Buildings of Import

We began the day off with breakfast in the car, a sandwich made of scrambled eggs and scrapple. It was actually really really good! We were on our way to Philly! Unfortunately stupid Pennsylvania did not give me any heads up as to when we entered it so there is no sign to announce it.

We surprisingly found parking fast and right near the visitor's center. We went in and did not even have to wait in line to get these sweet free tickets to tour independence hall.

It was awesome to again be walking around in an old city looking at the very buildings that our country sprang from. In this building some pretty important documents were signed.

In this very room men like George Washington and Benjamin Franklin sat and discussed how our country should be run. They all talked about what values should be carried into the documents and what rights citizens of our country should have. We had a really awesome tour guide who was very enthusiastic and shared a lot with us.

After the tour we waited in a line to see the liberty bell. The line was only ten minutes long before we made it inside. BUT it was apparently a record high of 105* about an hour after we waited in this line... It was so hot! But the cool kiss of the A/C as we entered the building definitely helped out. There were a bunch of people in the building to see the bell but this time instead of small safety patrol kids there was a massive group of elderly folk on a tour through the building. Instead of shoving through them without remorse, we patiently waited until they had left us enough room to reach the bell.

Once we had taken our ritual 20 shots with the current item of interest (in this case the liberty bell) we migrated next door to the Philosophical Hall. Inside we found a name tree showing the lineage of the royalty for the major powers within the last few centuries. I found my name! It's spelled a little funny but that's definitely my name. It goes without saying that Sean's was not on the list, =p

We could not resist taking yet another shot with Independence Hall but this time we wanted the very front.

We saw original copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Articles of Confederation. I was obviously a bit skeptical seeing as how I had just visited the National Archives and viewed these same documents. Apparently they had a few written out at the time they were originally made. The Declaration is not signed as you can see (I saw the signed one in D.C.) and apparently this Constitution was Washington's personal one. Pretty cool stuff!

We went back to the visitor's center to collect a map of Philly and to see a bit of what they had in the visitor's center.

One of the fun things they offered was to be able to write your name with ink and a quill. I was not too good at it but I guess it's not half bad. I was relatively proud of myself.

We began our walking tour even further into Philly and our first attraction was the US Mint. We didn't go inside but a picture was necessary. We were walking awfully slow because of the heat as well, we didn't miss any of the important buildings we passed.

One of my favorite things we saw all day was a place I had actually never been before (at least I do not remember seeing it before). It was the cemetery that Benjamin Franklin was buried in. He is buried right next to his wife on the edge of the cemetery. It is a custom to drop a penny on his grave for good luck and a wish. I definitely did!

This building is the country's first bank. It is beyond awesome to have gone and stood at the front doors, the inner rooms, and by the very benches where so many important things have happened. On this trip we have seen so many, you have to constantly remind yourself that each spot cannot be taken for granted.

Yeah.. This is just a pretty sweet statue =]

So on our way out of Philly we picked up some cheese steaks "wit" (apparently this means with onions and easy cheese. The sandwiches were so good! We went with the older of the two main rivals of cheese steaks in Philly, Pat's King of Steaks.

We began our journey to Lynchburg, VA!

This was a pretty cool building I wanted show you guys that we passed when going through Baltimore. The GPS took a roundabout way to Lynchburg and we passed through some beautiful country side on our way.

The reason we were journeying to Lynchburg was to stop in and visit Sean's great-grandparents and grandparents on his daddy's side. It was a beautiful morning when we stopped to say hello and remember.

We spent the night in Lynchburg and finished the drive to Tennessee the next day. We are just moving and grooving!