Day 2: September 21, 2017 Real Tourists in Philly Comment via blog

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We were pretty good tourists yesterday but today we did even better. We started off with a bus tour to get an overview of the city. There's Chinatown's Friendship Arch and City Hall with William Penn at its peak. Then the "Rocky steps" a.k.a. Museum of Art entrance and "The Clothespin" whose creator and others have likened to Brancusi’s "The Kiss". The last picture shows Zee, our tour guide, explaining to Eldon and Lisa how to get to her favorite cheese steak place.

Zee recommended Sonny's and I sure can't fault her. Mine was delicious.

I don't know that this post office near Ben Franklin's home bears any resemblance to any that Ben was personally connected with but it's a cool place to visit and have your mail hand canceled with a "B. Free Franklin" stamp.

Next door to the post office, colonial era printing techniques on on display and items printed there, such as the Declaration of Independence, are on sale.

Behind the print shop and post office, 3-D outlines of Ben Franklin's home and original print shop stand on top of an underground museum.

It seems that Betsy Ross never owned the house that now bears her name but probably rented a room there. Today she rests in the courtyard next to her third husband. Not quite finished product can be found upstairs while below a young version of Betsy works to increase inventory.

Elfreth's Alley is the oldest residential street in the nation. There is a connection with an ancestor but it's not known which property she owned. The two buildings operated as museums were not open today but we struck up a conversation with a resident who ended up inviting us into his narrow four story home. We were pretty much overwhelmed by his hospitality and found the home extremely interesting but none of us felt an urge to live there. Many of the homes are marked with fire insurance signs including one from a fire company associated with Ben Franklin. That's the one with four hands.

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