May 11, 2013 Philadelphia
With 60% chance of rain we decided to drive to Philadelphia instead of cleaning the boat.
Our first stop was Independence National Historical Park where so much of our Colonial, Revolutionary and Federal-period heritage has been preserved.  This is where Americans began their quest for freedom and independence. Here, too, the United States was born and its ideals enacted in the Constitution.

The Liberty Bell is an international symbol of freedom.  In 1753 it was hung in the State House,
now knows as Independence Hall, which is in the background.  It summoned the Pennsylvania to
work.  In the 1830's anti-slavery groups named it the Liberty Bell.  the bell cracked about 1846.
but its message still rings out.

Delegates meeting in the Assembly Room o the Pennsylvania State House, now called Independence Hall,
created the Declaration of Independence and t.he Constitution. In this room is where the
Declaration was signed.

This room in Congress Hall is where George Washington was sworn in for a second term as President.
In this same room is where John Adams was sworn in as our second President as Washington
observed.  Washington walked in as a President and walked out the side door as a common citizen.

Elfreth's Alley, popularly knows as "Our nation's oldest residential street", dates back to the
first days of the eighteenth century.  Twenty years after William Penn founded Pennsylvania and established Philadelphia as its capital, the town had grown into a thriving prosperous mercantile center on the banks of the Delaware River.