Museum-ing

This week is Scott's last vacation of the year. We took the train downtown and walked along Liberty Row (I might've made up the name) and saw where our nation's history began. One of the best museums I've ever been to is the US Constitution Center. The original Constitution is housed in an archival museum in DC.

First, tho, we took a tour of the b'ful Independence Hall. Security checks. Open your backpack, miss. Mine's got 3 pouches. No contraband inside.

(I'm listening to some absolutely great music now from The Bad Plus. Read the latest review in the Times.

This is where the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Now we walk a few blocks down the street to the 5-year-old Constitution Center.


This museum is so creative it has lifesize statues of our nation's founders such as 81-year-old Ben Franklin, who was so frail he needed to be carried into Independence Hall, which at that time was called the Pennsylvania State Senate Bldg, or something like that. Known as a sharp dresser, he's the most famous Philadelphian ever othan Sylvester Stallone.

Believe me it wasn't easy getting this shot. I wore my best pair of walking shoes for a day of total walking. When I lay me down to sleep my legs and feet were on fire with pain but I never let that stop me. When I awoke, the pain was gone.

The Constitution Center had a special exhibit of the artwork of American soldiers in wars since Vietnam. All media are employed such as oils, watercolor, charcoal.

In one of the paintings below you'll see soldiers in gas masks. That's WWI, trench warfare, a terrible way to die. Poets like Wilfred Owen, who died a week before armistice was declared, captured its horrors in his poems. Guillaume Apollinaire died after shrapnel wounds weakened his body.

The bombed-out building is from the Allies landing at Normandy. A convoy of planes punctuate the air in this very realistic and horrifying painting.

You'll also see the trio of men planning in Afghanistan. The Afghani helper is wearing a Yankees baseball cap but has disguised himself against the Taliban by wearing sunglasses and a partial face covering, Allah preserve him.

I liked the WWII painting of the rolling waves which was titled Death by Water. It shows a crashed plane on the top left in the sea. At first I thought it were a whale.

I also like the WW2 painting of the soldiers who are dying right before our eyes. The white stones are like a trail of skulls.













We walked on Independence Mall to the Liberty Bell, which was mobbed. Everyone hovered around the cracked side of the bell, while I moved to the Bell's back and snapped the shot from there.



Afterward, we strolled thru Reading Market, a tour that is never complete w/o a Basset's dish of butterscotch ice cream.



That ice cream was so filling I didn't feel like cooking the fresh tilapia we bought at John Yi's Fish Market inside Reading Terminal. Fat will fill you up.