Liberty, Independence, Cheesesteaks

We're going to Philadelphia. A Thanksgiving day at home, then on Friday we head to Philly. We'll stay there a couple of nights, coming back Sunday, though I know that's a terrible day to travel. Maybe we'll go back roads.

Sarah knows Virginia and Maryland well. She loves Baltimore, does well in Richmond and Norfolk, but her experience of cities north of the Mason-Dixon line is limited to smaller places like Gettysburg, Lancaster, and York. We asked if she'd like a small city/country trip or a big city and she promptly said big city. We said, great, let's go to Philadelphia and she said no, let's go to New York. I dearly hope to show her New York in the coming year, but it ain't possible on a Thanksgiving holiday when we're having Thanksgiving at home, unless you do something like my insane friend Marty Berglas and I did back in about 1970ish when my Dad was in Washington: we drove him to New York, showed him everything on a Sunday, but only got out of the car for lunch. It was a "that's the United Nations, that's the Empire State Building, we'll drive through Central Park.." sort of thing. Lunch was Katz's Deli on the Lower East Side. (If you've never been to New York, most people will recognize Katz's Deli from the "I'll have what she's having" scene in "When Harry Met Sally.") (If you have been to New York and don't know Katz's deli, I can't help you.) My Dad's entire experience of New York in his life was limited to one Sunday, and we drove back to DC that night. We were young and crazy. But my Dad at least saw the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and I guess (I think they were built by then) the World Trade Center Towers. I'm too old to do that stuff anymore, and Sarah deserves better. (So did my Dad, but neither he nor I had the money then.) But then, back to Philadelphia.

I noted in the previous post that Sarah likes the movie "National Treasure." It's hard to describe the film if you haven't seen it since it involves stealing the Declaration of Independence to find the lost treasure of the Knights Templars and stuff even less probable than that, if possible, but it's filmed in real historical sites including Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, etc. So she's seen a lot of central Philly (including things like Reading Terminal Market, which ought to be good for lunch). (Other parts of the movie are set in DC and New York, and she's seen most of the DC sites and we're getting her ready for the Big Apple.) To me, Sarah is insisting she thinks Philadelphia will be boring, but Tam informed me that it was all she could talk about on the way to school this morning. (Tam drops her off; I pick her up.) And we're explaining good Italian food, good pizza, and soft pretzels and, of course, cheesesteaks. (I still think if John Kerry had not asked for Swiss Cheese instead of Cheese Whiz on his cheeseteak, he might be President today. It certainly doomed him in Philly.)

Anyway I will of course blog the trip, post photos and videos. We'll be staying in the suburbs at King of Prussia (great name for a town, I've always thought, especially in Philadelphia), near Valley Forge, another place I hope we can show Sarah. She had a great-great-great-great-great-grandfather -- William Martin of the Virginia Line -- who spent that winter of 1777 -- just 230 years ago this winter -- with the army there. It always moved me at Valley Forge even before I learned I had an ancestor there. I have his comments on it in his pension application and should dig those out. (They aren't a major contribution: something like "he well remembers the winter at Valley Forge and the hardships there" He was a Virginian who after the war moved first to Georgia and then to Tennessee, so I'd imagine he had more colorful things to say about the winter at Valley Forge, at least the temperature, in person.)

I think Sarah's eager, but doing the usual 7 year old feigning of boredom since it's Daddy's idea. We'll see.

We're also promoting the Franklin Institute and the Archaeology Museum at Penn, but if I can just get her to the Liberty Bell I'll be happy. But then, she's at an age to first resist, then love. The Marine Corps Museum she didn't want to visit, then didn't want to leave. Ditto with many other adventures. I'm sure Philadelphia will captivate her.