Choir Tour Part 3

Day #6...Wednesday...this was a busy day. During the wee hours we were awakened by violent thunder, but the rain had stopped by morning. After a delicious breakfast at our hotel, we boarded the bus and went to First Baptist Church of Philadelphia. This church has an absolutely gorgeous sanctuary with stained glass windows gracing three walls. The pictures I took don't begin to do it justice, but believe me when I say it took my breath away when I walked in.
The congregation is fairly small and quite diverse. They have a Wednesday noon worship service each week, for which we provided the music. This service reaches out to folks who work in the area, whether or not they are members, and gives them a chance to worship during their lunch break. They have just installed air conditioning in the building, for which we were very grateful. While we were getting set up for the noon service, Ben ventured out and purchased a second umbrella, thus guaranteeing no more rain would fall on us during the tour!

We had a few hours for sightseeing that afternoon, and I hopped in a taxi with three other ladies for a quick trip to the Reading Terminal Market (remember the Reading RR space on the Monopoly board?)where we got a snack and wandered through the many vendors' booths. Ben decided to put his feet up and relax. Then we went back to FBC Philadelphia for our evening concert, after which we were treated to a pasta supper and fellowship with the church family.

Thursday was a travel day. We left Philly early in the morning and drove to Valley Forge, where we spent a short time in the visitors' center before riding the bus around the 10-mile loop through the park. All along the route from Philly, the rivers were extremely high and had lots of debris floating on their surfaces. We crossed the Tappan Zee bridge, and the driver told us that on a clear day you can see the Manhattan skyline from that bridge, but the day was dreary and heavily overcast, so we could just barely make out any sign of it. After leaving Valley Forge, our next destination was the Baltimore Harbor. Many in our group went to the National Aquarium there; others rode with the driver down to Fort McHenry or shopped around the harbor area. Ben and I went to the Aquarium but were dismayed to realize that lots of other tourists had tickets for the same time. It was very crowded, and we really didn't have time to see much, especially since our tickets included the dolphin show.
A word of advice: if you ever want to visit the Aquarium, start early in the day and allow lots of time to wander through the exhibits. It really is a fine facility, and we wished we'd had more time to explore it. We ate dinner at the harbor, and the final bus ride of the day took us to our hotel in Washington, D.C.