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Alaska Airlines Flights from Chicago (ORD) to Philadelphia (PHL)
Orbitz is pleased to offer airline tickets on Alaska Airlines, which operates 3 regularly scheduled daily non-stop flights from Chicago (ORD) to Philadelphia (PHL), departing between 6:50am and 8:40pm, and one additional non-stop flight regularly scheduled to depart at 4:00pm and arrive at 7:05pm, Thursdays, Fridays, Sundays. Usually a McDonnell Douglas MD80 is flown for this route. The average travel time from Chicago, IL to Philadelphia, PA is 1 hour and 57 minutes.*
* Some flights must connect with additional service on this airline.
During your Philadelphia vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:
Franklin Institute Science Museum
The Franklin Institute Science Museum isn't just kid stuff. All ages love it because it's a thoroughly imaginative trip through the worlds of science that demonstrates the influence of science in our lives. The complex has four parts. The first is the home of the Franklin National Memorial, with a 30-ton statue of its namesake and a collection of authentic Franklin artifacts and possessions.The second part is a collection of science- and technology-oriented exhibition areas, with innovative hands-on displays such as the recent "Titanic" show, from a gigantic walk-through heart (beloved by Philadelphians, and just restored after years of climbing and exploration by curious children) to the Train Factory, an interactive setting where you can play engineer for a 350-ton locomotive. For a hair-raising experience, plug into a Van de Graaff generator at the lightning gallery. On the third floor, an energy hall bursts with Rube Goldberg contraptions, noisemakers, and light shows. The nearby Discovery Theater gives afternoon shows featuring liquid air and other oddities. The fourth floor specializes in astronomy and mathematical puzzles. The basement Fels Planetarium (tel. 215/563-1363), just renovated and accompanied by the new "space station" on the first floor, rounds out the offering here.The third part of the Franklin Institute is the result of an ambitious 1991 campaign, funded by $22 million from the city and state, and $36 million from private donors, to construct the Mandell Futures Center addition. Just past the Franklin National Memorial on the second floor, you'll enter an atrium with cafes, ticket counters, and ramps and stairs leading to the new exhibits. Just beyond is a separate-admission IMAX arena, showing films ranging from undersea explorations to the Rolling Stones in spectacular 70mm format. Eight permanent interactive exhibits, including space, earth, computers, chemistry, and health, take you into the 21st century with Disney World-style pizazz. My personal favorites are "The Sports Challenge," a full body exploration of the science behind popular sports like surfing and rock climbing, a video driving exercise in "Future Vision," "The Jamming Room" of musical synthesizers, and the "See Yourself Age" computer program in "Future and You." The texts throughout are witty and disarming. Quite thrilling is the Skybike, which you can ride along a 1[dp] cable three stories above the Bartol Atrium floor and its huge new sci-store.The fourth section is the 1995 CoreStates Science Park, a collaboration with the Please Touch Museum. It uses the 38,000-square-foot lawn between the two museums -- it's free with admission to the museum. The imaginative urban garden is filled with high-tech play structures, including a high-wire tandem bicycle, 12-foot tire, step-on organ, maze, and optical illusions.Of course, you'll eventually get hungry -- with a family, the institute is a full afternoon. Your choices are excellent: a vending-machine space in the Wawa Lunchroom on the first floor, open only to museum-goers; the all-American-with-a-nutritional-twist Ben's Garden Cafe on the second floor, accessible without museum admission, and open Monday through Friday from 8:30am to 2:30pm and Saturday and Sunday from 9am to 3:30pm; and the Snack-A-Rama in the Mandell Center lobby, open daily from 11am to shortly before museum closing, serving beer and wine. Vendors outside sell Philadelphia soft pretzels with plenty of mustard.Note: Watch for special events at the Franklin Institute on and around Ben Franklin's 300th birthday, Jan 17, 2006. Citywide events are still in the works as we go to print. See www.benfranklin300.org for details.
