Phantastic Day in Philly

We've recently been doing a few short trips in the area and had talked about doing a day trip to Philidelphia soon. The next day at church we were talking with some friends of ours, John and Leslie Dow, and they mentioned they wanted to do a trip there also, so we planned it up and it was a huge success. We left bright and early Saturday morning for the 3.5-hour trip and then got busy exploring the city.

Benjamin Franklin's grave

 We headed first to the historic district. We found Christ's Church cemetery and decided to pay the $2 admission fee so we could go see Ben Franklin's grave. Little did we know that the grave was right next to the wrought iron fence by the sidewalk and we could have seen it easily from there! They don't tell you those kind of things until you buy the ticket. But we also learned all kinds of interesting things about the cemetery too, so no problem.

Liberty Bell

 We walked around the historic area and saw the sights. I actually thought the liberty bell would be larger than it is. It's relatively small, but still a cool thing to see. I learned a lot of cool history about it there, but don't remember much to write about it here. But it's cool.

Independence Hall

 I especially loved going to Independence Hall. It's a pretty building, but even more than that, to think about the important events that occurred there is just incredible. It kind of feels like a sacred space just because of the magnitude of what happened.

The chair at the front of the room was the actual chair George Washington sat in--it's one of the only original pieces in the room.

 Being in the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed was incredible. It really made me think about the task that those men had to accomplish. They represented a small nation who wanted to break from one of the greatest powers in the world at that time. With little experience in running a government or a revolution, these brave men put their trust in God and relied on him to guide them. I know of no other way this country could have ever found the strength to accomplish that task except through the hand of the Lord. As I visited I increased in respect and admiration for our forefathers, and felt saddened by the lack of faith and reliance upon God in our government today.

Home of the original Philly Cheesesteak

 For lunch we headed over to grab a bite of the original taste of Philidelphia. There are two restaurants that boast the best original Philly, Pat's and Geno's. They are across the street from each other. Geno's was pretty good. There's debate over which is best, but I've got nothing to compare it to yet. The line was down the street. However, since they pretty much only serve one thing, it moves pretty quickly.  I hear the cheese whiz is the way to go next time. Apparently that was the original and someone changed it for provolone later.

My thoughts exactly

 Downtown Philly has tons of awesome sculptures to walk around and see. Though Ryan's not big on taking pictures, he's a good sport and we got some fun ones.

Ryan on a giant chess piece

 This plaza here was really fun. It had giant game pieces from all sorts of different games like Sorry!, dominos, chess, monopoly, etc. It was a blast to play on them and climb around taking pictures.

Leslie and me on the Monopoly hat

Rocky!!

Next on the schedule was some art and sculpture. We didn't end up making it in to explore the art museum. It's a little pricey and we got there too close to closing. But they do have a huge sculpture of Rocky out front.  We walked up the Rocky steps (the steps to the museum), although the appropriate thing to do is run them I suppose.

John, Ryan, and the Shades of Hell

 Just down the street from the art museum there is a Rodin sculpture garden. I love Rodin's stuff. I've seen most of it before, but it was great to go walk around again and share it with my friends.

Ryan's hair looking crazy

By the end of the day, we were tired. It was a lot of walking around and driving around. One crazy thing about Philly, it can turn from a good area, to a bad area, and back to a good area, in no time. Just around the corner can be completely different. It was bizarre. But anyways, after a fun, but tiring day, we went to Darling's Diner, famous for Philidelphia cheesecake. Oh, it was divine. What better way to end the day than eating cheesecake with your friends out by the water and watching the ships?