City Hall surprise!

Monday afternoon, my parents and I took a tour of Philadelphia's City Hall.  The building is extremely ornate, with more carvings inside and outside of it than any other building!  It's also the largest city hall in the country; when it was designed, it was the tallest building in the world.  (during its 30 year construction, the Washington Monument and Eiffel Tower overtook it...but they aren't "buildings") 

About 20 minutes into our tour, we were outside the SE quadrant admiring the statue of William Penn.  Suddenly, people started flooding out the doors.  The fire alarm was going off!  Much to our dismay, we waited outside for about 25 minutes as all 700 rooms were evacuated, the fire department was dispatched, and order restored.

While we were waiting, we noticed several cars parked in front of the building.  An off-duty police office who was touring with us said that they were the mayor's cars, and that he worked in the very quadrant we were in front of.  Sure enough, Mayor Michael Nutter decended the steps and walked safely into the crowd around us!  After some coaxing from my dad, my mother and I walked up to him, shook his hand, and talked with him for a bit.  He was very friendly--despite all the PA budget issues--and was willing to pose for pictures. 

Our tour soon resumed, and we dashed in and out of several gorgeous rooms before ending at the tower: a 22-story elevator that takes visitors directly under Penn approximately 500 feet in the air.  What a view!

We managed to make it to the top and down before our parking meter ran out.  Thankfully, the tour guide refunded our money due to the tour interruption.  It was a City Hall tour unlike any other!