When we were talking about travelling in the Eastern States we were not concerned about the mileage or living in a caravan for a lengthy period of time. After all we had travelled long term in Australia with the caravan and covered many kilometres. I remember Cam saying that we will notice a difference in the U.S. though as there are so many big cities. He is right, however it is easy to bypass all the cities by setting the GPS on your destination and staying on the highways. In fact, there is so much vegetation that it is nearly possible to pass towns and cities with no evidence of civilisation. However, there are some cities that we do want to visit, and often because they are the well known names. After visiting New York our next destination was Philadelphia. What did I know about Philadelphia previously? Very little really other than it was in Pennsylvania (and to me Pennsylvania meant Amish) and was big. We had been in Pennsylvania previously on this trip, visiting the Lancaster County and the Amish community. We were now about one and a half hours drive east of Intercourse, where we had stayed. Shall I go back for the quilt I loved - perhaps not. I didn't even suggest it. Finding a camp ground near Philadelphia was a challenge. The closest were about 30-40 miles out of town and all three had very poor reviews. We checked out the closest Walmart to town and didn't feel that was the right place either, so where too next. We found a new concept and it was right in the middle of the city. It is called Campus RV park and ride. Basically it is a storage and parking venue with a free shuttle service. For our $52.50 a night we got a parking space, water, electrics, sewer hook up, basic bathroom facilities and a shuttle service every 10-15 minutes to meet local transport into the city. We could see the city from the caravan door. The facility is mainly used by hospital staff for parking (there are at least four hospitals within five minutes of the facility) and then providing parking for RV's is another side line business venture. It is perfect for people who have family members in hospital, and those who want to sightsee and don't need the entertainment facilities (mainly for children) that a camping ground offers. It proved ideal for us. We took the free shuttle service the first morning and connected with the city bus and within minutes we were in downtown Philadelphia. First stop was the Liberty Bell Centre which is Philadelphia's top tourist attraction. On show is the 2080 lb bronze bell which was rung on important occasions, the most notable being the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence. The bell became badly cracked in the 19th century and repairs have not been successful and so has been unusable since 1846. There were crowds and crowds of people visiting as it is considers an emblem of freedom (for slaves, the vote for women etc). We chose to ride the "Phlash" which is a hop on hop off bus visiting 22 touristic sites in the city. At only $5 a person we thought this very good value and saved heaps of walking. After moaning about the cold when we were in Canada we are on the verge of moaning about the heat. It was very warm, but fortunately the humidity wasn't too high. We decided to ride the full bus circle first - this took about an hour. From here we chose those we wished to revisit as no way could we visit them all in one day. Also choices have to be made e.g. there was a "Lego gets artsy" display which sounded interesting. However at $29.95 per person we gave that a miss. There were so many museums to choose from. We visited the National Museum of American Jewish History which had displays, films etc and proved very interesting. Right in the centre of town is Reading Terminal Market. This is one of America's largest and oldest farmers markets and since 1893 has been housed in a historic building in downtown Philadelphia. The market offers all sorts of food, from fresh fruit, vegetables, meat etc to sit down lunch venues, and possibly like every day, it was packed. Decisions on what to have for lunch were really difficult and in the end I chose to eat at an Amish (or was it Menormite) Dutch kitchen serving all sorts of dishes. I had a corn and chicken chowder with crackers and Peter chose the chicken and vegetable pie which turned out to be much more like a thick soup with no crust. Oh well, at least it wasn't stock standard American burger and fries or a variation of same. I was so pleased to see an old book store in the facility. Next stop was the City Hall. This massive building, with a statue of the founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, on the top of the steeple is the centre of State a Government. The building is listed at 21 of America's most popular 150 architectural buildings. It was huge and impressive. Tours to the steeple are held only once daily and were booked out a couple of days in advance. So instead we made our way to the Eastern State Penitentiary. This prison was state of the art when it was opened in 1829 and was in use until 1971. The facility provided individual cells and for the first time offered reform for the prisoners. It wasn't until the 1960's that prisoners were allowed visitors during their sentence. The wagon wheel design became a prototype for more than 300 prisons around the world. The prison is now a historic place and parts are open to the public. It was one scary place - albeit that Al Capone was one of the famous prisoners imprisoned there. So ended our visit to Philadelphia. It is amazing how tiring it gets being a tourist. Relaxation, dinner, researching where to stay next, blog updates, etc were the plan for the evening. Time to move on again! Washington DC was our next destination. To reach there we travelled a short way through Pennsylvania then crossed briefly into Delaware then into Maryland which includes all the outskirts of the city of Washington DC. It is always interesting to note the variation in the price of petrol (or gas as the American's call it) between States. Apparently this is because of local state taxes. Like in Australia and New Zealand, very few of the gas stations provide service, although in some states it is law that service is provided. When it is self