Our last day in Philly was pretty activity-filled. We went to my high school to see if they were having band camp as it used to be the first week of August. However, there was no band camp. They moved it to the last week of August years ago. But fortunately my band director was there doing some work on the band room, so we spent about forty-five minutes catching up.
The bummer of the day was that tickets for tours of Citizens Bank Park, the new home of the Phillies, were sold out. So not only could I not catch a game, but I couldn't even get in the park. But that did not deter us from going down there. After the visit to my high school, we went down to the Philly sports complex and spent thirty minutes or so walking around the new park and taking pictures. It's a very nice park. Hopefully I can catch a game the next time I'm in town.
After our ballpark drooling, we went to downtown Philly -- in particular, Independence Hall -- to see the sights. The kids visited Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell in 2001, but Philly had since added some new buildings and I thought we could check those out. There is a brand new, much larger building for the Liberty Bell, a new historical Philadelphia visitors center, and the National Constitution Center. It's amazing how much they've done in such a short time. None of these new buildings is small by any means.
We also tried to visit the U.S. Mint just north of Independence Hall, but it turns out you can't just walk in and take a tour, you have to book tours in advance. So that's on the agenda for the next visit.
After downtown, it was old friend visiting time again. We spent several hours visiting high school and family friends before our departure.
We leave tomorrow morning, but I'm supposed to be back in a month for a wedding. Though that will just be me, without the kids, and only for a couple of days.
No comments:
Post a Comment