Stoney Brook RV Resort Lehighton PA

 Stoney Brook RV Resort Lehighton PA

We meandered from Groton, Connecticut to Stoney Brook RV Resort in Lehighton, PA.  We have witnessed the splendor of the fall colors in our travels. Locals kept telling us that the fall foliage was not as vibrant and magnificent as typical for the area. We thought it was pretty amazing.  Our stop in Lehighton was for multiple purposes.  We were going to be able to see Harry and Debbie, friends of Mark's from the Navy, and be able to tour Philadelphia.

We drove to Philadelphia to spend the day with Harry and Deb.  Harry volunteered to be our tour guide and did an excellent job of it. Unfortunately, Debbie had to work all day.  After our full day of playing tourists, we went back to Harry's to get Deb for dinner. We went to one of their favorite local family owned Italian restaurants for a great dinner.

Karma spied a deer during our morning coffee ritual. He did not chase it and stayed close, but he was definitely curious. He loves the new normal of our lives and all the time we spend outdoors. To say he has adapted well is a gross understatement. 

Lisa is already wearing coats and lined pants trying to stay warm but Karma loves this cooler weather. Hiking near water is probably his favorite thing in life, other than his morning dental stick treat. He gets so excited when we get close to the water so he can jump in and take a swim. We don't let him drink or swim in stagnant, standing water, but otherwise we just let him do his thing.  Luckily, there are very few people out in these parks when we hike, so he is able to be off leash much of the time. 

We hiked into Hawks Falls, a 25 foot fall, located north of Lehighton near Hickory Run State Park.  

These were some of the colorful trees we saw on our hike. The fall foliage is just stunning. We are enjoying the gifts God has given us. We are truly appreciating the simple things that we all take for granted when we are rushing through life. 

Medallions of military veterans from the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 are fairly common in the north. Graves of veterans from these wars are much less common in the south. Veteran groups in the north do an excellent job placing these memorials on the graves of veterans from all eras. We have not been able to identify which group is responsible for placing these grave memorials, but we have the utmost respect for their efforts. We did some research on various veteran groups, many place flags on graves, but these medallions are war specific. I think we  would enjoy being involved with groups that honor our fallen veterans, so we will continue to do some research. It sounds weird, but we have found these old cemeteries very interesting.

This was a massive, unique family headstone that united family members from 1740-1915. This memorial was so big and so interesting, that it captured our attention driving down the road. We literally saw it and had to stop to get a better look.  These images and family names were on all 4 sides of the monument. The family was obviously wealthy and had a story to tell.  I was able to find this memorial and the family history online.  The family immigrated from Germany. Conrad had 12 children and amassed a great deal of land during his lifetime. He and his family were very involved in the development of the area and were civic leaders. This monument is in honor of his young son that was killed and scalped during an Indian attack on the settlers. I had noticed many memorials in this cemetery with various spellings of this family name.  The article I found addressed the various spellings that deviated from the original German family name. I was so surprised when the family history I found online included a photo of this same monument. I definitely found the correct family history on this one! 

This Irish Memorial depicts the plight of the Irish immigrants, from starvation in Ireland, the people embarking for America and then, the immigrants stepping onto American shores.  The right side, suggesting a landscape, portrays the misery of the Irish starvation.  In contrast, the higher end suggesting a ship, faces west as anxious immigrants dock in America and a number of figures rush forward in anticipation, full of hope looking to the future of freedom and opportunity.  The design is a true sculpture in the round, with engaging subjects and intriguing shapes seen from every angle. When I saw this memorial, I sensed the hope for a new and better life the immigrants must have felt.  I was able to see the full intention of the artist's sculpture after Harry pointed out a few things to us. We have learned the value of a good tour guide.

USS Becuna (SS/AGSS-319), a Balao-class submarine, is a former ship of the United States Navy. The Becuna was in service from 1944-1969. She was designated a National Historic Landmark for her service in World War II, for which she earned four battle stars. She presently serves as a museum ship at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

We did the tour of the Becuna (of course).  Of note was the two tour guides with us. One is working on her PhD on this particular class of submarines and the other also has her masters degree on the subject. Their interest and education was very interesting and highly unusual. I am not really sure what you do with a PhD in old WWII submarines, but this lady was using hers to be a tour guide. 

We were in the forward torpedo room.  Becuna had 6 torpedo tubes forward and 4 Aft. There was one tube open that allowed us to see the diameter and length of tubes in WWII. Mark and Harry were able to appreciate that piece of trivia more than some of us on the tour. They noticed many things that no one else on the tour noticed. 

We noticed this set of Dolphins mounted on the wall in the mess deck.  These were not US Navy Dolphins and we were unable to discern what country they came from. I have searched high and low and cannot find anything about these dolphins. This rarely happens to me. I can usually find about anything, but I cannot find these..... I even reached out to a gentleman I found online who is a collector of dolphins. Nada.... I found Nada.

Humorous cartoons that were posted on the Becuna on the bottom of a bedpan.  The claim was they were posted by the original crew members.

