AC/Philly

Our last 2 days have been excursions - Monday to nearby Atlantic City and Tuesday to Philadephia. We were taken on the Marriott shuttle for the first, so no maps required or parking problems.

AC has suffered from the recession and competition. Quite a few of the large, Las Vegas style casinos have had to shut down - although there's also new ones being built.

Jo and I were thrilled to be able to walk along the famous boardwalk - we're big fans of Boardwalk Empire, so Jo just had to pose here:

From the Boardwalk, there's little wooden walkways across the protected dunes to the beaches, which were pretty busy on a beautiful day:

The less mobile can use this form of transport to go up and down the 4-mile long boardwalk:

There's scores of these 3-wheeled vehicles being pushed along the boardwalk.

The other local delight is, apparently the Salt Water Taffy:

We think "Taffy" may be a corruption of the word toffee.

Here's one for Braeden:

We didn't go Under the Boardwalk but we explored under the pier:

We walked from our drop-off point at Bally's to the end of the boardwalk and back again, paddling in the ocean for a bit, and with a little detour to the end of the pier for a beer. There were helicopter rides taking off right next to us - $40 for a quick trip up and down the boardwalk or $75 for a city view:

There was also a sand sculpture competition starting:

So that was AC. The journey to Philadelphia was a bit more troublesome - it's about 50 miles away and it meant we had to drive and park. Inevitably there were some wrong turnings and the return journey was a bit stressful too, but it's all part of the rich tapestry etc.

It was the full historical experience, helping to top up our fairly limited knowledge of American history. Most of the focus is on what happened in 1776 of course, but Benjamin Franklin is the name you can't escape from:

We decided to take the bus tour first of all, followed by a walking tour. The first took us out to the greener part of the city and the Museum of Modern Arts where the famous Rocky steps are:

There's nothing to them really but everyone feels they have to run up and down the steps. Rocky's statue is now located at the foot - to the right of the steps:

There's funky stuff too - lots of murals, including on this bar called Frank's - the external walls have images of lots of famous Franks:

We were the only ones on our walking tour. Our guide was dressed historically and was a local, born and bred. Jo suspected he was a Quaker too:

This was taken at the start of Elfreth's Alley, apparently the oldest inhabited street in North America - not far from Betsy Ross' house. Google them if you want to know more.

We did the Independence Hall tour and I took a selfie inside one of the rooms:

We didn't join the queue/line for the Liberty Bell, but I took a photo from outside:

Today is a lazy day, but we're going on a wine tour this afternoon.