Fireworks! Promptly at 10 pm last night, we were treated to a glorious show, watching from Breaking Away. We are tied up safely inside a marina, under the Ben Franklin Bridge (as you can see). Right across the Delaware River, which is Camden, NJ, they shot off 10 minutes' worth of celebration. They must have read my blog to know we'd be arriving in Philly!
It's a good thing we are tied up with five lines in this marina! The wind today has gotten up to 40 mph constant with gusts up to 60 mph. I'm also glad there's a huge yacht (Breaking Away is a midget in comparison) next to me to block the force of the wind. And to think it was calm this morning! I took a bike ride tour of the inner city this morning and loved seeing the sights before traffic (7 am to 8 am). Then I decided to wash down Breaking Away, which I had not done since traveling to Chestertown 8 days ago. We eventually left on foot to be tourists, and the wind was only slight. During the day it got HUGE, blowing everything like crazy. We saw sidewalk cafe table umbrellas flying down the street. We saw huge tree limbs dropping, trees tilted as if in a hurricane. Wow! When we got back to the boat, it was secure but is rockin n rollin. We should not have left some windows open - I had to clean up the sand that had blown in.
The touring was wonderful today in this beautiful city. The third picture is Bruce in front of Christ Church, at the beginning of the day before the trees were blowing sideways. We of course visited Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, historic chambers nearby, and then the "Rocky Steps". It's a little ways to the Phildelphia Museum of Art, up on a hill overlooking the city, so we got there by trolley. Sure enough, lots of people were running up the steps made famous by Silvester Stallone in Rocky, and jumping around at the top with their arms raised in victory. I finally decided to run up the steps too, but didn't celebrate at the top to honor son Brian's wishes he expressed this morning in our phone call. (The fountain there is supposed to shoot straight up and fall back down; in this wind, it was mostly blowing out of the fountain and forming a river down one side of the Rocky Steps!)
On the way back we went to the Macy's where they have the largest pipe organ in the world. The organist played today at noon and 5:30, and we caught the latter performance. Stunning sound!
Yesterday was a calm day as we cruised slowly for the 35 miles from Delaware City to Philly. The scenery was sure different than in the Chesapeake - mostly industrial. Huge factories and refineries. Only when we got close to Philly did we get to see homes on the eastern, New Jersey side of the river. Just earlier, we played "keep away" with barge traffic. It was interesting...we had barges pushed by tugs catching us from behind, coming at us, coming out from the sides, and then single tugs all over the place. This happened only for about a five-mile section before Philly, but I was looking every which way trying to decide where to steer to stay out of everyone's way. It's a bit daunting to look behind you at a huge ship or barge gaining on you and not knowing where to go to avoid all the traffic.
But we finally made it! We walked around the renovated downtown section last night, and there were so many hip folks crowding the streets having a festive Friday night. Full of energy! Philly is a super city.
Ken I am surprised that you did not jump just a little when you reached the top of the "Rocky" stairs. It sounds like you are getting in a lot of touring during the boat trip. You know you could be going a lot further each day on a bike.
ReplyDeleteBob