Happy Birthday Benjamin Franklin!

January 17, 2017 - Ben Franklin Day and Great Sites that Commemorate this American Inventor and Statesman

1/17/2017

Elisa's Daily Scoop
NEXT TRIP DEPARTS IN: 85 DAYS

"Nothing is certain as death & taxes" - Ben Franklin

Howdy! How was your day yesterday?

Today is going to be a slightly jam-packed blog. After I do a little show and tell about yesterday, I'm going to move on to talk about the man of the day - Benjamin Franklin and touch upon a few of our visits to points of interest to visit in Philadelphia dedicated to this great American, from our visit to the City of Brotherly Love back in the Summer of 2013.

I know Tanya has a bunch of pics and stories from her Philly trip(s) as well as a list of 17 for 2017 about Mr. Franklin.

Enjoying their drinks after a long afternoon of shopping (c)travelincousins.com

So, let's get started!

We had a blast at the mall. Generally, not the place I would say that about, but the kids had so much fun bopping in and out of the stores, hanging out together - we Moms (and Grandma!) had so much fun watching them.

(c)travelincousins.com

Trying some free Tea (c)travelincousins.com

With four pre-teen girls, the course was set for two things -- make-up, clothing & accessories, eating and drinking!

The older girls led the way into stores like Sephora and Lush (bath items) and all four were ever so excited to visit Forever 21. Kelsey is wearing her new hat from Footlocker and all the kids were in agreement that Starbucks was the way to end the day.

I'm not a big fan of the mall and yesterday, with it being Martin Luther King Jr. Day and kids off from school, the mall was extra jammed. But, I cannot lie - it was really fun watching the girls do their own thing as we stayed nearby. I want to enjoy these moments because before ya know it, they will not need me anymore on their shopping excursions!

Moving right along to today...

Benjamin Franklin Day. is celebrated worldwide on January 17th to commemorate one of the most well known and celebrated Americans in history.

He was born on this day in 1706 to a soap and candle maker in Boston, Massachusetts, which was then a British colony. His birthplace is at 17 Milk Street and he embodies the true meaning of a "polymath" - someone who is an expert on a variety of different subjects.

Among his many achievements are:
* Founding father
* Prolific inventor
* Author
* Printer
* Politician
* Diplomat
* Musician
* Postmaster.

What makes his accomplishments that much more amazing is that he stopped attending school at the age of ten!!

POOR RICHARD'S ALMANACK - THE MOST WIDELY READ ALMANACK IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES (credit: ledytaxi.ru)

One of his most famous works, among many as an author, is Poor Richard's Almanack, which Franklin published under the pseudonym, Richard Saunders.

Poor Richard's Almanack was an annual almanac that included poems, weather, and astrological information and it was the most widely read almanac in the American colonies.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN HOUSE (c)travelincousins.com

A few summers ago, we took the kids to Philadelphia for a long weekend. It was fun and educational!! (Click Here for the trip itinerary and scoop.)

If you are planning a trip to Philadelphia and want to get your Ben Franklin on, here are a few places I highly recommend:

Ben Franklin House
This was a real treat! To actually walk through the house where Mr. Franklin lived!! The kids could not believe how differently and "no frills" folks lived back in the 1700's.

BEN FRANKLIN MUSEUM, PHILADELPHIA, PA (c)travelincousins.com

Benjamin Franklin Museum
317 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Hours: Open today · 9AM–5PM
Phone: (267) 514-1522

A short walk away from Independence Hall is the Benjamin Franklin Museum, which was just newly opened when we visited. It was clean and fresh smelling and the exhibits were wonderfully done. A must-see! And don't forget your National Monument passport as this is on the registry

BEN FRANKLIN FAMILY TREE EXHIBIT AT BEN FRANKLIN MUSEUM (c)travelincousins.com

The Franklin Institute
222 N. 20TH Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Phone: (215) 448-1200
The Franklin Institute stands as a testament to many of the man’s great scientific experiments. and is now home to a national memorial dedicated to Franklin.

It is one of the oldest science museums in the country.

THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE, PHILADELPHIA, PA (credit: The Cinematic Frontier - WordPress.com)

And now for some of the most famous quotes of all time....

25 FAMOUS
BEN FRANKLIN
QUOTES

AND MY PERSONAL FAVORITE....

As for my day...
I have to pack up more things in the house that will be donated to the Veterans; a trip to the post office and the craft store for yet, two more projects that the girls have to do for school.

In fact, here is Kelsey's latest project, which was brought in today. She was assigned the state of Tennessee for the annual Social Studies Fair.

One of the first projects given was to create a map of the state on a paper plate. I think she did an outstanding job!!!

MAP OF TENNESSEE BY KELSEY FOR SOCIAL STUDIES (c)travelincousins.com

Stay tuned for tomorrow when we feature "Winnie the Pooh" and some of our great Pooh memories!!

Well, thats it for today. I saved my favorite Ben Franklin quote for last! This goes out to you - remember, there is nothing more true and Mr. Franklin knew it!!

-E
xoxo

Tanya's Daily Scoop
NEXT TRIP DEPARTS IN: 20 DAYS

Happy Birthday Ben!

Hello there!

Did you get a 3 day weekend? Is today your Monday?
I always enjoy 3 day weekends, plus they also mean that there is or was only a 4 day work week.

I actually think that the whole 5 day work week is ridiculous. I really believe that implementing a 10 hour work day and a 4 day work week would benefit us all. Of course if you can get by with less and actually have more of your own time to do with what you may - that is always the BEST!

The kids and I spent our entire MLK Day at Disney's California Adventure.

We drove over with Liz and Mika early yesterday morning.

Dominic was still half asleep. (c)travelincousins.com

We arrived onsite at the kids call time and shortly there after, they were taken back stage for warms up and costume changes.

The kids and their friends (c)travelincousins.com

In the meanwhile, Liz, Mika and I wandered around the park in search of Fast Passes. I had all the tickets from the gang that I'd soon be chaperoning and the minute they were finished performing and out of costume they were good and ready to start going on rides!

Liz, Mika and I (c)travelincousins.com

The Lagoon (c)travelincousins.com

Me and Mika (c)travelincousins.com

The kids did a wonderful job performing with the International Peace Choir, and they all sounded GREAT!

The International Peace Choir (c)travelincousins.com

Dominic, Ambassador of Italy (c)travelincousins.com

Cosette representing the United States of America (c)travelincousins.com

After the performance Liz and Mika spent a lovely few hours along with us and a troop of choir kids.

Off to go have fun! (c)travelincousins.com

On Soarin' around the World! (c)travelincousins.com

The kids and friends (c)travelincousins.com

Fun times at California Adventure (c)travelincousins.com

Disney's California Adventure (c)travelincousins.com

We wandered about and rode everything in sight with a big group of kids. Little by little it dwindled down to just me and my two diehards.

Ride after ride after ride and after 11+ miles of walking around the park it was closing time and finally time to leave and go home.

Just as soon as the park closed my two big kiddos were seriously wiped out and now ready for bed!

In fact Dominic fell asleep on the car ride home.
Cosette was also super exhausted and once I was all snuggled under my cozy blankie, I wasn't that far behind. Zzz Zzz Zzz

