Sonya's Blog - Day 142 - Remembrance Day and The Rocky Steps

Sonya’s Blog - Day 142 - November 11th - Remembrance Day and The Rocky Steps

Today I wanted to watch the Remembrance Day Ceremonies from Canada. We had been to the Veteran’s Day Parade here, so we wanted to see the Ottawa broadcast. Here is something that I did not know, Americans don't wear poppies. I have only seen one poppy, and that was on a vet during the Veterans Day Parade. I have not seen them for sale anywhere and nobody is wearing them in public. I have a scarf I bought that has poppies on it, so I have been wearing that. It was easy to watch the Remembrance Day Ceremony online at CBC.ca, so we brought that up at 10 AM and everybody is wearing a poppy. We watched that for the couple of hours that it was on. It was a very good ceremony, as it always is. I love the interviews with the Veterans and hearing their individual stories. It was also great to see Kent Hehr interviewed, our new Veterans Affairs Minister. I worked with Kent at Safeway, way back when. He and I worked at the same Safeway prior to him being shot through the window of a car he was a passenger in. We did not work in the same department, but I worked in the deli so I knew a lot of the staff as they would come to the deli to buy their lunches/suppers. I ran into him once, after his accident as well and had a chat with him. We were never good friends, just acquaintances. He was very well regarded and respected as a Provincial MLA and I am sure that will continue in his new job in federal politics, which is really great to see. Such a senseless and tragic crime, yet he has maintained a positive attitude and been so successful. I wish him every success in his new and challenging role as Veterans Affairs Minister.

After we watched the full ceremony we had some lunch and decided to head out to check out Fairmont Park and The Rocky Steps. We took Kizmet with us since we were just going to be walking outside for a few hours. The Rocky Steps are actually the steps that lead up to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. We found parking near the museum and trekked on over there to have our run up the steps. Our first stop was a very large statue of George Washington on a horse to commemorate his leadership during the War of Independence. While we were looking at George Washington we saw a family running up the steps to the Museum and their son fell while doing this - looked painful. This made me a little cautious about my upcoming run up the steps. We moseyed on over to the steps and started our ascent. Kizmet was so excited about running up the steps, she practically dragged Blake up. We got to the top and did our little Rocky celebratory dance and got some pictures. It is a great view of downtown Philadelphia from the top of the steps, so we stopped to admire it. We then walked down to the bottom and got our pictures with the Rocky Statue. This statue was created for Rocky III and when filming completed, Sylvester Stallone donated the statue to the City.

We then started to walk through Fairmont Park and along the river path that runs alongside the Schuylkill River. There are a number of sculptures along this river walk. We quite liked the statue of the viking explorer Thorfinn Karlsefni, he was said to have settled in North America in the 11th Century. We walked past Boathouse Row, where all the rowing clubs have set up shop. The Schuylkill River is the sight of several regattas every year and many of these rowing clubs have been around for over a century. We walked along for quite awhile and then decided to turn around and head back. It was past 4 by this time, so we thought we should get back to the truck before it got dark. It is getting dark around 5:30 PM now. The walk back was just as nice and we took a different trail and came around the museum from the opposite side.

It was past 5 by the time we got back to the truck and we were worried about getting stuck in traffic. It turned out to be no problem as we were able to get on the expressway right away and were crossing the Benjamin Franklin Bridge in no time. We were back at the campsite in about a 1/2 hour. We had a supper of leftovers, since we had so many and then we played a game of Monopoly. It was only Blake, Isaac and I and I got killed. I was just having no luck with my rolls. Blake had plenty of luck and won the game. Isaac was not impressed.

Tomorrow we visit the Liberty Bell and explore some more of the Historic Downtown.

Sonya