A visit to Philly (or, hippie hunting season is ON, baby!)

I spent a few hours in Philadelphia today, the day after Independence Day. I was expecting huge crowds but it was pretty low key. Perhaps the fact it was approximately 1E6% humidity. There was a long line for Liberty Bell, so I didn't go see that, and I didn't do any tours. Just strolled, took a couple pictures, took it easy. Until I noticed a rally. Then I was obsessed with hunting hippies. Good thing I brought the telephoto. 

That's the whole rally. Count them. Use your toes, if you must.

You could hear the instigator a long way off, his speaker was really loud. My first picture of Independence Hall (above) had a conspicuous layer pink, American flags, peace symbols, and signs. I went to investigate more closely. 

Alas, the American flags were not Patriot Guard Riders, or some such anti-antiwar protester. They were the ones with the peace symbol in the blue field. I didn't catch a picture because they started lining up for their "parade" just as I came up. The front of this guy's shirt says "arrest Bush."

Through this series you'll see the same people over again, because there was only like 20 people there. Seriously. 30 tops.

Here they are starting their lineup. The yellow signs are preprinted by AnswerCoalition.org. Isn't that funded by Soros and the Communist party? Note the bell (the greenish object on the very right edge). This will come into play in a minute.

The orange shirt is not a World Can't Wait shirt, just a local sports club.

The old men are all wearing (or maybe I'm remembering the same man over and over again) Vets for Peace shirts. The Arrest Bush guy haz bukkit. This comes into play in a minute also.

The lady in the center's sign says "Abolish Nuclear Weapons" so we're dealing with basic peace-loving hippies here, not the crazed, militant sort you find in CA or Seattle.

Code Pink made an appearance. With two (2) people. Srsly. Two. Awesome.
So then they marched off, chanting (just the instigator on the mic) and banging bukkits. 

Here they are coming around Independence Hall from behind. So they have come from the front, up one side, around the back, and now down the other side toward their starting point.

Be vewy, vewy quiet. I'm huntin' hippies!

Note the horse and the two people calming it. Remember what I said about bukkits (and the banging thereof)? and the bell? Oh yeah, and the guy on the loud mic? Get a load of the that punk ass bitch in the left center looking STRAIGHT at horsie while he's banging bukkit. 

Yeah, the older carriage driver up ahead was yelling at them to stop the nonsense around the horsies. They finally did, sadly no hippies got trampled. So that meant there was a moment of blessed silence. Desperate to be chanting something, anything, up goes a cry of "animal liberation!" (srsly, not making it up. I laughed out loud. Those horsies are treated better than most people treat themselves). They passed by, I got bored, and look some flower pictures.

Met up with them a THIRD time at their final formation place just further down from Independence Hall, so now they are right across from Liberty Bell, closer to the visitor center.

This guys shirt says "peace please" in english and, presumably, arabic.
This is just towards the end of the "rally". The main instigator has been talking at this point (in this spot alone) for upwards of 30minutes. Notice everyone sitting and looking bored. That's the sign of successful protesting! yee haw!

So all-in-all, not impressed with their turnout, but I was impressed by the fact that every peace symbol I saw was correct, not a Mercedes advertisement. Did I mention my camera strap is rainbow? They prolly thought I was fer 'em! Yay war! Yay Haliburton!

Now a palette-cleanser. Two nice flower pictures. Yay hippie-dippie flowery fluff.