Philly and New York.... finally

Today was the day we drive to New York. But first.... there was some Philli to do ;)

We booked our Independence Hall tour for 1:20 pm so we had lots of time. So we managed a little bit of sleep in time before we headed down for breakfast. The breakfast at the hotel was a bit more advanced so that means there was a lot of people wanting breakfast. It was quite the line up but we did manage to get some breakfast before they shut it down.

After breakfast and packing up, we checked out of the hotel, put all our stuff in the van, and then went on a walk down through Philly. We walked down to the park by Independence Hall and took in seeing the Liberty Bell up close. After that, we wandered around the old downtown and saw the sights. We visited Elfreth's Alley (the longest continually habituated street in the USA), we visited the gravesite of Benjamin Franklin (and a few others who had signed the declaration of independance), and we had lunch at the Market before jumping in the van and heading down to Independance Hall to make our tour. We weren't sure about parking but we had a strong belief in ourselves.

It turns out we probably shouldn't have. There was no parking at all. We drove around in a desperation until we finally pulled into a parking garage near the hall that was "valet". We just accepted the risk and the cost and dropped the van off as we ran down the street to try and make our appointment. We ended up behind the building which wasn't the right place so we we then had to run all the way around the front... and we still made it on time.

We had our tour of the court house and the room where they signed the declaration, and then we grabbed the van and hit the road to New York.

It was slightly raining which was fun but it obscured the majesty of the city as we drove in. I got to check something off my bucket list as I got to drive my van from the south end of Manhattan all the way up through Hell's Kitchen to our hotel. And I never hit anyone.

We checked in to the hotel and I parked the van in a parking garage across the street. It is going to cost us an arm and half a leg but it is really the only option we had.

The first night we just headed out for a walk. We stopped for supper at Chic-Fil-A (we had never been), we caught glimpses of the empire state building, and then we walked all the way up 7th avenue right to Times Square and just walked around it a bit. The smell of Pot is overpowering and the crowds were crazy. Just what we wanted. After a short period of time we headed back to our hotel for our first night. Our hotel is right next to a police station so are a little nervous about sirens but the family rooms here are supposed to be pretty quiet.

Our hotel has a room with 2 queen beds and then another room with a bunk bed and a sofa bed. So everyone gets their own bed for this week.

Tomorrow will be a lot of walking as we head up to the park and take in the Met. It should be a great day.

Final Stats:
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