So Saturday morning I woke up, threw some pants and a sweatshirt on, and went downstairs to the front of the hotel for my early morning make-out session with myself.  If by now you haven’t figured out that “making out” really means “smoking”… well I really don’t blame you.  I’m kinda dense that way too.  Once I’m downstairs and outside, guess who I see?  Yep… there’s Karl doing the exact same thing I’m about to do… in the exact same spot that I left him the night before.  He has that early morning “not quite awake but conscious” look going… the same one I’m pretty sure I had.  So I light up and we talk for a few minutes about last night (he seemed upset with himself because he apparently snores, but didn’t realize it and his roomies were light sleepers) and plans for the day (we both had historical stuff on the agenda) with the crummy overcast weather.  Of course… there was also the matter of breakfast.

So I went back to the room and jumped in the shower.  Then Poppy and I went down to the hotel lobby to eat breakfast in their OTHER restaurant, The Terrace, at around 11:30.  While we were sitting there, Avitable walked into the lobby.  We had thought he had already left for the 10:00am showing of Iron Man, but as it turned out he was just getting ready to go then and wanted to know if we wanted to go.  So, in hopes that by the time the movie was over the skies would have cleared a bit to go get historical, we decided to go see Iron Man.

The movie theater we went to was the United Artist Riverview 17.  As I settled in with my Twizzler’s and nacho cheese I noticed that while the floor was not sticky, the seats not only didn’t recline but the armrests with the cupholders were locked into the down position.  Is this the dark ages?  Philadelphians, rise up and throw your tubs of popcorn at them until they give you true, proper, reclining, arm-rest raising, stadium seating!  Other than that… the movie itself was INCREDIBLE.  While I don’t want to give anything away for those of you who may not have had the opportunity to go see it, let me just assure you it is well worth a full price ticket.  Also, be sure to stay until after the credits for the bonus scene.  I expect a similar scene at the end of The Hulk movie in July.

Once the movie was over, we were then faced with getting back to the hotel.  Having taken a cab over, we just figured we would take one back.  The big difference though is that the cabs park at the hotel.  The movie theater… cabs don’t park there so much.  Needless to say, after a few calls to cab companies went unanswered, we jacked one on the parking lot in almost true GTA IV fashion.  The only difference was we let the driver stay in his seat… nice of us, right?

Once we got back to the hotel, Poppy and I strapped up with our cameras to go see some history.  We hopped into a cab and took it to the Liberty Bell.  I’ve seen the Liberty Bell a few times, but never in it’s newly built exhibit.  While waiting on line for entry we were able to watch a Free Tibet rally that was being held on the Independence Mall lawn.  There was something very… right… about seeing it there.  Poppy commented that while the speakers were energetic and “clicky”, their translators weren’t quite transferring that enthusiasm.

Sadly, while entering the building to the Liberty Bell, a girl who I can only imagine was in high school turned to us and said, “I didn’t even know Tibet existed.  Did you know it existed?” Of course, Poppy in her benevolence told her nicely that, “Yes, I know it exists and it has for quite awhile.” My non-verbalized thought was, Another fine example of social promotion in our school systems. Yeah… I was more than a little annoyed at it.

So after visiting the Liberty Bell, we walked past Independence Hall.  For those of you who have never been inside because the tours are sold out a few months in advance, well let me just say that while I have always found the art in the building impressive, never the tour.  In fact, as far as historical sites go, I think Independence Hall is one of the worst.  The best one I ever went to is a toss up between the 10 mile hiking tour of Gettysburg and Colonial Williamsburg.  Still, Independence Hall is where the Declaration of Independence was signed and that eventually led to just about everything else.  What I always found more interesting was the actual writers of the Declaration.  As I previously mentioned, after a quick photo-op in front of Independence Hall we went to go see the Originator of the Meme and Editor of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin.

So we arrived at the Christ Church Burial Ground at exactly 4:01pm.  Guess what time they close?  Yeah… 4:00pm.  However, what some people don’t realize is that even though the burial ground is surrounded by brick wall, there is a wrought iron gate by Benjamin Franklin’s site for latecomers just like me.  How do I know this?  Well, I’ve been late to see Ben before.  In fact… I don’t think I’ve ever been on time… and this trip was no different.

So standing next to Ben wasn’t enough.  I had to touch the stone and say a small prayer… which I did just like last time.  Ben and I have more in common now than during my last trip… so maybe I pushed down to plant my hand a little more than I should have.  Maybe my arm is just plumper than last time.  In any event… well… for what probably was a few seconds but felt like years… I was stuck with my arm through the wrought iron gate and my hand on the tomb of one of our Founding Fathers.

Finally, I was able to free myself from the predicament just as a few other tourists started to get ready to snap a picture of the fat guy with his arm stuck through the gate.  Yeah.  Good old Ben.  Always a prankster.  From there, Poppy and I walked across the street to the U.S. Mint.  I was tempted to ring the doorbell and ask if they were giving away free samples, but I thought that would just be pushing my luck WAY over the edge.  One last photo-op on the lawn of the Constitution Center where Poppy discovered just how hard of hearing I really am… and then we began the odyssey to once again find a taxi to go back to the hotel.

Luckily it only took two blocks walk, her showing a little leg, and finally me throwing my body on the hood of a taxi to get it to stop.  Seriously… people think NYC taxis are messed up?  Philly’s aren’t that great either.  So we got back to the hotel and prepared for the whole purpose of this trip… because our next adventure was taking us to North Bowl… to the main TequilaCon 2008 party…
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