Dec. 7, 1787. Pennsylvania followed as #2 five days later. 

Lewes, Delaware considers itself "the first town, in the first state". It was first settled by the Dutch in 1631, so I guess by 156 years later when Delaware became the first state, Lewes was a shoo-in for first town. 

We also checked out Rehoboth Beach, which is a beach town similar to Santa Cruz, CA. Like Santa Cruz, they have a boardwalk, loaded with tourists and plenty of tacky shops selling T-shirts, ice cream, etc. 

They have amusement rides and a video arcade.

And most important, they have a beach, of course! A beach with rules regarding what kind of shade structure is allowed. They literally have size and shape limitations. Check out the sign above. 

Now you can see why they need to restrict the size of shade structures; and this is before the season really gets underway. We were told by a shop owner that things really get busy about the third week of June. We were here on June 15.

Our "campground" had a couple of pool areas, one of which had a swim up bar! Seriously! That's a first for a campground, in our experience. So, on our last night we made a point of going to the pool, just to say we did. We didn't swim up to the bar though -- it already had a crowd going, with all those golf cart folks. Fortunately for us, it was also accessible from dry land.