It has been about a year and a half since we were in Baltimore to visit Leah's birth family, and there is a new baby in the family! It was high time we reconnected with them. Additionally, Ine has been struggling with government all year, and I had arranged with her government teacher that if I took her on trips of historical significance to American government and she wrote short papers on her experiences, he would give her extra credit. The first place I had set in my sights was Philadelphia. Being that it's so close to Baltimore, a plan was hatched. It was all cemented when I found out my friend Amy would be in Philadelphia at the same time and I could finally meet her.
We left Fredericksburg around 9:30 on Friday morning. I was so excited to see the family. We brought lunch with us and arrived just as Leah's birth mother, Tasha, returned home from picking up her brother. Her older daughter ran over to grab Leah and give her a big hug and then we all went inside for a nice visit.
The word was out that Leah had arrived and soon the whole family was there. Although I have been very fortunate to meet much of the family several times, this was the first time they were almost all there, except for Leah's birth aunt, Mary. She got to spend time with her birth mother, grandmother, uncles, half sister and new baby half brother. Although I suppose it should have been Baby Z's day, I felt like Leah was kind of the star of the show. As you can see, she donned a festive pink hair extension for the occasion.
It was also neat for Ine in that she got to hold and snuggle a baby. For his part, Baby Z found Ine to be quite comfortable and he snuggled right into her and fell asleep. It made for a very sweet scene.
Ine said she couldn't remember holding a baby before, but she had good technique and obviously Z was right at home!
We finally tore ourselves away around 2:00 to head north. It was a bittersweet goodbye, but I was happy to see everyone, to have them see Leah, and to be able to hand Leah's birthmom her baby back was so moving and special to me. Ine got to experience some African-American culture and family life too, which I thought was great.
We drove up 95 with no problem and hit Philadelphia around 4:00. As we were driving up, Amy started texting me directions about where to meet her and her family. This is an AFS related story. As host parents, we often think that hosting our student is the way our world will expand. But little do you know that you will meet numerous other people along the way, and that is just as exciting a part of the journey. Amy is a case in point. In 2010, we hosted Penny from Thailand, and I happened upon a Hosting With AFS Facebook group, which I don't think exists anymore. I really hit it off with several other host moms, including Amy who was also hosting a girl from Thailand that year. We became Facebook friends, and started our own subgroup of host families from around the country--there were maybe 6 of us. In 2010, I met up with Leigh, who was hosting a boy from Sweden (I think!?) and in 2011 (I think), I met Katie and Vince from Kansas, who also hosted a Thai student that year, and were also adoptive parents of an African-American little girl.
But meeting Amy has been elusive. Till now. She was going to be in Philly when we were, and although they were there for a family funeral, her husband was cool with us all getting together for a few minutes. So, nearly 5 years and untold jokes about Tom Hanks and moths in the making, at a pho restaurant, Amy and I came face to face.
And it was so fun! I guess we maybe got half an hour to an hour together, and I got to meet her son and husband who I have followed on Facebook, and she got to meet Leah who was suddenly shy and Ine who she has been a big fan of too. We had a lovely visit and Amy has invited us to come up to Vermont during spring break to stay with their family for a couple of days, which I have accepted. AFS has not only made the world smaller, it has made the country smaller as well. <3
After meeting up with Amy and her family, we headed over to our hotel.
Here's the thing about Philadelphia. I don't know Philadelphia at all. All the other things I've done with Ine thus far, I've had good knowledge of where we were going and what we were doing. That is not the case with Philly. We had my phone's Google Maps at hand and we were flying blind otherwise. I had talked to a couple of people for advice about where to go and what to do, Amy included, but otherwise, we were just kind of winging it. Fortunately we made it to the hotel safely, got checked in, dumped off our bags (for one night, you'd have thought the 3 of us were moving in!), and decided to walk around and find someplace for dinner. We wandered in circles trying to find the Reading Terminal Market, which we did finally find. Leah wanted pizza, and Ine and I got cheesesteaks, because by the time we found the market, there was nothing else open! Still, if you're in Philly, that's kind of what you should have, right?
