Philly Day Two

Today we were up and out early. Much earlier than I would have liked. It reminded my why I enjoyed traveling in London alone. Nobody else to make happy.
We started back at the Independence Visitor's Center since Mom hadn't seen any of it; and got tickets for Independence Hall (yes I did this again). Different tour guide, entirely different set of information provided. Still quite interesting. This time the guide was impressing upon us the fact that there almost wasn't a United States of America. Because when the Articles of the Confederation were written, each state was given total sovereignty. So, 9 of the thirteen states had navies, all thirteen had their own currency. Basically it was chaos and other countries saw this and started preying on the small states. This was when it was decided that they had to form some sort of Union. And then the Founding Fathers spent an entire summer arguing over what this would look like and what form the National government would take.
We also saw the Liberty Bell today. Wow. We were able to get up close; close enough to touch it, but I think the two park rangers who were standing right there would have had issue with that. But I have pictures; I've been to the Liberty Bell. What an amazing symbol of our freedom.
We took a break for lunch and then went to the Constitution Museum. Yes, there is an entire museum dedicated to the Constitution, and it's huge. Tons of interactive things to do. It was really interesting and a further education on the government of this country. The more time I spend here, the more I'm amazed at how forward thinking the Founding Fathers were. The document they wrote over 200 years ago has only been amended 27 times since then. How truly impressive. It does give me hope for all of the new democracies in the world.
There was a separate exhibit at the museum called Eyewitness. It is on loan from the National Archives in DC. They are all eye witness accounts of historic moments. Letters from WWII when Dachau was first found by the Allies. A radio report from the destruction of the Hindenburg. President Carter's Diary entry from when Pope John Paul II first visited the States. Rose Kennedy's Diary entry from when she and Ambassador Kennedy were living in London prior to the start of WWII when they stayed at Windsor Castle and met the King and Queen. The German U-boat Captain's account of sinking the Lusitania. It was truly fascinating; and I'm quite glad I got to see it.
After that we went to Franklin Court. It's the land where Ben Franklin's house once stood. There's a museum there and a "ghost outline" of the space the house would have filled. Because there is no good historical information as to what his house looked like, they chose not to reconstruct it. It was okay, but if you're short on time here in the city, it's totally something that can be skipped.
Then we went to dinner at an Afghani restaurant, called Kabul. The food was AWESOME. As an appetizer I had pastries filled with pumpkin and spices served with yogurt, for dinner I had lamb with raisins, and pistachios, and carrots served over brown rice, and for dessert I had basically fried dough with pistachios and sugar and other spices. Oh, and Afghani Iced Tea (iced tea with cardamom and mint). The meal was just amazing, I really can't say enough about it. Other than it's probably a good thing that there aren't restaurants this good back home, I'd go broke eating out all the time.
Tomorrow...TUT!!!