NYC Visit - Day 1

We woke up on a Sunday and Deb and her daughter Stephanie took us to Philadelphia. Only one hour by car and it took no time at all - I guess compared to an all day drive the day before, one hour was nothing! It was a good day to go; not a lot of crowds. It didn't take much time to get in and see the Liberty Bell. The displays ahead of time were helpful so we knew what we were looking at. What was so surprising is how very close we could get. If you were naughty, you could just fall forward and touch it!!

That whole city has such an Old World feel to it, it was so nice just to walk around and look at the buildings. We saw the outside of where the Declaration of Independence was signed, but didn't want to pay the boo coo buckaroo to get in, so we just looked at it and said "Huh, there it is." Then we went on to see where Betsy Ross lived, a statue of Benjamin Franklin etched with keys, and ate at an "authentic" Philadelphia restaurant ordering Philly Cheese Steaks. Personally, I am so used to ooey gooey cheese steak sandwiches, these were kind of dry and really had no "wow" factor that I was expecting. I think the boys were most impressed by the free M&M's ice creams they were handing out on the street - yum!! After that we went by Valley Forge, walked through a house that George Washington called his office (very cool). It was all set up like they were still living there. The rest of the area was replicated with the reproductions of life at the time. There was a neat museum and easy to understand movie about their time at Valley Forge. You think it was a battle, but really it was just a really super cold camp where some didn't even have shoes. Each state had a separate area to camp, it was just cool to see. Then we went back to Deb's home for relaxation and to get ready for NYC!!!