Saturday

I knew the line for tickets will be long so I dressed and ran to the visitor center for txs to Independence Hall.  Man, it was COLD, I forgot to wear my hat, and the wind just froze my ears.  I saw Penn's Landing by the water, and ran to Chinatown, which was bustling.  Phily does not have as many walkers as NYC or even New Haven.  Maybe it was just that I was early.

 
 Kurtis:

auntie Kathy & uncle Mac

I somehow woke up when mom woke up, even though today was the day that I was allowed to sleep in. So I pretended that I was asleep until mom left and then turned on the TV. After five minutes, I hear the turning of a doorknob, so I scrabble for the remote and to get back in bed, but mom is too quick and is wondering why I am up. She came up to get the key for the building, but since she saw that I was up, she just threw the responsibility on me to go downstairs (six flights of stairs) just to let her in. Like, she can't carry a 3 oz. key??? So she goes on her way to go get tickets to see Independence hall and I watch TV, well, what I can watch with three channels. Channel 5,7, and 9. That was all I had. On channel 5, there was this cooking show, on channel 7, miscellaneous news, and on channel 9, random fashion and movie previews. I ended up watching channel 5 for most of the time, and on that channel, they showed how to prepare a fresh garden salad, a lightly roasted turkey, and a light bread pudding for dessert. To intensify my hunger even more,  all of the hosts and the cook ate the meal at the end of the show. After that cooking show, there was also a gardening show. This "master gardener" was showing the audience what fertilizer to use, what weed-whacker to use, what grub killer to use. He even explained that you have to kill the grubs when they are still young. Then we checked out and went to see independence hall. We walked over there in freezing-cold weather. We first explored the west hall, and then went in Independence Hall. It was pretty close to the photos, and we had a pretty good tour guide/informant. He brought us through each of the rooms and explained the importance/significance of each part. There was the symbolic rising/setting sun chair, and Benjamin Franklin said that it was a rising sun and that it symbolized our nation. We then watched a film in the Independence Hall Information Center about what the founding fathers would say if they saw America today. Then we went back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and head to Baltimore. The innkeeper told us about this awesome local Philly Cheese Steak Place that we tried. IT WAS AWESOME!!! albeit expensive. We then went back to the hotel for the last time, picked up our luggage and picked up the car from the car garage. We had to pay $18 for parking it for 24 hrs. We then proceeded to drive to UPenn, or the University of Pennsylvania. We couldn't go into the freshman dorms because we were late for the tour. After a look-see, we drove to Uncle Mack's house which was in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!!!(in Hampsted , Maryland

breakfast at Thomas Bond, YUM