History in the making

     Let me make something perfectly clear right out of the gate. I am not a history buff. I don't think I learned much in history my classes. I am not much for geography either and couldn't tell you much about where certain countries are or their social skills and currency. That being said, I highly recommend doing historical trips. I had the opportunity to take a trip to New York and Pennsylvania a while back. As I was researching where we would be going I mapped out what I would like to see. Sit back, this week is going to be a bit long.
     Our first stop was Niagara Falls.
     Now I am a sucker for any kind of waterfall anyway so this was a given. If there is a waterfall within 50 miles of where I am going, I want to see it. To stand in the presence of such power and beauty was absolutely mind boggling plus knowing that it spans between the U.S. and Canada was also an interesting fact.

But it was just our first stop on our very interesting historical trip. We drove from Buffalo, New York to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. WOW, who knew Philadelphia was such a cool place. Now, I may not be a history buff but I love to look at OLD buildings and Philadelphia has some REALLY OLD buildings with some really cool stories. We will get to that in a minute. When we were pulling into Philadelphia there was one stop I had to make! ROCKY! I can hear the music playing now.

The statue used to sit at the top of the stair that he ran in the movie leading up to the art museum you see in the photo. They had to move it because too many people gathered outside the museum and never made into the museum. Too many running the stairs! Why yes, I did run those stairs. I mean who wouldn't? Is this really history though? I mean it's from a movie for crying out loud. Well considering it was written by Sylvester Stallone(a no name at the time) and he starred in the movie that won an Academy Award for Best Picture in 1976, a movie that is now being preserved in the U.S. Film Registry, I would say, yes, yes it is history!
     But if you want history that is studied in school, Philadelphia is PACKED with it.

The Liberty Bell! The bell was made famous because it rang on July 8th, 1776 to call the towns people to town square for the first reading of the Declaration of Independence. It is actually not clear how or when the bell cracked but if you look close you can see a whole section of the bottom of the bell is missing. In 1846 it was taken down because it was too damaged.

Declaration House. This is where Thomas Jefferson lived while he wrote the Declaration of Independence.

Independence Hall. This is where the Declaration of Independence was signed. 

To see the place where your country started, is absolutely fascinating. Our founding fathers walked the streets and lived right here. Ben Franklin is buried here.

This is Elfreth's Ally. The nations oldest residential street. Houses that date back centuries are all over Philadelphia. 

We also had to make a stop in at McGillins Old Ale House. It's the oldest, continually operating pub in the area. It dates back to 1860. It has never shut down! 

Seeing the sights of Philadelphia gave me a love for history and a passion to find other places of historic significance to visit. There is nothing like seeing the actual locations where history was made and walking in the footprints of people who made a difference in our nation and culture.