Philadelphia

Took a ride into Philadelphia today to see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Christ Church, and the home of Betsy Ross.  We are staying at a NACO park near Port Republic, NJ.  The trip into Philadelphia took about and hour.  Parking was $18 and paid about $8 in toll fees.  Traffic was not bad going in, but a little busy coming home.

Gary really wanted to see the Liberty Bell.  Had to stand in line for bag check.

This is George Washington’s copy of the constitution.  He made a change in a date on the paper.

Independence Hall.  Need to get tickets, free, from the national park desk.  We were there by 10:00 and all were gone, so we did not get to tour the inside.

no tickets required to tour the senate floor.

need to pay to tour inside of house.

Flight 93 Memorial

Most of us can remember where we were and what we were doing on Sept. 11, 2001.  Flight 93 was the last plane to crash, killing all 40 aboard.  Via phone conversations with family and friends, passengers aboard the flight learned about the other attacks and decided that take over the plane after the 4 terrorists had taken control.

While the memorial is not finished, completion date is Sept 11, we were very moved by the things that we saw.  The building that houses the temporary visitor’s center was in the flight path of flight 93.

One of the things I learned was that a Bible was found 15 feet away from the crash.  It was later returned to the family.

We were able to talk to a volunteer that lived in the woods just to the left of the crash site.  She had left 11 minutes before the crash to spend the day with her girlfriend after hearing of the attacks on the twin towers.  She has since been volunteering her time at the memorial.

chart of flight 93 with timeline of other attacks.  Flight 93 had been delayed for 25 minutes.

Flag is location of where flight 93 went down.  The authorities had the large hole filled in after they dug down 40 feet and determined there was nothing new to be found.

Flight 93 flew over this building before crashing.  This building served as the headquarters for the investigation and now serves as the temporary visitor’s center.