So when I found out that the Philadelphia Zoo was only 12 miles from where we were staying on Nick’s belated birthday celebration weekend, it was a given that we would visit it.
I mean, seriously. My kids + animals = no brainer.
And when we were renting a stroller at the zoo because we seriously had to walk like a mile just to get to the entrance, I asked the friendly stroller rental girl how far exactly the Liberty Bell was from the zoo.
“Less than 15 minutes.”
So it stands to reason that we couldn’t NOT visit the Liberty Bell.
And I could have totally taken this line of rationale until we ended up somewhere in the middle of the country looking for other national treasures. But four kids, busy weekend, I didn’t want to overdo it, you know?
I mean, a girl’s gotta know her limits.
Which means another trip to Philadelphia is definitely in the offing because there’s still so much to see and do.
But the Liberty Bell? I don’t know, for some reason I was fixated on it.
I’m 42 years old. And, doing some rough math, we’ve lived under two hours from the Liberty Bell for about 30 years of my life.
And I’ve never seen it.
And little facts like those are how my future bucket lists with the kids (oh you should see the things we want to do together!) get made.
Because while I have been to Brussels, and Crete, and Scotland, and Paris. I haven’t seen the Grand Canyon. Niagara Falls. And a million other places in the good US of A.
Growing up, with my Dad’s old job, there was a lot of international travel, not so much domestic.
So there is a lot of ground to cover.
Like literally.
So the bell.
When we left the zoo, it was after 3 pm on Sunday. I seriously debated. Go find the bell or just go home. Should we? Shouldn’t we?
We went for it. I told the kids, who really wanted to go see it, that we would see if we could find it, how busy it was, and the parking situation. We would give it a go.
Using the GPS, I found the area and went up and down the streets. Partially because the Google’d address wasn’t specific. I could tell the general area of where the bell was supposed to be, but couldn’t tell specifically. As in there it is and here’s where I should park.
And part of the problem? Because for some wild reason, in my mind’s eye, I pictured the bell being at the top of some grassy plain, open and out. I know, weird.
Because it’s clearly not.
Which is why I was having trouble figuring out where exactly the darn thing was.
…
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