Lisa was learning more about submarines.  She has been a good sport about touring submarines.  This is the third one we have toured in the last 5 months. (Obviously, Mark wrote that section. Of course I am interested in learning more. It is a huge part of his life and I knew nothing about them. I still have ZERO desire to actually be confined in one while submersed deep in the ocean. As soon as I saw the bathrooms and the sleeping bunks, I knew it was not for me. Basically, you have storage space for everything you own in an area about the size of a boot box. Anyone who knows me knows that would not work for me.)

 Lisa, Mark and Harry on the tour of the Becuna.

The USS Becuna is tied to the pier.  That is the USS Olympia outboard of the Becuna.

 Scuttlebutt is a term that has been used for 100 years or more.

We saw this 5" 40 Cal breech loading rifle on the Olympia. 

This one is a 5" 51 Cal deck gun.

We felt that there were guns and rifles everywhere. As we read the below info on how Olympia was armed, there were guns and rifles every where.

Olympia is armed with a variety of weapons. The primary armament was four 8 in /35 caliber guns in two twin Mark 6 gun turrets, one forward and one aft of the superstructure. These guns could fire 260 lb. projectiles, either armor-piercing or high explosive, at a muzzle velocity of 2,100 ft per second. The Mark 6 turret was designed for depression of the guns to −4° and elevation to 13°. By 1916, the turrets and guns were considered woefully obsolete, and were subsequently removed and replaced with open gun platforms, each with a single 4"/40. These guns were then later replaced with 5"/51-caliber guns in 1917.

The secondary battery was ten 5 in/40 caliber guns mounted in casemates, five on each side of the ship. Each is placed to avoid the flash from the main battery. These guns fired 50 lb. armor-piercing shells at a muzzle velocity of 2,300 ft (700 m) per second. These also were replaced with 5"/51s during the 1917 refit. Fourteen 6-pounder (57 mm (2.24 in)) anti torpedo boat guns are mounted in sponsons. Six one-pounder guns are mounted on deck, along with six 18 in above water torpedo tubes.

and there is absolutely nothing I can add to that. Yep, there were big guns everywhere. I was getting fairly invested into thinking about lunch at this point.

USS Olympia is famous for firing the first shots at the Battle of Manila.  In my opinion, her largest contribution to America was transporting the remains of WWI Unknown Soldier back to America.  She is the oldest steel hulled American warship still afloat.

The bell of the USS Olympia still hangs proudly. The bell on a ship is considered sacred to her crew. 

The dispensary aboard the Olympia is pretty crude compared to modern day medical facilities. .

These signs teach us much about navy life in the late 19th Century.  Touring the USS Olympia was very enlightening and made us appreciate modern conveniences. 

USS New Jersey (BB-62) is an Iowa-class battleship. She was often referred to fondly as "Big J". New Jersey earned more battle stars for combat actions than the other three completed Iowa-class battleships, and was the only US battleship providing gunfire support during the Vietnam War.

During World War II, New Jersey shelled targets on Guam and Okinawa, and screened aircraft carriers conducting raids in the Marshall Islands. During the Korean War, she was involved in raids up and down the North Korean coast, after which she was decommissioned into the United States Navy reserve fleets, better known as the "mothball fleet". She was briefly reactivated in 1968 and sent to Vietnam to support US troops before returning to the mothball fleet in 1969. Reactivated once more in the 1980s as part of the 600-ship Navy program, New Jersey was modernized to carry missiles and recommissioned for service. In 1983, she participated in US operations during the Lebanese Civil War.

William Penn was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful treaties with the Lenape Native Americans.

In 1681, King Charles II handed over a large piece of his North American land holdings along the North Atlantic Ocean coast to Penn to pay the debts the king had owed to Penn's father, the admiral and politician Sir William Penn. Penn founded Philadelphia, on the west bank of the Delaware River.

As one of the earlier supporters of colonial unification, Penn wrote and urged for a union of all the English colonies in what was to become the United States of America. The democratic principles that he included in the West Jersey Concessions, and set forth in the Pennsylvania Frame of Government served as an inspiration for the members of the convention framing the new Constitution of the United States in Philadelphia in 1787.

As a pacifist Quaker, Penn considered the problems of war and peace deeply. He developed a forward-looking project and thoughts for a "United States of Europe" through the creation of a European Assembly made of deputies who could discuss and adjudicate controversies peacefully. He is therefore considered the first thinker to suggest the creation of a European Parliament and what would become the modern European Union in the late 20th century.

The Slate Roof House was a mansion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from1687 until its demolition in 1867. Built for Barbadian Quaker merchant Samuel Carpenter, the house occupied a small hill overlooking the Delaware River. The house was notable for its large size as well for its slate roof, which was a rarity in early Philadelphia.

For two years, during his second visit to America, William Penn rented the house for use as a city residence while maintaining his country house at Pennsbury Manor in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It was at the Slate Roof House that he wrote and issued his "Charter of Privileges," a progressive framework for Pennsylvania’s government that became the model for the United States Constitution and is still the basis of free governments all over the world.

