Philadelphia

My sister invited me to visit her a couple of weekends ago. She and her family live just outside of Philadelphia. 

I took a Friday off of work and drove to their house Friday morning so that I could spend most of Friday, all day Saturday, and most of Sunday with them. I'm glad I went. It was nice to get away and it was good to see L and G (A and E were on a hiking trip with some friends so they weren't there.) 

On Saturday, L, G and I visited Philadelphia. I've been to Philly a couple of times before but haven't done much while there before. This time we walked around quite a bit and saw lots of sights. I enjoyed it! The weather was perfect the whole weekend I was there. 

We wore masks the whole time we were in Philly and everyone else was wearing them too. (We only took our masks off to take pictures when no one else was nearby.)

 

Across the bridge from where we parked we ran into this memorial to a clan that emigrated from Scotland to the U.S. 

Not too far from the Scottish Memorial was The Irish Memorial. A memorial to commemorate Ireland's Great Hunger of 1845-1850 where over a million people died from starvation and another million were forced to emigrate.

There were a lot of parts of the statue and I took quite a few pictures of it but I decided to only post a few. It was a touching monument.

Our next stop was Elfreth's Alley. People have lived on Elfreth's Alley since 1713. Such a picturesque street!

I really liked Elfreth's Alley!

After Elfreth's Alley, we went to Betsy Ross's house. 

This was Betsy Ross's bedroom and probably where she sewed the flag. She would have had to sew it sitting on a chair with it draped across her lap because she couldn't sew it in a public place where others might see it. (There is a cloth underneath the flag so it is not directly on the floor).

(As we bought the ticket to go into the house, they told us to not enter a room before the next group was out and that we could use the hand sanitizer that they put in throughout the house. It's interesting to see what adjustments places are making so that they can stay open. I'm glad they're able to stay open.)

Betsy Ross was a well-known upholsterer and flag maker and this room is probably where people came for her business.

A cat fountain in the courtyard of Betsy Ross's house.

Outside of Betsy Ross's house.

We ran into Benjamin Franklin's burial place. We could have paid to go into the cemetery but decided against it and just saw his grave from outside the fence.

We came across this Philadelphia Fire Department mural and thought it was pretty cool!

A cool door along the way!

 

This was the line to get into another line to get into Independence Hall. (I like this picture because it shows what it's like now, everyone wearing masks and social distancing in line for the popular attractions.)

 For Independence Hall they were only allowing 9 people into the building at a time and so there was an 1-1/2 hour wait to take the tour of the hall. 

This was just the line to be able to go through security. Once we got to the other side of security then there was another line for the tour. We did go through security so we could see the other side of the building and see The Justice Bell but we didn't end up waiting to go on the tour.

Once we got through security we got to see The Justice Bell which was created in 1915 to promote the cause of women's suffrage in the U.S. at that time. It is a replica of the Liberty Bell with a few minor design differences. (You should read about the Justice Bell; it's really fascinating!)

Independence Hall once we got through security!

Independence Hall.

I like taking pictures of things like this to show what it's like right now.

After seeing The Justice Bell and the outside of Independence Hall, we were hungry and decided it was time to eat! 

L and G have been able to try multiple restaurants in Philadelphia and have figured out where the best Philly cheesesteaks are... and they found Sonny's to be one of the best!

They only allowed three people in the restaurant at a time and of course masks were required.

As we were waiting for a table to open up outside, a family got up from a table and they noticed G's BYU shirt and started chatting with us. They were visiting Philadelphia from Utah. :) 

My Philly Cheesesteak was delicious!

We wanted to go inside of Christ Church but alas it was closed. But I still enjoyed it from the outside!

On this particular street, this part of the road was closed so that restaurants could make outdoor seating.

Look how skinny this building is.

As we headed back to the car, G saw that there was a Pokemon nearby that he didn't have and wanted to try and catch it so we walked along the water a little bit.

L, G and I!

We drove to an ice cream place and unfortunately it was closed. :( But we saw this cool mural along the way.

Look at the color and the light and the glass, so cool!

Our day in Philadelphia was awesome! Even though we had to wear masks the whole day and some places ended up being closed, it was a great day!

Morning Walk and the Sun

Last Tuesday, I went on a morning walk before work and I noticed the sun looked different than it normally does.

Basically the West coast of the U.S. is on fire (literally) and the wind blew the smoke this way. 

The smoke we saw here in the East was so high up in the atmosphere that it didn't affect our air quality, but it still affected the way we saw the sun.

I must admit that I couldn't stop looking at it. I tried not to stare too much, though, because you know it's still the sun even if the smoke did make it look less bright.

I've seen pictures of what the sky looks like on the West Coast and it's crazy and apocalyptic looking. I hope people and their homes that are close to the fires stay safe.

Kindle

I've been reading on my Kindle a lot since the pandemic started. I'm glad I have a Kindle. I still prefer to read physical books but with the pandemic happening and libraries having limited hours and services etc, I've been turning to my Kindle to read new books. 

But as I've been reading on my Kindle the past couple of days, I've been really missing physical books. I miss being able to see how big the book is and how far I am in the book just by looking (I know I can see how far I am on the Kindle but it's not the same as being able to see how far I am by the thickness of the book when I open it to where I left off). I miss being able to easily go back and reread something a few pages back (but I don't remember exactly where) when I realize I missed something that happened. I miss not getting Low Battery notifications (does this sentence even make sense?). I miss the physical turning of the page. I miss going to the library.

 

Are there any books you've read recently that you recommend?

Face Masks

I was texting one of my friends tonight. She mentioned how she was going to make herself some new face masks to add into her rotation. It made me realize I need to buy some more too. 

As I was looking online for some, it suddenly dawned on me how weird it is that I need to shop for face masks. That eventually I will have quite a collection of them and I'll wear them. And thinking about that, I just had to laugh. (Seriously I laughed for a couple of minutes thinking about it. And I think if I hadn't been laughing about it, I would've been crying.) 

Life is weird right now.

Music!

I've been struggling a lot recently and music has helped me in ways that nothing else can.

 

I discovered this song recently and have been listening to it on repeat. It acknowledges the hardness of life while still being upbeat.

 

 

This song too. (I think you can interpret this song in multiple ways.)

Enjoy!

 

 

Life is hard

In the past week, I've heard a few people talk about how we have it better than the people who lived through the 1918 influenza pandemic. I agree with this in general as long as we acknowledge that our current situation is hard too. It's hard in some of the same ways as the 1918 outbreak and it's hard in different ways.

I think when we compare our 2020 global pandemic to the 1918 pandemic it can either give us perspective and help us feel gratitude for our current situation or it can make us feel bad for feeling sad or upset or angry for our current situation since "it's not as bad" as the previous time period.

Every person's situation is unique and each person is dealing with what is happening in the world right now differently. I've cried more in the last few months than I have in the past couple of years combined. It's been rough.

I say all of this to say that life is hard and we live in weird times right now. But we can get through this (I think).

 Yes, I took a picture of myself while crying.