After a rather disappointing breakfast, we were out the door just after 9am. This "Bed and Breakfast" had a continental breakfast listed on the website which turned out to be stale cereal, some old whole wheat english muffins, bagels (no cream cheese) and four bananas. They did have about 20 varieties of tea but I had to search for a mug to put the hot water in. Thankfully there was some milk and orange juice or we would have been really surly. I still don't know if it's always like this or just lousy because the woman who normally runs the place is out of town, hard to tell. Thankfully, Eric warned me about the complete lack of water pressure in our shower from his experience the night before. I managed to change the water from 'light mist' to 'light rain' so at least I could wash the shampoo out of my hair.

Our first stop was Washington Square to see the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution and learn a little history about the burial ground beneath the park. Then we picked up our free timed tickets for Independence Hall and meandered around the visitor's center until it was time to go through security. I wasn't searched this time (thankfully) and I was even allowed through with my opened bottle of water. The horror! First on the list was the Liberty Bell. I was prepared for the fact that it's not very big and slightly amused that Pennsylvania is misspelled on the engraving (there's only one "n"). We picked up a short history lesson regarding Congress Hall and then took the short guided tour of the meeting rooms inside Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Constitution was adopted.

Next we walked up 5th street to Christ Church Burial Ground and Ben Franklin's grave. It's very understated and covered in pennies that folks have thrown through the gate for good luck. His wife and two children are buried next to him which is often overlooked in photos. Five signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried here along with several other historic figures. We continued walking down Arch Street past the Betsy Ross house to Elfreth's Alley. It's a lot smaller than I imagined and a little noisy considering I-95 is nearby but the old row houses are quite lovely. Supposedly it's the "nation's oldest residential street". While we didn't go into the visitor's center, we did get some nice photos of the prettier doorways. I thought the Old City area was a nice contrast to the busy commercial area of Market Street.

By this time our meager breakfast had well worn out so we started looking for a place to have lunch. The famous restaurant FORK was nearby but they had nothing on the menu that Eric would have eaten (lots of avocado on everything, good for me - not for Eric), so we walked across the street to Pizzicato's. My sausage pizza was a bit greasy but the crust was good and Eric's chicken caesar sandwich gave us more energy for more walking!

We wanted to see the other parts of the Independence Park area, so we walked a block back to Chestnut Street and wandered through the large park area past the Second Bank of the United States and then up to the US Mint. We were hoping to get a peek inside, but since 9-11 it's been largely closed to the public. And since we were only two people, we didn't have much of a chance of getting permission to see anything even if we had called ahead of time. On our way back south to our B&B, we stopped in at the Atwater Kent Museum to see a bunch of original Washington Post covers featuring Norman Rockwell's illustrations and an exhibit on the history of baseball in Philadelphia. The ground floor of the museum had a gigantic map of the city laid out on the floor that you could walk on.

Next we wandered around Pine Street and marveled at some of the nicer houses then braved the hip crowds on South Street with tons of adult shops, tattoo parlors and bars. Our feet needed some rest, so we took a break back at the B&B before deciding on a place for dinner.

One of the tour books mentioned El Azteca as a good and reasonably priced Mexican restaurant (close to our place, too), so we strolled over there for some beef, chicken and shrimp fajitas. I also tried a very tasty guava mexican soda. We weren't ready to call it a night yet, so we walked down Chestnut toward the waterfront to get a drink at this place called Swanky Bubbles. On the way, we spied a drink special at Paradigm, so we stopped for a couple of $3 martinis. This place was very nice… little red votives on all the tables and one of the rooms had an orange glow. Even the sidewalk and stairs in front of the place was lit up from below with colored lights. I also got to experience the famous peek-a-boo bathrooms. I seem to use the bathroom everywhere we go, so bathroom attractions are something are never really worry about inadvertently missing.

After my second Razzberritini and Eric's second Georgia Peach, we were back on the road toward Front Street. Upon arriving at Swanky Bubbles we were perturbed to find a dress code of no sneakers, baseball caps, etc. Since we only brought one pair of shoes each for the trip, that pretty much ruled out this place for this visit. So, we walked home glad we stopped for the martinis, figuring we saved a good chunk of change by missing out on the champagne bar. We caught a bit of the presidential debate before turning in.

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