Dad's Life 3D: American history in the rain

With so much to see in Philadelphia, I didn't want to waste a minute! I was fired up. After all, we stayed across the street from the birthplace of this little concept called the United States of America, and now I wanted to see it. Independence Hall, that is. As I opened the blinds to let in some light, I looked outside and, WHAT? It's raining? Yikes!

At first I thought, oh no. But then I remembered the summer I spent traveling through Great Britain in a VW Vanagon pop-top van with my mom and sister. It's called an English summer on the other side of the pond. Every city, castle and monument we visited, was done so in the rain. It made it more fun! Who knows, maybe there's a little irony in all of this, considering we were across the street from the building where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Or not.

So we were off to see a little American history in the rain! First up was Independence Hall. The guide was slightly surly and in full character! So much so, Mazzy said, "I don't understand a word he is saying." I told her, "either do I!" Nonetheless, it was pretty amazing to be in the room where John Hancock and others signed this legendary document that was written by Thomas Jefferson. I explained to Mazzy, "So what Jefferson was saying, is that we left this England place because it was bogus. And if we don't get some new rules, pronto, then we'll just be bogus too..." Can you name that movie?

Next up was the Liberty Bell. We've seen pictures of it since we were kids. We read about it in school. But to stand in front of it was pretty impressive! It's something the kids will remember, for sure. Probably more so than even Independence Hall and our surly guide.

So, our "When in Rome"challenge was to taste test cheesesteaks at the two best known cheesesteak joints in town, Pat's and Geno's. Eight years ago, my friend Anthony and I did a similar test when passing through Philly on our cross-country tour. But then a local aficionado threw a wrench in our program. He told us that Jim's is better than both of the other places. Oh boy. Could we handle a three cheesesteak test? Well, we were about to try! I liked Pat's best, and he liked Geno's best. This time around we have a tie breaker, so we will definitely find a winner!

I figured we better spread it out a little. Because Jim's is closer to the historic district (where we were), we hit them up first. Wow, they make a good cheesesteak! This one is going to be hard to beat.

We decided to see a few more places before we hit up the other two joints. We walked some of the first cheesesteak of by walking to the Betsy Ross house to see where the first American flag was created and sewn together by this legendary seamstress!

Then it was off to the U.S. Treasury mint to see where coins are made. I went to the mint in Denver as a kid so I knew the kids would love this. Over 4 billion pennies are made here per year!

We covered a lot of ground in this historic city, but now it was time to wrap it up and head down the road. We packed up our bags and loaded them in the car. But we had some unfinished business to attend to. Pat's and Geno's! So that we did.

And the winner is... Jaden liked Jim's best. Mazzy liked Pat's best. I liked both Pat's and Jim's, but gave Jim's the edge. Sorry Geno's, you just didn't cut it this time around. And with that, Jim's took the win!

On our way out of town, we had to do one last thing. Run up the "Rocky" steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was awesome! The kids and I ran up to the top just like Sylvester Stallone did in the first Rocky movie (The kids have both seen it). This movie came out in 1977. It's amazing how many people, young and old, were there doing the same thing as us. I now feel as if our Philly adventure was complete!

So back on the road we go! We were supposed to go to to Croton-on-Hudson to visit my above mentioned travel partner and friend, Anthony. But, sensing a mutiny with my crew (Long Island is about the same distance), I decided to re-route and head to Stony Brook so the kids could get one more night in with their cousins and nana, before heading up the coast.

Day 3 – August 7, 2017
Start: Philadelphia PA
State traveled through: New Jersey
Sidetrip Destination: Stony Brook NY