Philadelphia, PA - September 10-12, 2004

Home < Places Visited < Philadelphia, PA - September 10-12, 2004 When we had taken a cruise that ended in Philadelphia we had planned to do a short tour of the historical section between when the ship docked and the flight departed. The weather did not cooperate so we decided to come back some time. Southwest Airlines offered flights to Philadelphia for $29.00 each way and we went for a long weekend, September 10-12, 2004.

Since we were only staying a couple of nights we were each able to pack what we needed in carry-on bags and we printed our boarding passes at home, so we were able to go directly to the departure gate and then directly to the train on arrival in Philadelphia. Philadelphia has a train station convenient to each gate at the airport. This is the only city we know of where this is the case and we think it is great.

We took the train to a SEPTA (Philadelphia's transit system) station in the city and exchanged our tickets for all day SEPTA passes. We had lunch at the SEPTA station, Chinese food that was not very good, then got on the subway train that would take us within a block of the hotel where we had a reservation.

We arrived at the hotel about 2:00 PM to discover the door locked, a sign on the door stating check-in was at 3:00, and the attached restaurant closed for renovations. We went to a park across the street and enjoyed some relaxation there. At 2:45 we went back to the hotel and the manager, Steven, let us in. Our room was on the fourth floor and it was a walk-up, Steven took our luggage and carried it up for us. The room was the size of a large walk-in closet, but it was neat, clean, and inexpensive. We were not going to spend much time in the room anyway.

We went to tour the United States Mint and discovered that, for security reasons, you have to make a reservation 2 weeks in advance. We went across the street to the Christ Church Burial Grounds where Benjamin & Deborah Franklin are buried. We have no idea why there are coins on the Franklins' grave, we have seen this at other historic site graves. It seems as though some people need to throw money in fountains and on graves of famous people.

We visited the Arch Street Friends House. This is an active Quaker meeting house. As well as a place of worship, there are displays depicting some of the history of Quaker's in Phildelaphia. (Pictures)

Return to Top