road trip to Philly!

The other day, AC asked what we were doing on Tuesday and Wednesday. Nothing. Why? Some friends from Mississippi were going to be in Philadelphia. Did we want to crash their visit and go see Independence Hall? Umm ... this is ME you're talking to. I love a spontaneous road trip. And seeing long distance friends is a great bonus!

So on Tuesday, we packed a backpack of clothes for each of the girls and I loaded the van while Sunny was at her ballet class. We picked her up at class, went straight to Dad's office to pick him up at work, and 4 hours later, we were at our hotel just outside Philly. Wednesday, we headed into downtown and visited Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and the National Constitution Center across the street.

Listening to the National Parks Ranger in the outer room of Independence Hall. He was really enthusiastic, and did a great job at keeping our girls' attention. Which, sadly, is still pretty hard to do at historic sites where you CAN'T TOUCH anything.

Dad and his girls on the lawn at Independence Hall

Yay for the Liberty Bell!

Sunny worked with her friends (the group behind her) on the Junior Ranger packet - it was pretty extensive - and earned her badge.

The National Constitution Center focuses a lot of its main presentation on the phrase "We The People." This was to represent that anyone from any walk of life can participate in our government.

After a 20-minute presentation about "We the People," we went through exhibits about various sections of the Constitution. There were voting booths, a Court bench, and even a green screen to get "sworn in" as the President. My kids played with any computer monitor they found but had no idea what they were doing. The Constitution Center is unfortunately still out of age-range for our small kids, and even our not-so-small kids. I'd recommend it for upper elementary and older but not really under age 10. There's a reason civics and government aren't taught before 5th grade. Now I know. But never fear. We'll be back.