Total Eclipse

 After the excitement of the previous 2 nights and not getting back until 2am we had a lie in and a leisurely morning. 

Took the time to plan our day for today as we would venture out and explore the sights of Philadelphia.

About midday we headed out towards the city centre to go and explore the famous liberty bell. 

We parked up just a few blocks away and walked to the building where it was situated. There are lots of historical buildings dotted around and intertwined with the modern ones. We came across the foundations of an old courthouse from the 1700s. 

There were lots of people gathered in the park, lots with Wrestlemania tops on, some with telescopes pointing into the sky. They were there to view the rare sighting of a total solar eclipse. There was someone handing out special glasses so we could view the eclipse without damaging our eyes. We were incredibly lucky to see this once in a lifetime event. The best place to view it ironically was Niagara Falls which is where we were a few days earlier.

 Cloud cover came over just before totality which was a bit unfortunate but still great to see what we did. 

After this we found a food court across the road where we had an authentic Philly cheesesteak which was delicious.

Later on we joined the small queue to see the liberty bell, one of Philadelphia’s most famous landmarks. It signified liberty, independence and freedom within the USA.

There was strict airport security to get in here so we all had to place our bags through the scanner.

This was a small museum providing a bit of history in the city and the significance of the bell. We all had our photo taken with the bell which is heavily guarded.

From there we were going to head to the Philadelphia visitor centre but they were just closing up, we did manage to sneak in the gift shop however!

On the way back the car just happened to veer off the road towards a wal mart where Sam and Jill stocked up on clothes and snacks.

For dinner we headed to a Red Lobster where we had a lovely meal, I had 2 styles of shrimps with fries and a Long Island iced tea!

We have another sightseeing day on Tuesday where we plan to visit the famous Rocky steps and a few other landmarks.