Walking Around Philadelphia

Around noon, I headed out back towards Independence Hall. Across the street from city hall, which itself is a very impressive old building, is a garden of statues. What I didn't expect was all of the old building completely surrounded by all the new, modern high rises. It is most apparant in the photo of Independence Hall. In all of the pictures I've ever seen, there was never a high rise building behind the bell tower. I guess that's why they have PhotoShop. It was a very hot and humid walk with the humidity occasionally turning into rain.

Not really knowing what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there wasn't even an admission charge to see the Liberty Bell. There was a short line in front of me but there was a nice little museum that I could explore until the crowd moved on. I'm not sure why tour groups feel that they all need to move around in a clump. After taking my photographs, I looked into one of the double decker bus tours around town but decided to pass on the $25 charge. I headed back towards the center of town stopping briefly to have a light lunch at a mall food court.

I stopped at the Franklin Institute which is a science museum but there were piles of school busses parked in front. There must have been a hundred people in line for admission plus it was $37. I also decided to pass. It may be a great museum but it was already 2:30pm and they would only be open for a couple more hours so it didn't seem worth it. There are numerous art museums right in the area around Logan Square so maybe tomorrow. I went to the Suburban Station which is where I will be catching the train to the airport tomorrow and there was another pretty nice shopping mall between all of the train and trolley areas.

Friday morning update - The Franklin Institute has multiple admission prices. Basic admission is $16.50, more reasonable amount. The higher admission gives you access to the Dead Sea Scrolls special exhibit and an IMAX movie.

The Franklin Institute is the oldest science museum in the U.S. and it was worth going to. The Exploratorium in San Francisco and OMSI in Portland have much more extensive exhibit space and more hands on exhibits. The planetarium show on black holes was pretty good though I don't have many others to compare it with. It would have been nice to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit as I have been fascinated with that since I was a kid...

The steam locomotive, a 350-ton Baldwin 60000, has been in the museum since 1933 after only a short time in service. It is huge! This shot is looking from the rear of the tender towards the front and, as you can see, the wheels of the tender are driven as well. Three boilers and coal fed by a screw into the firebox. The railroads decided that they didn't want such a heavy engine as it was increasing track maintenance costs so the engine was donated to the museum (yet to be built) and the building was built around the exhibit. The train does move as part of the exhibit (10.5 ft @0.06mph) and there was a wonderful staff member to guide visitor through the operation of a steam locomotive.

If you thought that typing on an iPad keyboard was awkward, try this typewriter. The inverse circular arrangement of the keys would really make it difficult.

One of the major attractions is a walk-through heart and I couldn't figure out a way to get a decent photo, but this bone bench seemed almost as interesting to my mind.

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