Philly Trip

Hannah, Riley J, Shane, and I went to Philly yesterday! After living here many years, it was about time to go on a sightseeing trip down there, and Shane was the perfect excuse! I researched everything on the internet, had a perfect itinerary with a map and was all set to go. We were planning to go on Saturday, but Shane's flight got cancelled, leaving him stuck at his layover in Chicago. Luckily his flight was able to get in on Saturday, so we decided to do Philly on Monday.

Well, to start the day off, we went to Shady Maple Smorgasbord near Lancaster. It was incredible! I had only been there once (right before Hannah's dad died) and it was about time we went back. Shady Maple is basically a massive buffet with the most incredible variety of wonderful food you could ever dream of. I had a massive fresh walnut pancake, waffles, bacon, eggs, fruit, biscuits and gravy, coffee... it was wonderful.

Then we headed off to Philadelphia! It was supposed to be about 1 hour and 15 minutes, but of course we hit traffic on 76 and it ended up taking longer.

Our first stop was the art museum. We ran up the famous steps as Rocky did and threw up our hands! Shane was yelling at the top of his lungs, "Adrien! Adrien!" Hannah got a video.

After the Art Museum, we drove down to the historic district and parked near the Constitution Center. We decided to do anything that was free, so rather than paying and going inside all the buildings, we just looked at the outsides. We first went to the Christ Church cemetary where Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush are buried. Following that we went to the Betsy Ross house where our first official flag was made. Then we went to Christ Church, which was the church of most of the founding fathers. It is also the longest continually-running church in the country. They still have weekly services there. I especially enjoy there because we often install rental organs there, so I have been there often. We get to bring the organ in through the "King's Door" which was made for King George to use, but he never came over and therefore never got to use it. I believe George Washington was the only American President to ever enter through it.

Following Christ Church, we got lost and Riley got fussy. So we stopped across from the "First Bank" of the United States and Hannah fed Riley. Then we went and saw Independence Hall and ended our tour with the Liberty Bell. I never realized it was so small... it always looks bigger in pictures.

After that we headed back to the car and set off to find "Pat's King of Steaks" the original and best cheesesteaks in Philly. I did not have directions so I found it on the internet on my phone and went to Google maps and was able to find our way to it. The cheesesteaks were great! It was a perfect end for our Philly trip. Over the course of our day we were everywhere from northwestern Philly to central eastern Philly to far south Philly... I think we all got a very good taste of it.

It was a great day :-).