Independence Hall
Even if you knew nothing about Independence Hall, you could guess that noble and important events took place here. Although these buildings are best known for their national role, they also functioned as the seat of government for the city of Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania both before and after Philadelphia was the capital of the U.S. From an architectural standpoint, the edifice is graceful and functional; from the standpoint of history and American myth, it's unforgettable. Independence Square sets you thinking about the bold idea of forming an entirely sovereign state from a set of disparate colonies and about the strength and intelligence of the representatives who gathered here to do it. For some historical context, try the wonderful website of the Independence Hall Association at www.ushistory.org.When the French and Indian War (1754-63) required troops, which required money, King George III believed the colonists should pay for their own defense through taxes. The colonists disagreed, and the idea that the king harbored tyrannical thoughts swept through the Colonies. Philadelphia, as the wealthiest and most cultured of the seacoast cities, was leery of radical proposals of independence. Even Ben Franklin himself, an American agent in London at the time, was wary of this scheme. But the news that British troops had fired on citizens defending their own property in Concord pushed even the most moderate citizens to reconsider what they owed to England and what they deserved as free people endowed with natural rights.The Second Continental Congress convened in May 1775, in the Pennsylvania Assembly Room, to the left of the entrance to Independence Hall. Each colony had its own green baize-covered table, but not much of the original room's furnishings escaped use as firewood when British troops occupied the city in December 1777. The Congress acted quickly, appointing a tall Virginia delegate named George Washington as commander of the Continental Army. After the failure of a last "olive branch" petition, the Congress, through John Adams, instructed each colony's government to reorganize itself as a state. Thomas Jefferson worked on a summary of why the colonists felt that independence was necessary. The resulting Declaration of Independence, wrote noted historian Richard Morris, "lifted the struggle from self-interested arguments over taxation to the exalted plane of human rights." Most of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence used Philip Syng's silver inkstand, which is still in the room. The country first heard the news of the Declaration on July 8 in Independence Square.Before and after the British occupied the city, Independence Hall was the seat of the U.S. national government. Here, the Congress approved ambassadors, pored over budgets, and adopted the Articles of Confederation, a loose and problematic structure for a country composed of states. Congress moved to New York after the war's end, and it grudgingly allowed delegates to recommend changes to the Articles.The delegates who met in the Assembly Room in Philadelphia in 1787 created a new Constitution that has guided the country for more than 200 years. Jefferson's cane rests here, as does a book belonging to Franklin. Washington, as president of the convention, kept order from his famous "Rising Sun Chair." Delegates were mature, urbane (24 of the 42 had lived or worked abroad), and trained to reason, and many had experience drafting state constitutions and laws. They decided on approaches to governance that are familiar today: a bicameral Congress, a single executive, an independent judiciary, and a philosophical belief in government by the people and for the people. No wonder John Adams called the convention "the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen."Across the entrance hall from the Assembly Room, the courtroom served as Pennsylvania's Supreme Court chamber. Like the court at Williamsburg, Virginia, this room exemplifies pre-Bill of Rights justice. For example, your ranger guide will probably point out the tipstaff, a wooden pole with a brass tip that was used to keep onlookers subdued. Other period details include little coal-burning boxes to keep feet warm on chilly days. This was one of the first courtrooms in America to hear the argument that disagreement with a political leader isn't sedition, one of the great concepts in modern Anglo-American law.The stairwell of Independence Hall held the Liberty Bell until 1976. The ranger will conduct you upstairs to the Long Gallery. Now it's set up as a banquet hall with a harpsichord (some of the guides even play) and a rare set of maps of the individual 13 colonies. Its view of Independence Mall is superb.Two smaller rooms adjoin the Long Gallery. To the southwest, the royal governors of Pennsylvania met in council in a setting of opulent blue curtains, silver candlesticks, and a grandfather clock. Beneath a portrait of William Penn, governors met with foreign and Native American delegations, and conducted their everyday business. On the southeast side, the Committee Room fit the whole Pennsylvania Assembly while the Second Continental Congress was meeting downstairs. When it wasn't being used to house the Assembly, it stored the Assembly's reference library or arms for the city militia.As you descend the stairs, look at leafy, calm Independence Square, with its statue of Commodore John Barry. The clerk of the Second Congress, John Nixon, first read the Declaration of Independence here, to a mostly radical and plebeian crowd. (Philadelphia merchants didn't much like the news at first, since it meant a disruption of trade, to say the least.)
