Friday - July 13

,Well this Friday, the 13th has certainly turned out to be a very happy, exciting day!    Ryan called to tell us he has been chosen to fill one of two spots for the Blue
Angels.   He will report to Pensacola in September and be on the 2013 team.    We are thrilled for him!!!   

We are in Clarksboro, NJ (25 minutes from Philadelphia).    We spent the afternoon having all kinds of fun in hot, sticky Philly.    The lines for the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall were very long.....so, we walked around downtown and checked out the Reading Terminal Market and what a place - full of all kinds of food items, places to eat, etc.    Awesome meats, bakery goodies, fresh produce, etc.    It was something....and had a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich at Molly Malloy's.    From here we walked to R2L, a beautiful restaurant on the 37th floor of 2 Liberty Place with magnificent views!     Went to Macy's to "cool down" and while I browsed around, Mark had a coffee/cookie at Starbucks.   We checked out the organ that is on the second floor and is the largest operational pipe organ in the world.   They have daily concerts, but we had missed the noon one.   Another was scheduled for 7 PM.

So.....we walked back to the Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell and ta dah....at 5:30, no lines and just walked in....

The Liberty Bell

Independence Hall

We went back to Macy's and listened to some of the concert - WOW!    This organ has 28,543 pipes compared to 8,000 at Notre Dame in Paris or 9,000 at St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC.   It is comparable to listening to 3 orchestras.   BIG thanks to my friend, Martha for her great tips on what to do in the

City of Brotherly Love

The pipes

The organist

We are staying over another day here and more siteseeing coming up tomorrow!