September 16, 2008

Tuesday 16~~~On the road again this morning to drive to Philadelphia to see Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross home and the United States Mint. Finding a parking place is the hardest part of driving in these big cities. Our truck is too tall for the parking garages, so we have to use street parking and that is no fun. Kent is very patient in driving around looking for a spot and we usually find one within a decent walking distance. Or maybe Sharon is getting used to the walking and thinks it is closer than what it really is. LOL After a few trips around the blocks, a parking space opened up and it was perfect for walking to the different sites we want to see. We first went and got our tickets for the tour of "Independence hall", that is the only one you needed tickets for. On our way across the street, we stopped and viewed the "Liberty Bell", we were both rather surprised how small it really is. We didn't have time to read a lot of things about it, as we had 10 minutes to get across the street and for the tour of Independence Hall. We had to cross with the light a t the end of the block, so Sharon decided to Jay walk!! Luckily Kent stopped her, because while we were in line a lady did try it and the security guard caught her and really embarrassed her with his whistle. The tour was was very informative and not too long. Kent is really enjoying what he is learning about the history of our country. (pictures) We walked through the park to the place of the "Revolutionary Unknown Soldiers" tomb. (picture)
Most of the people were eating sack lunches in the park, so we decided to stop and eat at one of the deli's here. Next we walked back to the truck, as we had to leave our camera there while we toured the "Philadelphia Mint". No cameras or cell phones are allowed in there, it is a self guided tour, and it is very interesting. we sure learned a lot there. # 1, we didn't know there was so much money in the world!!! LOL There are 4 mints, Philadelphia, PA and Denver, CO for coins for circulation San Francisco, CA for the proof sets and West Point, NY for the Commemorative Coins. It took the coiners of the 1st US mint 3 years to produce one million coins. Today we do one million coins in 30 minutes. Roosevelt dimes are produced 750 per minute. 50% of coin production is pennies. 6 billion will be made this year. (no wonder people don't bother to pick one up if they drop it.) Pennies are made of 97.5 zinc and 2.5 copper. Why is Lincoln facing right when the other coin portraits face left?? Victor Brenner the designer of the cent used photographs for the design and Lincoln was facing right in the photographs. I thought I would write a little trivia to test your skills. There were pictures on the walls down very long hallways and display cases of all the coins minted. They have several large windows where we could watch them make the coins. They had 4 security guards outside and 2 were running the scanner as you walked through. We thought it was easier than going through the scanner at the court house in Salem. The tour was very interesting and I would recommend it to anyone who goes to Phliadelphia. From here we went back to the truck to get our cell phones and the camera (the phones we are not without in case we get separated). Kent went to the bank and Sharon went to tour the Betsy Ross home. She was asked to make the first flag for the United States by George Washington. She had 3 husbands in her lifetime which was unusual for that period of time. She raised a large family and the story of her life was quite interesting. After we got through we drove home and fixed dinner, watched TV and wrote on the blog. We are leaving for Maryland in the morning. We are getting closer to the White House. Yesterday Kent got on the computer and got on Gordon Smith's web site and he asked for help getting a tour of the White House. We are not sure if we can get them on such short notice.