In later years, the house was the temporary abode of John Adams, John Hancock, and many other distinguished members of the First Continental Congress.

These were on  the exterior of the Museum of the American Revolution.

Independence Hall is a historic building in Philadelphia in which both the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted by America's Founding Fathers.

The building was completed in 1753 as the Pennsylvania State House and served as the capitol for the Province and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It was the principal meeting place of the Second Continental Congress from 1775 to 1781 and was the site of the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1787.

 This is the Statue of George Washington outside of Independence Hall.

The Second Bank of the United States was the second federally authorized Hamiltonian national bank in the United States. Located in Philadelphia, it was chartered from February 1816 to January 1836. The Bank's formal name, according to section 9 of its charter as passed by Congress, was "The President Directors and Company of the Bank of the United States". While other banks in the US were chartered by and only allowed to have branches in a single state, it was authorized to have branches in multiple states and lend money to the US government. A private corporation with public duties, the Bank handled all fiscal transactions for the U.S. Government, and was accountable to Congress and the U.S. Treasury. Twenty percent of its capital was owned by the federal government, the Bank's single largest stockholder. Four thousand private investors held 80 percent of the Bank's capital, including three thousand Europeans. The bulk of the stocks were held by a few hundred wealthy Americans. In its time, the institution was the largest monied corporation in the world.

The Human Liberty Bell from Camp Dix during WWI.

The bell is called the Justice Bell, but has also been known as the Women’s Liberty Bell and the Suffrage Bell. It was commissioned by Katharine Wentworth Ruschenberger in 1915. She was one of the 70,000 members of the Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association, and a leader of the organization in Chester County.

A close replica of the Liberty Bell, the bronze Justice Bell was cast without a crack. The inscription on the Justice Bell reads:

ESTABLISH JUSTICE
PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT ALL THE LAND UNTO ALL THE INHABITANTS THEREOF
MENEELEY BELL CO
TROY, NY
MCMXV

 "Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof." Leviticus XXV:X

By Order of the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania for the State House in Philadelphia.

The bell weighed 2,080 lbs. at order. It is made of bronze. It's 70% copper, 25% tin and contains small amounts of lead, gold, arsenic, silver, and zinc. The bell's wooden yoke is American elm, but there is no proof that it is the original yoke for this bell.

Staircase supported from the ceiling in the Bourse.

The Philadelphia Bourse was a commodities exchange founded in 1891 by George E. Bartol, a grain and commodities exporter, who modeled it after the Bourse in Hamburg, Germany. The steel-framed building – one of the first to be constructed – was built from 1893 to 1895.  It is currently a food court.

Christ Church Burial Ground

Grave site for the Consul from Holland to the United States.  Heineken passed in 1838.  Our question, is he related to the founders of the Heineken beer from Holland?

Signers of the Constitution buried at Christ Church Burial Ground.

William Bainbridge was a Commodore in the United States Navy. During his long career in the young American Navy, he served under six presidents beginning with John Adams and is notable for his many victories at sea. He commanded several famous naval ships, including USS Constitution, and saw service in the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812. In the latter part of his career, he became the U.S. Naval Commissioner.

Edwin Jesse DeHaven  was a United States Navy officer and explorer of the first half of the 19th century who was best known for his command of the First Grinnell expedition in 1850, which was directed to ascertain what had happened to the lost Franklin Polar Expedition.

Elizabeth Ross was an American upholsterer who was credited by her relatives in 1870 with making the first official U.S. flag, accordingly known as the Betsy Ross flag. Though most historians dismiss the story, Ross family tradition holds that General George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and two members of a congressional committee—Robert Morris and George Ross—visited Mrs. Ross in 1776. Mrs. Ross convinced George Washington to change the shape of the stars in a sketch of a flag he showed her from six-pointed to five-pointed by demonstrating that it was easier and speedier to cut the latter. 

Elfreth's Alley is named after Jeremiah Elfreth, an 18th-century blacksmith and property owner. Among the alley's residents were tradesmen and their families, including shipwrights, silver and pewter smiths, glassblowers, and furniture builders. In the 1770s, one-third of the households were headed by women. The Georgian and Federal-style houses and cobblestone pavement of the alley were common in Philadelphia during this time. The houses are typically small, and many are uniquely Philadelphian Trinity houses. Today homes on the Alley sell for $800-$1000/SqFt.  Homes range from 1000-2300 Square feet.

These are fire insurance markers on buildings in Philadelphia’s Old City.  The metal plaques were attached to the front of buildings in the 18th century to alert the fire brigades which houses were insured and which fire company was responsible for the service. The four hands above was Benjamin Franklins company, it was established in 1736.  If you were not covered by the representatives of the specific company, they would allow your house to burn to the ground.

There was still so much more to be seen in the city, but we were out of time. We left the city and headed back to Harry's to pick up Debbie for dinner. We went to a locally owned, family Italian restaurant that is one of their favorites. It was so nice to be able to see these dear, old friends and see their beautiful city.