After dinner, which we took back to the hotel, we went down to the pool. I knew I didn't want to wander around Philly at night when I didn't know anything about it, so in doing the hotel search, I made sure there was an indoor pool available. This was a good call on my part! My little fish happily swam and we jumped in and out of the hot tub and pool for over an hour. The area around the pool was quite cool, so staying in the water was required, but we had races and water fights and there was a great deal of giggling and laughter from all three of us.
The next morning, we got dressed and checked out of the hotel. We were allowed to leave the car behind till 5:00, so we walked back to Reading Terminal Market for a breakfast at Profi's Creperie. The breakfast was quite delicious--the girls both had pancake platters and I had a crepe, and it was good. We were impressed by the variety of foods the market had, it would have been a fun place to explore in its own right. Many different ethnicities and nationalities were represented there and it would have been fun to do a taste testing! Maybe another time.
For now, though, we hit the trail and started walking towards Independence Plaza. The beauty of it was we had discovered signage the night before, and knew we just had to follow the signs. We arrived and found out we did not need tickets to Independence Hall or the Liberty Bell in January ,which was a nice bonus. I guess not enough people go in those months, so we were sent on through.The visitor's center has lots of Philadelphia wonders, including a tribute to Rocky and the Philadelphia Phillies' mascot. I got a few pictures of Leah with these guys, but I worry about giving Ine picture fatigue, so I only asked her to pose with Rocky, as that was going to be important to the second part of our day.
I haven't been to see these sites in probably almost 30 years. The Liberty Bell is now housed in a beautiful pavilion and overlooks Independence Hall. There is a nice display about the history of the bell, but I almost wish that had come after we saw the bell so I could answer questions about it. We got through security no problem and then walked through the exhibit, but Leah is a "get me to the star attraction" kind of girl, and Ine didn't much say if she wanted to stop and read things or not, so we plowed ahead.
After we were done at the bell, Leah talked to a park ranger and got a trading card and we went across the street to Independence Hall.
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| LET US IN! |
Getting into the Hall was an act of Congress. We literally circled the building trying to find a way in. There are barricades and fences and and guards all over the place. It must be more well guarded than Fort Knox. Eventually we found a door that looked somewhat promising, but in fact, it led to where the first Supreme Court of the US met.
We talked to an NPS ranger there, as I found it very interesting that even back in the beginning days of the country, we needed a Supreme Court to decide on cases. The ranger was exceptional--he was interesting and very informative, cheerful, just someone you could tell clearly loved his job. He told us to go out and turn left and we would be able to get into Independence Hall. So we followed his directions, but the only thing we met up with was a tent blocked off by another barricade. There was another kid wandering around trying to figure out how to get in, and we were all very confused. I didn't feel frustrated so much as I just wondered how exactly to get into the place. Finally, the kid opened another door, but he immediately shut it and said there were a lot of guards and he didn't think it was right. So I said, "I'm going to be bold and see what they can tell us in there" and I led the troops in through the door. Lo and behold, it was the right place, we just had to guess that a blank white door was the correct door. Go figure! We went through security again, no problem, and were finally out in the courtyard. The ranger said that there would be a talk in 15 minutes, but that we could go explore the West Wing if we wanted, so we did.
Inside the West Wing was a coyp of the Declaration of Independence that was printed as a broadsheet on July 4, 1776! So cool! There were also copies of the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution from that time. Around back there was the inkstand that the Founding Fathers used to sign these documents. It was a beautiful thing to see!
We went back outside and got on the line to go into the Hall itself. The same ranger from our tour of the early Supreme Court was our interpreter for the hall, and I was so pleased about that because he really was exceptional. And finally we got to see the room where the United States was born and the Continental Congress was held.
It's kind of awesome to know where your country was formed and be able to visit that specific place. Even cooler is to know that the chair in the top center of the room was where George Washington sat and presided over everything as the country was formed. The early rock stars of the US were all in this room at some point, doing the hard work of founding the nation, developing laws and ideals that we grapple with nearly 250 years later. It's humbling when you consider that I can barely figure out a weekly menu and shopping list for the family!