Elfreth's Alley
The modern Benjamin Franklin Bridge shadows Elfreth's Alley, the oldest continuously inhabited street in America. Most of Colonial Philadelphia looked like this: cobblestone lanes between the major thoroughfares; small two-story homes; and pent eaves over doors and windows, a local trademark. Note the busybody mirrors that let residents see who was at their door (or someone else's) from the second-story bedroom. In 1700, most of the resident artisans and tradesmen worked in shipping, but 50 years later haberdashers, bakers, printers, and house carpenters set up shop. Families moved in and out rapidly, for noisy, dusty 2nd Street was the major north-south route in Philadelphia. Jews, blacks, Welsh, and Germans made it a miniature melting pot in the 18th and 19th centuries. The destruction of the street was prevented in 1937, thanks to the vigilant Elfreth's Alley Association and a good deal of luck. The minuscule, sober facades hide some ultramodern interiors, and there are some restful shady benches under a Kentucky Coffee Bean tree on Bladen Court, off the north side of the street.Number 126, the 1755 Mantua Maker's House (cape maker), built by blacksmith Jeremiah Elfreth, now serves as a museum. An 18th-century garden in back has been restored, and the interior includes a dressmaker's shop and upstairs bedroom. You can also buy Colonial candy and gifts and peek into some of the open windows on the street. On the first weekend in June all the houses are open for touring -- don't miss this.
Make your reservations for discount hotel rooms in the
Philadelphia area, including:
Loews Philadelphia Hotel
The Loews, opened in spring 2000 in the former PSFS Bank tower, is the fine product of the marriage of an Art Deco architectural landmark and a prestigious hotel chain. The tower, located across from the Reading Terminal and the Convention Center, was the nation's first skyscraper of modern design and construction, with gleaming polished stone and clocks by Cartier. Loews Hotels turned the 1932 granite and glass building into a first-class property. The three-story entrance hall has been preserved, and rooms feature 10-foot ceilings, modern-Deco interiors, and miles of spectacular views. Business aids are extensive, but watch out for the surcharges levied on phone use. For convention travelers, the location is ideal, though this stretch of Market Street is a bit grittier than it is near Society Hill or Rittenhouse SquareSolefood is the hotel's seafood restaurant, and there is a pleasant lobby lounge off the restaurant; Channel 10, the local NBC affiliate, often uses the lobby as a set for interviews.
Omni Hotel at Independence Park
This small, polished hotel, opened in 1990, has a terrific location fronting onto Independence National Historical Park, and is near many of the best Old City restaurants and galleries. All rooms have park views and were recently renovated, though there's a sense of history, too, as horse-drawn carriages clip-clop past the valet parking drop-off and elegant glass-and-steel canopy. The lobby is classic, with huge vases of flowers, and a clubby adjacent bar featuring a pianist. Every room is cheery, with plants and original pastels of city views. The staff here is noteworthy for its quality and its knowledge of the park. The hotel's Azalea serves New American fare. The restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch, brunch, and dinner, and the comfortable lounge serves excellent hamburgers and light pastas. The Ritz Five movie theater is next door in the Bourse complex.
Philadelphia Airport Marriott Hotel
Opened in 1995 and renovated throughout in 2004, this is the only hotel linked by skywalk to Philadelphia International Airport, and the best of the airport options. The facility caters to business travelers with voice mail, speakerphone, free incoming faxes, and two dataport jacks. However, it's not a bad choice for families, since the soundproof rooms are mostly angled away from the runways, and it's very convenient to I-95. When you throw in the very complete fitness center and pool, the pleasant Riverbend restaurant, easy train or bus shuttle into Center City, and frequent weekend packages, it's well worth considering.
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