Philadelphia has always been one of my favorite family destinations. I was delighted to find that my daughter, Jill Wasser, and her husband, Dr. Stuart Wasser, decided to take their 14-year-old son, Bradley, and 11-year old daughter, Maris, for a visit to this important historic city during President's Week. My late husband, Martin, and I had taken our grandson, Bradley, on his first solo trip without his parents to the world famous Philly Garden Show, Jack's Firehouse Restaurant, the popular Zoo, the Pennsylvania Terminal Farmer's Market with many Amish stalls, Independence National Historical Park and the Please Touch Museum. The seven-year-old Bradley seemed to enjoy the Firehouse Restaurant with its authentic Firefighter's Brass Pole and the Please Touch Interactive Museum's Television Studio enough for a repeat visit before we were about to return home from our weekend jaunt. I will always remember his comment about the Firehouse Restaurant: "The firemen must have been very surprised to find a restaurant here when they came back from the fire." However, this family holiday concentrated on events for the "over-seven-year-olds." The first stop was the new state-of-the-art Independence Visitor Center that acts as a gateway to the historic area with a very informative orientation to the events leading to our Independence from Great Britain's King George III. We found ourselves at the Liberty Bell's powerful and dramatic new home surrounded by photos of Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, Jr. with the bell, our symbol of freedom. The center is expansive, filled with natural light and displays large historic documents and graphic images that explore the facts and myths of the Bell and x-rays which give an insider's view of the Bell's crack and inner-workings. We were very interested in viewing a short film that traced how abolitionists, suffragists, anti-segregationists and other groups adopted the Bell as their badge of freedom. The glass walls of the building provide for dramatic and commanding views of the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall (a few steps away). We learned more about the very obvious crack in the Bell. The Bell cracked very soon after being cast in England's Whitechapel Foundry. It was recast before being sent to the Colonies by two English pots and pans craftsmen named Pass and Stow. But it cracked again, to be repaired yet another time. It was placed in the tower of the Pennsylvania State House and rang with strong peals to summon the colonists to hear the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Children can try clanging sample-cracked bells to hear how a bell sounds before and after repairs. I learned from historians that during the Revolutionary War, the bell was hidden and buried in nearby Allentown, Pa. so as not to be taken as booty by the British Armies. Then on to Independence Hall, where there were replicas of the Declaration for viewing with excerpts on the wall in several languages, including Hebrew (the original is in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.). The highlight for the Wasser family was the Franklin Institute Science Museum, dubbed the dazzling playground for the mind. Before "interactive" became the buzzword for hands-on exhibits, the Franklin Institute was the innovator of this form of museum displays. Its touchable attractions explore science in disciplines ranging from sports to space travels. There is a Sports Challenge that uses virtual-reality technology to illustrate the physics of sports with a race car tract to test response time, a Train Factory with a climb aboard steam engine, Space Command's earth-orbit research station, a fully equipped weather station and exhibits on electricity. The kids particularly liked the indoor SkyBike where they could ride a bike along the ceiling, demonstrations of physics involved in hitting a tennis ball and a new attraction of a mock wheel chair ride for participation by the kids. The adult Wassers and Bradley and Maris were fascinated by walking the course through the heart like a human blood corpuscle, at 15,000 times life size. Unfortunately, participation in cardiac surgery was not in the cards for today's visit because of the need for actual repairs. I believe that the Franklin Institute, which opened in 1824 at Independence Hall, may be the oldest science museum built in North America to honor Benjamin Franklin and his inventiveness. space technology. It is a must educational destination for all family members.Copyright by Marcia AbramsonE-mail: mascribe@aol.com
