Philly

Well I haven’t been writing blogs in sort of order lately and my trip to Russia in September gave me so many items to write about that other things have topics are getting put to the side. Which is to bad because I think I can get more details in if I write something up when it is fresh in my mind. Back in mid October I went to training out at SAP America head quarters out side of Philadelphia. I stayed in an area known as Kind of Prussia, just a couple miles from Valley Forge National Park. The hotel and area are relatively unremarkable. The landscape is very hilly and wooded even though the area is quite populated it doesn’t feel that way most of the time because of the woods seeming to have over grown everything. I went a few days early so I could see some of the sites in the area and the weather was perfect so it worked out really well. I have a burgeoning interest in the area because I have been reading biographies on the founding fathers. So far I have covered Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, and Adams. I think Monroe will be next. Anyway it is amazing to be in the same place where it all happened, where the country was started.

The first day I was out there I was able to swing into Valley Forge National park. I tried to get some good photos, but since I was on my own the self portraits came out a bit strange. Oh well that is life. The park is very large and crisscrossed with roads, bike paths, and trails. There are some sizable hills in the area and very few buildings. Most of the Army of the Potomac lived in little log cabins. The one nice place was George Washington’s head quarters, and a train depot put in for tourism decades on decades ago. There were also monuments everywhere. Some dedicated to the soldiers, some to Washington, and some to various generals. There were also displays of some of the defenses used at the time, and several areas where old canon were set up as they would have been during that time. I really was only to see things that were easily accessible from the road. If I go back I either want to road trip out there and bring my bike or rent one and spend a day or two riding the trails in the park.

The next day I met up with a friend of mine who had recently left my company and moved to Philly. We ate lunch at a nice Cuban place then walked around old town. The nice thing about the area is how all the sites are in about a couple square mile area of town. I saw just about everything. The Franklin Museum/post office/house site, Betsy Ross House, Franklin’s grave, the Liberty Bell, the tavern all the constitutional representatives met in, where the declaration of independence was written, Independence hall, and some others I honestly can’t remember. The tour of independence hall was easily my favorite part. To walk around were the delegates met and argued about, ratified, and signed the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and ran the revolutionary war was amazing. I was amazed to find out that they had even matched the original colors in the rooms. It was also a lot smaller than I had imagined, but when you think about it that makes sense, there would have been 30 or less people involved as there were only 13 colonies.

I was a little disappointed because I didn’t see any hidden compartments or clues to the Mason’s treasures like those in the movie National Treasure. But that is ok treasure hunting isn’t my thing. As much as this was an interesting place to visit the area really doesn’t have more than a few days worth of sites to see; a couple museums, Valley Forge, and Old Town. Then you have seen it all. Of course this doesn’t make it any less of a must see if you have a trip in the area though.