Day 7 - Philadelphia, PA and New York, NY

Day 7 - Kirtland to Boston trip July/August 2024
July 30th, 2024 - Philadelphia, PA and New York, NY

Tuesday, July 30, 2024 - Day 7

We got up, packed our bags, then left our bags at the Hotel check. We took backpacks with water and snacks and walked through the University of PA campus. 

The LOVE sculpture on the U of PA campus

We took to the subway into the city, walked through the town hall building, and into Reading terminal. On our walk down to the historic district, we passed by the Chinatown gateway.

READING Terminal

Across the street from Benjamin Franklin's grave were both the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank and the US Mint. We toured both!

We each received a small bag of shredded money after our tour

The mint didn't give us anything for free after our tour :( but Taycen got a souvenir quarter the size of his palm, and Jair got a souvenir bottle with gold leaf flakes. Both tours were really neat to see.

We then walked past a monument to Benjamin Franklin for founding the first Fire Department, Betsy Ross' house and Elfreth’s Alley

Past the Christ Church, which was founded in 1695. Christ Church hosted members of the Continental Congress during the American Revolution and Presidents George Washington and Adams in the first decade of the newly established Republic

Next was Franklin Court, where Benjamin Franklin grew up, owned businesses, and built his own house. We saw the Printing Office, the first Franklin Post Office, and the ghost frame of where Franklin's house, that he had built for his family once stood. 

At 11 AM, we had arrived at Independence Hall for our scheduled tour time.

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, in Independence Hall, heard their cases in this room beginning around 1743.

The Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were both signed in this Assembly Hall

The line for the Liberty bell was too long, but there were many viewing windows to the side of the enclosure that have us a clear view of the bell.

For lunch Jair and Natalie had Philly cheesesteak at Campos and Taycen and Joe had pizza at the Wood Fire Pizza place next door. 

After lunch, we then got on the PHLASH, a bus for tourists and loops to all of the major city sights. It was $12 for a family for the day. We went to the Art Museum where the Rocky statue stands, then made a loop around the city.  We had some extra time, so we went back to Betsy Ross house took a tour of the house. 

We realized we were cutting time short so we hopped on the subway to our hotel. Grabbed our bags and tool an Uber to the Mega Bus pickup stop which would take us to New York City. Joe had payed extra so we could sit at the very front of the top of the double decker bus. It was very scenic and quite impressive to see everything. The bus ride was about 2 hours.

On the way in and out of the city, we were able to see the temple 

We arrived in New York city at around 8 PM. We walked a few blocks to our hotel, Hampton Inn Manhattan/Times Square. We stayed here 2 nights. When we arrived, we walked around Times Square with all its flashing lights and tons of people. We found a burger place, had dinner, then walked back to our hotel.