Today was tour day!
Breakfast once again in the hotel, then we were off to the races. Or the Visitor Center once again to get tickets to Constitution Hall, Ride the Ducks, Big Bus Tour, and to see the Liberty Bell. We got all historical with it, if you will. We watched another film at the Visitor Center, bought our various tour tickets for the day, etc. The weather was cooperating so far, and I’m glad. Nobody wants to tour a city in the rain.
We caught the 1st tour of the day on Ride the Ducks. This is one of those bus tours around the city, capped off with an excursion into the Delaware River. While the tour was nice, the Coast Guard warned of…. low tide (?) in the river, and it wouldn’t be safe for us to go in. The alternative was to park along the river and look at the city of Camden a
cross the way. Not exactly what we had been anticipating. After the Duck ride, we took a walk and grabbed lunch at Jones restaurant on Chestnut. Excellent food. For the first time, I actually tried fried chicken and waffles. Yes, they were good, but I did feel guilty eating them. How guilty? I let the kids eat half of my lunch. We were in and out of the restaurant fairly soon, and just in time to get back for our 1:40 PM tour of the Constitution Hall.
Now, I haven’t seen this building since, unless I’m mistaken, 1987. Our fifth grade classes took a field trip to Philadelphia that year to see all this stuff. It was an interesting tour — first you wait outside, then you get a 5 minute intro speech from someone at the Parks Department, then you take a tour of the various rooms. Good stuff all around, historically speaking.
After the tour, we jumped on the Big Bus for an abbreviated tour of many of the similar spots from the morning. To be expected, of course. We took the bus halfway, then hopped off near City Hall so that we could walk around. So yes, we walked around, got to see that part of town up close, saw a fellow dressed up like Jesus, then caught a taxi back to the hotel.
I went to work out in the gym (with Lily), and then we went to eat at Butcher and Singer, a very fancy steakhouse. The food was very good, but I had to say, it was nice surprise to learn the restaurant was only two blocks away. Walking distance! Believe it or not, this was Josh and Lily’s first time eating at a fancy steakhouse. Josh shared a large Delmonico steak with me, and Lily had the lobster mac & cheese. They liked it a lot.
Dinner at Butcher & Singer
After dinner, the kids went back to the pool one last time for the trip. Their Holmdel friends also showed up, so that made them happy. I was glad to get two workouts in while on vacation.
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