French Creek State Park / Philadelphia

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I've lived in the southeast for 25 years now, and Julie has lived there her whole life. This means we don't have many contacts outside of that part of the country. And that in turn means that once our trip took us elsewhere, we were looking at the prospect of an extended period of time without running into anybody we knew. This is definitely one of the downsides of a trip like this.

But while we know very few people outside of the southeast, it's not zero. Julie has some extended family in the deep south (TX and LA), and I have some extended family in Amish country (IN and PA). We had the joy of meeting up with my cousin Paul and his family while staying at French Creek State Park.

Knowing the RV can't park just anywhere, they graciously drove from their home near Harrisburg to meet us at the campsite right when we arrived. We were able to spend a few hours with them, enjoying dinner and a campfire. It was wonderful to see them.


This park was homebase for our trip to Philadelphia. We did the standard tourist fare while in the city. We started in the historic district, visiting Independence Hall and The Liberty Bell, which has a spiffy new home since the last time I saw it 20+ years ago. To prepare for this part of the city, we watched "National Treasure" a few weeks before. It was fun seeing some of the sites highlighted in the movie.


After hitting the historical highlights, we ventured out into the rest of the city, hitting the tourist highlights, including running up "The Rocky Steps," which is what the Philadelphia Art Museum's front steps are actually called in the city's literature as well as on the bus stops.



It was quite a warm day, and Philadelphia has some nice fountains. Said fountains have rules posted by them. Rule #1 is "No swimming." You know what's pretty neat? When it's really hot and the city doesn't enforce rule #1.

Caleb said he wasn't interested in going in. Caleb lied.

Folks were showing up in bathing suits, so it wasn't exactly spontaneous for everyone, though it was for us.

Rather than take a bus, we decided to walk back to the van after this to dry off. On the way, we stopped at Franklin Square to watch the fountain.

After we got back, we were hungry, and we couldn't leave the city without having a cheesesteak. We are trying to be as authentic as we can on this trip, so we headed for the original home of the Philly cheesesteak, Pat's King of Steaks.

The original contains steak and onions in a hoagie, topped by a generous amount of Cheeze Whiz. And you know what? It was absolutely delicious. It got a thumbs up from everyone, which might be the first time that has happened with one of our state foods!
Location: French Creek State Park, Douglassville, PA 19518, USA

Comments

  1. Nana and GrampsJuly 25, 2021 at 8:29 AM

    Great entry. Keep the blogs coming! We get to enjoy your trip vicariously through them. That dip in the fountain looks like fun and the Philly cheesesteak sounds delicious. I'm glad you got to see Paul and his family. Sounds like you had a good time catching up with them. Gramps

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