Next stop...Philly

When we originally left for our trip we planned on going to The Sacred Grove after we left CT. Then I put it in the GPS and realized it was like 5 hours to get there and then it would be a six and a half hour drive back-- we changed our minds. Oh and can I just say for the record--I love Garmin! We have had our GPS for awhile now and only used it a couple of times. Well --it paid for itself on this trip. It was awesome! How can they be so smart? We used it the whole trip. Anyway- we got studying the maps the night before we left and decided to see how far we were from Philidephia. Only a couple of hours! We must go! I am so glad we did. Philly is a very interesting city. It has the historical part- which includes Independence Hall, and Liberty Bell, and it has the big city part. Just withing a few blocks of each other. And can I just say--we are still dreaming of those Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches! YUMMY! Beware!! Picture overload to follow--just think- this are only a select few!!

If you go back east and drive a car at all-keep lots of change in your pocket.
This is George Washington Bridge and it cost $8.00 just to cross it. Most of the freeways are toll freeways too, so you are constantly stopping to pay tolls. Bet you can guess how much my hubby loved that element of the the trip. We figured if we took a pic at least we would get something for our $.

Loved the cool buidings in this town!

Ok-there really is a reason for posting this picture. One of the weirdest things to us in Philly was parking. Every parking space is long enough for two cars to fit in. At first we couldn't figure out how to park. I'm sure we looked like idiots. We finally found a sign that explained it. If you are the front car, you have to leave your key with a parking attendant, so if the car behind you needs to leave, the attendant will move your car. My husband (aka..Mr Security) was not about to leave the keys of his rental car with some freaky looking parking attendant-therefore you can see we are the back car. I don't know if you can tell or not, but we are even parked on a roof because parking is so limited there. It was definately something new to us!

This is Independence Hall Visitors Center. This is where you picked up your tickets to Independence Hall. I am glad I reserved tickets because it was a Sat. and if not we wouldn't have been able to get tickets until around 5:00. So if you ever go--reserve tickets!

Independence Hall- Formely called "The Statehouse"



This is one of the rooms in Independence Hall. They have tried to keep all the rooms looking much like they did years ago. It even looked like the floors were the original wood floors.





Another room in the hall- This was the room where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed. It was neat to be in the same room those famous men were in!

Our guide told us this is the original chair George Washington sat in to sign the Constitution.

After we took our tour we came out to this beauty!! It smelled so good. Brett's friend told him if we went to Philly we had to try a Philly Cheese Steak sandwhich. I don't think I have ever had one before but I was starving and it smelled good so I said "Sure, I'll try one" Like I said before, Brett and I are still dreaming of that taste. They are so good there! We learned an important lesson from this little vendor- do some price checking! Just 20 feet from this guy was another guy with his cart and his sandwhiches were $2.00 less! We bought another sandwich from him because Brett wanted another one, and his tasted just as good! Lesson learned from the big city!

Carriges just like this were all over in the streets of the historical part of Philly. If we would have had more time, I would have loved to take a tour of the city in one.

Deeelicious! He wasn't real happy I was taking a picture with his mouth full- but I wanted to capture the moment!

After our bellies were full- our next stop was Liberty Bell. It is much bigger in person than I thought it would be.

Our next stop in Philly was this place...

What-- may you ask is there? This!!!

Does this building look familiar? It will if you are a Rocky fan. This is where the steps are that Rocky runs up in the movie. Its not unusual to see people running up these steps just like Rocky did in the movie. I did and I yelled "Yo Adrienne". I know I'm a dork--but I'm telling you, I'm not the only one who did it. Of course Brett got a pic of this- but I'm not posting it!

This shot if from the steps-looking out over the city. I guess this is also a famous place to come for wedding pics if you live in Philly. We saw a couple of wedding parties while we were there.

Brett wouldn't run up the steps for me, but I did at least get him to put his arms up like Rocky did. He is going to kill me when he sees I posted this! (ha ha )

All in all we had a great day in Philidelphia. We wished we could have had more that a day to spend. There was just too much to see. I guess we will just have to go back some day! After the museum- we jumped in our car to head to our next destination.....New Jersey! To be continued.....