October 3

Today and yesterday were very memorable days. Yesterday, I forgot to mention that the fire alarm in our hotel went off at 7:00 pm. Then it went off again this morning at 5:00am. There was no fire at either time. It was just a false alarm. It made me nervous and now I feel like it is going to go on again at any second.

Now back to the main and more positive events of the day. Here are the places we went today: the Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross's House, Ben Franklin's Grave, ruins of the first Presidential House that George Washington and John Adams lived in before the White House was built, and Independence Hall. We had a tour guide at Independence Hall but he was pretty boring so we left early. While we were there, we saw George Washington's sunrise chair and the old fashion court room. This is also where they signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

After Independence Hall, we had lunch at a food court that only sold fast food. I ate a piece of pizza dipped in ketchup. It tasted very good. I also had 2 scoops of chocolate marshmallow ice cream. I bought a small replica of the Liberty Bell with a stand.

We had a walking tour but we only stayed for about 15 or 20 minutes. The tour was free but your were expected to pay a tip. Here is the conversation Mom had with the tour guide before we left:

Mom: "I am sorry, but I underestimated my children's attention spans."

So then Mom tried to give the tip to the lady but the lady said:

Lady: "I am sorry but I am not allowed to accept any tips on Federal Grounds."

I am not sure why you aren't allowed to accept tips on Federal Grounds, but that is what I heard Mom and the lady say.

So then we walked by ourselves to see Benjamin Franklin's graveyard. We had to pay $6 to get in. Only after we found the grave, did we find out his grave was next to the fence and we could have just looked in for free.  When we were done, we went to look at the outside of Betsy Ross's house. We saw a replica of the flag she had sewn.

It was really hot today. We were glad to get back to the hotel, (even though, I still feel like the fire alarm is going to go off at any second).