In West Philadelphia Born and Raised...

This past weekend we took a little trip down to Philadelphia, seeing it was Brett's spring break.  The city of Brotherly Love is located about 3 hrs from where we live, so we thought it would make for a good little trip.

Day 1

We drove down Thursday afternoon and got to the city about 1730.  We decided to do a little reconnoitering and make a game plan for the next day.  We wondered about for a few hours including a debacle on where/when to eat, for we wanted to experience a true Philly meal but after finding pretty much everything closed we settled on some Five Guys Burger and Fries.  We then returned to our hotel and listened to the Aggie game basketball game, it was a heartbreaker.

Day 2

This day was spent going through the historic sites in downtown Philly.  Here is an chronological itinerary of our travels: Liberty bell, Independence Hall/City Hall, Second Bank of US (large portrait gallery), Carpenters Hall, First Bank of US, A bunch of old famous houses, Christ Church, Elfreths Alley, First Post Office, Market Street House, Benjamin Franklin Printing Shoppe, Ben Franklin Grave, Free Quaker Meeting House, US Mint, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution.  

Following the historic tour we went over to the Philadelphia Museum of Art (aka Rocky Stairs).  Below are pictures with commentaries of the different sites

Liberty Bell with Independence Hall behind

Independence Hall - where the Declaration of Independence
and Constitution were debated and signed

Standing in the room where our forefathers helped create our independent nation was an extraordinary feeling. There is something about seeing it all that makes it real and helps you to appreciate how hard they worked to create what we have.

George Washington's Chair (original)

Original Cobblestone street

First Bank of the United States

Bell at Christ's Church where many of the founding father's worshiped.
This bell was cast at White Castle Forge in 1702.

Elreth's Ally, the oldest consecutively lived-in street in America
1703 - present (most are private residence)

Betsy Ross Home

Ben Franklin's Grave

Free Quaker Meetinghouse
Yes - we saw Amish in the Quaker Meetinghouse

Independence Hall

Grave of the Unknown Solider of the Revolutionary War

Rocky Statue

Brett got a little winded hiking the stairs...

Adrian! (well its actually Chels)

Day 3

Since we were able to get Philly knocked out in one day we decided to check out some of the other historic sites in the area.  We first went to Brandywine, which is where the Revolutionaries lost a major battle which resulted in Philadelphia being captured by the British.

George Washington's Headquarters at Brandywine

Following the Brandywine area, we headed up to Valley Forge.  This area is where the Continental Army spent its second winter (1777-1778), it was a very rough winter but one that led to the army coming out stronger and more resolved.  This is a large National Park now.

Cabin Replicas

Great Re-enactment

Looking down the barrel

National Memorial Arch

Throughout the entire park there are random cabins every where,
much like it would have been during 1777.

Pott's House
Washington's Headquarter's during the winter

What would have been Washington's bedroom

Inner line defense
Embankments on left are original

Cool painting done in 1883 depicting the march to Valley Forge

We had good intentions of going to the area where Washington and the troops had crossed the Delaware river on Christmas night of 1776 then on to Trenton and Princeton where the Continentals had their first major victories; however by the time we got done milling around Valley Forge it was too late....guess we'll just have to do another trip.