No homework tonight and was going through some old photos backing them up so I thought I'd share these. These are photographs I took on a trip in December over Winter break to Philadelphia while on my way to New Jersey. My dad's brother lives in Somerset, New Jersey. Normally we drive with how costly flying can be but since it was only me and him and he had a bunch of frequent flying miles from work we decided to hope on a flight on Southwest. Living in the suburbs of Cincinnati we normally hop on 275 and head down to CVG, but for this trip we were flying out of Columbus. After about an hour drive, a stop for breakfast burritos at McDonalds we parked our crappy van and hopped on a shuttle bus to the airport. I've been in quite a few major airports since 9/11, well accustomed to the security, searches, and such however at Columbus it seems all the TSA employees working security are armed with a trusty cell phone to fight terrorism. I don't think half of the morons there were paying attention to security but text message conversations instead.

 

-Our Southwest 737 at Columbus.

 

-With General Electric engines.

 

Southwest Airlines has this new boarding process where your boarding pass has a number and section on it. You then line according to this ticket at the gate. This prevents people from lining up super, super early to get the "best" seats. By doing this they allow you to board the plain with less hassle since you aren't assigned a specific seat. The system actually works out really well and gets everyone on board with less hassle.

 

-We left Ohio where the weather was dismal, cold, and depressing.

 

-And arrived in Philly 50 minutes later where it was warm and 50 degrees!

 

-Airline peanuts are wonderful.

 

-Careful what you put in your bags because I don't think the guys handling it care much about being gentle. These bags fell off of a cart in Philadelphia.

 

Before going to New Jersey to see the family my dad and I wanted to see some historical "touristy" locations in Philadelphia.

 

-Leaving the airport, heading downtown.

 

Independence historical park:

-Line for the Liberty Bell.

 

-Crowding around the Liberty Bell.

 

-Liberty Bell.

 

Liberty Bell.

 

-An original Philadelphia cobblestone street.

 

-Independence Hall Plaza.

 

-Independence Hall.

 

-This is a statue commemorating Commodore John Barry who is known as "The Father of America's Navy".

John Barry (1745 – 13 September 1803) was an officer in the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War and later in the United States Navy. Barry was born in Tacumshane, County Wexford, Ireland and appointed a Captain in the Continental Navy 7 December 1775.

 

Some of you know I really like photographing abandoned buildings, we came across this abandoned Steam Plant:

But my dad wasn't really interested in trying to go in.

 

In New Jersey we ate New York style Pizza, watched the New York Jets epic fail, spent time with family and my uncle gave me this camera that he no longer uses:

 

We drove back to Philly to catch our flight. In my bag I had a bottle of hot sauce which was given to me as a gift.  As we were waiting in a long line for security they opened up a few more lanes, a TSA employee ushered us over and glanced at our boarding passes, telling us we could get to our terminal through his lanes. We went through, they opened my camera bag and saw the hot sauce and said I couldn't bring it on unless it was in a zip lock bag. My dad noted that at both CVG and Columbus and every other major airport he had been to they gave them out at security. The employee said they didn't give them out here and that I had to throw the bottle away or go find a bag. I just told them to throw it away as we had to catch the flight. After we got through security we realized they had sent us down the wrong terminal, we had to exit, go back to security, find the right lane and go through security once again. As I picked up my camera bag I noticed something. . . . .zip lock bags being given out in this terminal. I was pretty pissed, we barely made the flight, and when we landed in Columbus:

It took nearly 3 hours to crawl in our van down I-71 south in the snow. Overall the trip was worth it, I love Philadelphia and loved seeing my family! Philly is a great city, I'm thinking of applying for an internship there. Thanks for viewing the photos!

My parents went to Sydney recently and ran into security issues.  They bought boomerangs at the airport gift shop, and I'm pretty sure most tourists probably do.  Well when they tried to board the flight security had to take there deadly boomerangs back.  I wonder how many boomerangs have been sold more than once?  Sorry about your hot sauce, great pictures though.  My favorite is the one with the bags strewn about the street.

Cool pics man. I love Philadelphia. It's such a dynamic city, yet rooted in important US history.

Cool pics.  Sounds like a good time.  Philly is probably my favorite American City.  Out of all big American cities, I am the least overwhelmed when walking around Philly (easy to navigate).  It has a "real" downtown that is functional, and at the same time, thriving. 

I've made that same trek from Columbus to Philly to Jersey and vice versa many times! Philly was an awesome city but the one thing I'll never miss about it is the obnoxious Eagles fans lol. I never got to explore as much as I wanted but I did get to see the major attractions such as the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, etc.

Thanks!

One of the first things I noticed about people in Philly is how much they're obsessed with food.  As for your pictures, the Independence Hall shot is gorgeous.

^Perhaps that's why they're one of the fattest cities in America.

Still no luck on the sleeping habits, hence why i'm still awake at 5:25 AM

 

One of the first things I noticed about people in Philly is how much they're obsessed with food. As for your pictures, the Independence Hall shot is gorgeous.

 

Thanks Rando, yeah they are obsessed with food, but the food there sure is good. Phily Cheesesteaks, I know what I'm making for dinner tonight!

Good shots. I think Philadelphia may be ahead of some other major cities in the cycle of thriving to dead to revived. I used to go there often while stationed at Dover AFB in the sixties, mostly for good camera shops and darkroom supplies, and then it was still the old-time gritty eastern downtown, with lots of activity from commerce during the day to a decidedly seamy side until late at night.

 

When I went back in the late seventies, there wasn't much going on during the day except around the historic centers like Independence Hall. There weren't even crowds lined up at the Liberty Bell, then, and at night the downtown area was desolate and scary.

 

In a visit in the early nineties I saw that there was once again a return of some activity, and now it looks like it's hoppin'. I love seeing that. I think it must be one of America's most photogenic cities; lots of forumers visit there and take different views of the place, and almost all of them come back with really good stuff.