In July of 2019, Mom, Dad and I joined the Burtons on an American history tour of Philadelphia, New York and Boston. The main reason for the trip was to hear Ricky sing in the Millennial Choir and Orchestra performance at Carnigie Hall, so our itinerary centered around that amazing performance.
We began our trip in Philadelphia, which is such a cool city that has so many historical places to visit, I loved our time here. We began with an early morning visit to the temple, with Ben, Will, Karin, Ricky and Dad. We walked there from our hotel, so we got to see the city in the calm of the morning, before the bustle of the day began.
The Philadelphia temple is so beautiful and peaceful, both inside and out on the grounds. Like most of the temples around the world, there are several design details that celebrate the culture and history of the city in which it is built. The architects of this temple, studied several of notable buildings around Philadelphia, such as Christ Church's tower, Independence Hall, and the Franklin Institute when designing this temple.
The ode to Philadelphia's history begins in the foyer where there is a small seating area with a painting of the founding fathers signing the U.S. Constitution in Independence Hall in 1783, and the colors of the furniture and rugs are predominantly red, white and blue. The interior is also designed in a Georgian style as another representation of early American history.
The Philadelphia motifs continued in the baptistry, the wood-top railing surrounding the baptismal font was influenced by the stair railing in the Franklin Institute, which we would be visiting later that day. It also features a motif of the mountain laurel blossom, Pennsylvania's state flower.
After our time in the temple, we leisurely walked back to our hotel to meet up with the rest of the fam for breakfast. We passed by lots of famous buildings, photo ops, and signs on our way back.
The breakfast buffet at our hotel was so nice, with lots of delicious options. The boys really loved the waffle station, where they could get freshly cooked, crispy waffles with the Liberty Bell in the middle!
The rest of the day was spent at the Franklin Institute. Founded in 1824, the Franklin Institute is one of the oldest centers of science education and development in the United States, it is named after the American scientist and statesman, Benjamin Franklin, and houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial.
The most recognizable part of the Franklin Institute's Science Center is the Franklin Institute Science Museum. In the spirit of inquiry and discovery embodied by Benjamin Franklin, the mission of the Franklin Institute Science Museum serves to inspire an understanding of and passion for science and technology learning. Among other exhibits, the Science Museum holds the largest collection of artifacts from the Wright brothers' workshop.
Karin, Ricky, John, Ben, Will and I started our time at the Institute in a galactic themed escape room, while grammy and grandpop took the younger boys exploring in other parts of the museum.
We were all given these bands before entering the escape room, when we got into our spaceship, we scanned them to find out what part of the space crew we would be playing.
We weren't allowed to take any pictures during our time in the escape room, in order to preserve the intergalactic mystery for other guests. So I found this image online, this is one of the areas we needed to solve mysteries in, it was a pretty awesome escape experience.
We finished the game with 6 seconds to spare, we cut it close! After our victory, we got to take fun pictures with props from the mystery we just solved.
We were in the escape room with two other families and we all worked together to get out just in time!
Here is that staircase I mentioned earlier in this post, this is the railing the temple designers used as inspiration for the baptisty railing.
This Foucault pendulum is the main centerpiece of the museum. The Foucault pendulum or Foucault's pendulum is a simple device named after French physicist Léon Foucault and conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the Earth's rotation. The pendulum was introduced in 1851 and was the first experiment to give simple, direct evidence of the earth's rotation.
We spent a long time in the Giant Heart exhibit, which is one of the the most popular and notable exhibits of the Franklin Institute.
This exhibit is named after a giant, walk through, heart replica, that actually has a heartbeat you can hear as you walk through the different areas of the heart. This one of a kind heart is roughly 2 stories high and 35 feet in diameter, it would be the perfect sized heart for a 220 foot tall person, someone about twice as tall as the statue of liberty!
This exhibit was perfect for Thomas' science and anatomy loving heart. He has been fascinated by the human body for years, and loves reading all kinds of interesting facts about how we function as humans. He and James toured through the Giant Heart several times.
The older boys and I explored the Electricity exhibit which was fascinating. Electricity, showcases Franklin's discovery of electricity and its use in the modern world, including elements such as a sustainable dance floor, and an array of LEDs that turn on in the presence of cell phone signals and other low-power electrical signals
We all took turns touching this electrically charged key to see how long we each could stand the electric shock it gave out.
Next, we learned all about the technology behind air travel at the Franklin Air Show exhibit.
We spent a long time at this paper airplane flying station. We would take turns making different models of paper airplanes, then sent them through this machine that would launch them into the air and hopefully into the recycle bin.
We ended our day at the Franklin Insitute in the interactive Sir Isaac's Loft. If Sir Isaac Newton could design a playground, it would probably look a lot like this exhibit. When you enter this “playground of experimentation,” you’ll find falling objects, chain reactions, and optical illusions that bring Newton’s laws to life in whimsical and artful ways. Pulleys, prisms, and pendulums captivate the mind and illuminate classic scientific principles
The Franklin Institute is ginormous, and we did see other part of the museum that I don't have pictures of, but it's hard to cover the entire place in one day. Our group did split up into about 4 smaller groups, so I think between all of us, we saw most of what this amazing place has to offer.
After a full day of learning and exploring we were hungry for dinner! We had researched and found a beautiful restaurant within walking distance of the museum called the Rose Tattoo Cafe. When we made our reservation, we asked to be seated in the garden room which looked like a New Orleans balcony covered in magical twinkle lights.
It was a great first day in Philadelphia!
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