We really enjoyed the tour very much, and I hope Ine can write an interesting paper for her teacher about her experience there. She agreed with me about the ranger and how good and interesting he was. I don't know how she felt about the visit itself, it probably wasn't the most thrilling thing we've ever done, but it was the first time I've done this trip with an AFSer and I was pleased that I had been brave enough to undertake it and to get us there.
On the way back, we stopped in at Ben Franklin's grave. I remembered this from going with my parents when I was young. The grave is a flat stone behind an iron fence, and I remember it being a thing that you had to toss a penny onto the stone, and if it stayed, you got good luck. So I took the girls and we dug around till we found some pennies and tossed them on the stone. All of our coins stuck, so we all have good luck!
Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel, stopped for hot cocoa and snacks, and retrieved the car. My plan for the next part of our day was to go to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Ine and I both like art, and I thought I could get Leah interested at least somewhat. Plus, I wanted us to run the Rocky Steps. We found parking right away, although paying for it was a problem as all the kiosks were broken! As we headed up to the museum, it was hailing and raining--we couldn't have picked a worse time to be wandering around the city, but our spirits were high as we looked to conquer the steps of the museum.
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| We picked a lousy day to visit the city! |
My sister had advised me that there was a statue of Rocky at the base of the steps, so we stopped there to get a picture. There was a homeless man there who was taking pictures for tips, so I gave him my phone and he got what may be my favorite picture of the three of us ever.
Then it was time to conquer the steps. It was actually no problem. The girls ran up first and I went behind them, videotaping their ascent. All three of us made it to the top and were fine. We went inside and got tickets and Leah saw more stairs, which to her meant more time to climb! Ine gamely ran behind her, dutiful big sister that she is.
Leah took a very kamikaze approach to looking at art. That is to say, she ran past it, shrieking. I was also advised that I could look at whatever I wanted, so long as the people had clothes on. Ine was far more studious and so I kept Leah busy so Ine could enjoy herself. I did eventually steer our little group into the Impressionists wing, as that is my favorite art, and I was pleased to see two different paintings by Mary Cassatt that I hadn't seen before, which made my day.
After more stair climbing, Leah was tired, and so we let Ine wander a bit through a photography exhibit and we sat on a bench so Leah could rest. When we had seen what we could of the museum, we headed out to our last stop of the day, the Llanerch Diner in Upper Darby.
I was a great fan of the movie Silver Linings Playbook, and Ine said she liked it too, so I thought it would be fun to go and see the diner where they had their tea and raisin bran. Google Maps got us there, and it is clear to see that they know many people come because of its association with the movie. The wait staff wear t-shirts from the movie, and the booth were Bradley and Jennifer sat has a plaque over it. There was also a large movie poster in the front. We ordered classic diner fare--Greek sampler, spaghetti, and a club sandwich, and it was CRAZY good and huge portions. Then we piled in the car for the ride home.
I'd been hoping to make it on one tank of gas, and I believe we would have except that we hit some bad traffic on account of the weather. So we stopped off in Fairfax to get gas and use the restrooms. We were all revived from that and I took a minute to retrieve our snacks from the back of the car. While we were in the Wawa by the hotel that morning, we went on the prowl for more bizarre potato chips, like we had eaten when Ine first got here in September (I think?). The WaWa did not disappoint--we found Cajun Dill Gator-Tators, Spicy Cajun Crawtators, and Voodoo flavored chips. I had also brought black and white drizzled popcorn from home. We broke into them and started a taste test.
The verdict? Voodoo was quite good, Gator Tators weird but edible if one was starving, Crawdad completely inedible. Ine and I got crazy and mixed Voodoo with the popcorn. There was a lot of giggling and crunching for the last hour we were in the car, but it was a great pick me up and pushed us through to the end of the trip.
In all, I'd say it was a very successful trip. I got to experience something new, and we all had a really fun time. I felt like we were really a family on this trip, and it gave me hope for our upcoming trips, as it is clear we travel well together.
That was the end of our Christmas break--the next day was Sunday and I kind of mentally checked out, being so tired. So now you are up to date as of this week! Thanks for following our journey. Who knows where it will lead next!
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