Tired at the end of the day (c)travelincousins.com

Now onto some interesting facts about the man of the day: Benjamin Franklin

17 Interesting Facts About Benjamin Franklin

Credit: Wiki

Ben Franklin came from a large family. In fact, his father, Josiah Franklin, had 17 children with 2 wives. He was the 8th to the second wife but the 15th in total!
Due to lack of money, Ben only ever attended one year of school.
Elected to the Second Continental Congress and worked on a committee of five that helped to draft the Declaration of Independence.
Signed Declaration of Independence in 1776.
Signed the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolution, in 1783.
He was a volunteer fireman. He had a passion for “paying it forward” and giving back to the community. The department he volunteered for is called the Union Fire Company, but is now known as “Benjamin Franklin’s Bucket Brigade”. After volunteering multiple times, he wrote articles on fire safety.
Franklin created a phonetic alphabet.
While living in London in 1768, Franklin embarked on a project “to give the alphabet a more natural order.” Annoyed by the many inconsistencies in English spelling, he devised his own phonetic system that ditched the redundant consonants C, J, Q, W, X and Y and added six new letters, each designed to represent its own specific vocal sound. Franklin unveiled his “Scheme for a new Alphabet and a Reformed Mode of Spelling” in an essay published in 1779, but later scrapped the project after it failed to arouse public interest.
Franklin could speak 5 languages. He taught himself to read French, Latin, Italian, and Spanish, after already knowing English. He was always looking for ways to self-improve and figured being fluent in other languages would help him in his future.
He created the first insurance company in the colonies.
Franklin invented the rocking chair.
Among his many other talents, Benjamin Franklin was a skilled chess player. He was inducted into the United States Chess Hall of Fame in 1999. He wrote a well-known essay, “The Morals of Chess” that detailed the rules of conduct for playing the game and was responsible for making chess a popular sport in America.
He’s a member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Franklin had a lifelong love of swimming that began during his childhood in Boston. One of his first inventions was a pair of wooden hand paddles that he used to propel himself through the Charles River, and he wrote of once using a kite to skim across a pond. While living in England in the 1720s, he displayed such an impressive array of swimming strokes during a dip in Thames that a friend offered to help him open his own swimming school. Franklin declined the offer, but he remained a proponent of swimming instruction for the rest of his life, once writing, “every parent would be glad to have their children skilled in swimming.” His aquatic exploits have since earned him an honorary induction into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
He had a knack for pranks. Franklin was never above causing a bit of mischief for his friends and family. When he was a teenager, Ben worked for his older brother’s newspaper, The New-England Courant. When his brother refused to publish one of Ben’s letters, Ben adopted a false identity – that of a widow named Silence Dogood – and started writing letters in her name. These, of course, got published and became pretty popular. Eventually, he put an end to the prank when Mrs. Dogood started receiving marriage proposals from readers.
He spent half his life in unofficial retirement.
Franklin arrived in Philadelphia in 1723 practically penniless, but over the next two decades he became enormously wealthy as a print shop owner, land speculator and publisher of the popular “Poor Richard’s Almanack.” By 1748, the 42-year-old was rich enough to hang up his printer’s apron and become a “gentleman of leisure.” Franklin’s retirement allowed him to spend his remaining 42 years studying science and devising inventions such as the lightning rod, bifocal glasses and a more efficient heating stove. It also gave him the freedom to devote himself to public service. Despite never running for elected office, he served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, diplomat and ambassador to France and Sweden, the first postmaster general and the president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania.
Many people know that Ben Franklin owned a printing company and the Pennsylvania Gazette. But it may be new knowledge that his company also printed all of the paper money for Pennsylvania and Delaware. Beginning in 1929, his face would grace the front of the $100 bill and people would call them “Benjamins” in his honor.
Franklin designed a musical instrument used by Mozart and Beethoven.
Among Franklin’s more unusual inventions is his “glass armonica,” an instrument designed to replicate the otherworldly sound that a wet finger makes when rubbed along the rim of a glass. He made his first prototype in 1761 by having a London glassmaker build him 37 glass orbs of different sizes and pitches, which he then mounted on a spindle controlled by a foot pedal. To play the instrument, the user would simply wet their fingers, rotate the apparatus and then touch the glass pieces to create individual tones or melodies. The armonica would go on to amass a considerable following during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Thousands were manufactured, and the likes of Mozart, Beethoven and Strauss all composed music for it. Franklin would later write that, “Of all my inventions, the glass armonica has given me the greatest personal satisfaction.”
And just like me and Elisa - Ben was a Travelin' fool.. During Franklin’s life, the average person never traveled more than 20 miles from their home. Franklin, on the other hand, crossed the Atlantic Ocean eight times (the first at age 18 and the last at age 79) and spent 27 years of his life overseas.

Credit: Wiki

While Philadelphia is chockful of history much of Ben Franklin's life and his final resting place is also in this very historic city of brotherly love.

Here are just a handful of Franklin sites that we happened to visit during our last visit to Philly, back in 2014.