service you enter your card and proceed from there. Some stations request your zip code. This is where we become unstuck. Our card is an Australian card and so has an Australian postcode associated to it. The American pumps of course do not recognise this and reject. This then means that I need to take it in to the attendant, explain, and they zap the card for between $50-100. The car can then be filled, and the attendant completes the final ring up and the amount paid is adjusted. Most times this is a lengthy process, but is okay. We have now had occasions where the full authorisation plus the correction debit have been charged to our account. Brrrr! Many also charge $1 for their service - no issues with that. We were more than happy with our choice of camping ground near Washington DC. It was a large camp with about 400 sites and had all the services imaginable including an onsite restaurant and cafe, two pools, spa pools, children's splash adventure park (which was new and pretty awesome) plus the normal playgrounds and facilities. Again every site had an outdoor table and fire ring. The check in process included providing all the information anyone could possibly want concerning sightseeing and local transport and daily sightseeing presentations were provided. They certainly provided service to their customers. The local bus even pulled right into the camp ground to collect and drop off passengers! We had two full days sightseeing in Washington and both days the temperature was above 90 degrees. We took the Metro into downtown Washington (sadly I sent us in the wrong direction the first time so our trip was a bit longer than necessary) with our stop being the National Archives Museum. What an absolutely amazing place this is. There are so many museums in Washington that with only two days it was really necessary to make a choice. We spent about two hours in this museum and we were able to see the original Declaration of Independence document. At this museum it was also possible to search records of families, look back through history of significant people, review all sorts of historical documents and of course lots of photos and films to view. What do you think of when you think of Washington DC? Most of us think of the famous White House. Unfortunately the tours of the western wing were suspended due to renovations being undertaken. Cam and I had taken that tour back in 1996 so it was disappointing that Peter missed out. The only way you can see the White House is by looking through the iron fence between the trees however by finding your spot between the tourists, and the trees, it is possible to get a reasonable view but the house is still a long way back from the fence line, which isn't surprising. Like thousands of others, we got a view of the White House! The heat was really getting to us so we trekked back along Constitution Avenue (they really should provide either a moving footpath or even a free bus as it is very long) and decided to visit the Museum of Natural History. As soon as we walked in we were disappointed we didn't have the grandchildren (including Sandra and Danny's children) with us. What an awesome place. I decided that I would go in with the kids and say meet me back at this point in three hours. There is so much to interest and enthralled kids and adults of all ages the problem was just where to start. From dinosaurs, to insects, to evolution, to gems (including the huge "Hope Diamond" which I think is the biggest diamond in the world) and much more. The collection of Smithsonian museums are open until around 9 pm in the summer months and once inside it was possible to forget how hot and humid it was outside and even the time of day. Also for the majority of the museums in Washington DC it is free to visit. Next day we knew that we would have a reasonable amount of walking so planned to miss most of the heat of the day as it was forecast to be even hotter. So after completing some necessary book work for Peter's business and an early lunch we took the Metro into the city again (right direction this time) and after a couple of train changes arrived at the Holocaust Museum. I will not provide any detail of this museum other than to say that it was moving, emotional, tragic, enlightening, educational and we are so pleased that we have been. Our visit started at around 2 pm and we didn't see it all by any means, and along with others we were ushered out at 5.30 as it was Saturday night and the museum was closing. We could easily have had another couple of hours. So with the heat out of the day we wandered to Washington Memorial, then to the WWII memorial and reflection pool. A wander along the reflection pool to the Lincoln Memorial and stop off at both the Korean and Vietnam memorials. Such beautiful memorials and park and on this warm Saturday evening it was being enjoyed by thousands of people. With sore feet and feeling very warm we made our way to another Metro Station for the train back. Boy they have funny names of stations in this part of the world - this one was Foggy Bottom! I have no idea where it got it's name from, haven't researched it either, which I must do at some stage when we have good internet coverage. After two changes of trains (one again due to my error) we finally made it back to camp. We enjoyed visiting Washington DC. It was Peter's first visit and he thought it reminded him of Canberra. We missed going to Arlington Cemetery, somewhere I had enjoyed visiting last time, but we can't tick off everything. Sometimes eating, relaxing, and socialising with others has to take up some of our time and did I miss to say, we needed to spend some time doing some laundry as the laundry basket was full and our supply of clean clothes getting very limited. We were camped beside a large motor home that also pulled a car. There was a couple, say in their forties staying in it. We never met them, nor said hello! They stayed in the motorhome all day watching television and only came outside to smoke and then they sat facing the motorhome with their back to everyone else. Maybe just the holiday they wanted but to our way of thinking, quite dumb! So pack up again and time to leave the cities behind - next stop we are heading to the coast.