The Philadelphia End Cap

For those who hate reading, this is a very short version of our day told by myself at Love Park.

Love Park!

Can't you feel....the love?!

Also being in Philadelphia...I needed to have a picture with the Love sign!

And what better to have a picture of the Love sign with the man I love?

And this is the fountain behind the Love sign, it is super refreshing to sit next to it after a very hot day! {In fact, some people enjoyed it more than we did, one man went in and laid down in the water and then left! The water was full of mold! Gross!}

This is me enjoying myself at the pond/fountain area. Jamison loves taking pictures sometimes!

And this is me again, with pretty flowers in the background at Love Park.

Ultimately, I think we felt the love!

Pat's and Geno's!

Although it was a Sunday, Jamison and I decided that since we are in Philadelphia...gosh darnit we have to get a philly cheese steak! {It knocks out one of the those life goals, to eat a philly..in Philly!} We couldn't just eat any cheese steak...but the world's best cheese steak! So to satisfy our needs we decided to go to both Pat's and Geno's!

Pat's and Geno's both consider themselves to make "The Best Cheese Steak in the World" and to make it even better..they are next door neighbors! So, we decided to put them to the test and decide for ourselves who we thought had the "World's Best Cheese Steak". We bought one cheese steak at Geno's and then walked across the street to Pat's and bought another one. So ultimately we had a sandwich each. Not too unhealthy right?!

For all of you rookies...this is a Philly Cheese Steak with 'Wizz with' {Meaning cheese wizz with onions}. This seemed to be the standard from all of the locals to get the 'Wizz with', {and President Obama ordered this when he visited the place} so we followed along with everyone else and ordered this! Yummy!

So after eating at both places...we then had to choose...

Geno's...

or Pat's?

And although both places had some delicously made Philly cheese steaks...the winner by slim margins is......

Geno's! We felt that they both had wonderful taste, but Geno's had better food presentation, better customer service, and slightly beat out Pat's because of the flavor in 'each' bite that we took. {ha! I sound like the Food Network!}

Jamison and I in front of the 'winning' cheese steak joint!

{Did anyone else think that it was funny the stark differences between the level of 'showiness' from both Pat's and Geno's? Geno's looks amazing...while Pat's looks like a local diner. Nonetheless, they are both yummy places to go eat!}

Next stop? Love Park!

Independence Hall

Independence Hall-the place where the Declaration of Independence was signed! Although we weren't able to tour the inside {because we didn't get the free tickets fast enough} it was still neat to just be able to walk around the area and in the courtyard behind the hall. It was a beautiful area, and something cool...the road right in front of Independence Hall is a cobble stone street!

This is the backside of Independence Hall, I love the clock tower/steeple thingamajig. And in front of the Hall happens to be a statue of a founding father {man unknown}.

And this is me, looking inspiring and doing a wonderful representation of the statue of the unknown man. This statue is evident that our Founding Fathers worked really hard to be an inspiration through not only their writing but through their body positioning in their statues. Can't you see the resemblance?

This also happened to be the statue where several "New Englanders" read the Declaration of Independence to us. Very cheesy but none the less still cool.

And this is another picture of the backside of Independence Hall, I couldn't help it...it is such a beautiful area with all of the surrounding trees!

Next stop? Geno's and Pat's for cheese steak awesomeness!

Liberty Bell Center

After visiting the Independence Hall/Liberty Bell Visitor Center we walked across the street to the Liberty Bell Center where the bell is displayed. The entire Liberty Bell Center is a tribute to the Liberty Bell {shocking} and before you enter the room where the bell is at you are led through tons of historic artificats about things pertaining to the bell and the historical significance it is to America.  

This is the historically famous 'cracked' Liberty Bell!  The bell has actually been cracked twice! The first time it cracked was in 1753 when the makers of the bell John Pass and John Stow were giving it a test ring. After it cracked they remade the entire bell all over again. The bell cracked again, {which is the crack shown today} when it was being rung at the funeral of John Marshall in 1835 {who Marshall was one of the signers of the Declaration of the Independence.} The crack is so large that it has silenced the Liberty Bell for forever. It is sad to think that a bell that would bring so many people so much happiness from just the sound of it and it will never ring again.

On the bell it is written: "PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT ALL THE LAND UNTO ALL THE INHABITANTS THEREOF LEV. XXV X." Under this reads, "BY ORDER OF THE ASSEMBLY OF THE PROVINCE OF PENSYLVANIA [sic] FOR THE STATE HOUSE IN PHILADA." Lower on the bell are the inscriptions, "PASS AND STOW," the last names of the founders who cast the bell (John Pass and John Stow). Beneath this is "PHILADA," short for Philadelphia. The lowest inscription is the Roman numerals MDCCLIII (1753), the year the bell was re-cast. Very cool!

Very neat experience, in fact, one of the coolest things that I have done since living out here on the East Coast! 

Next? Independence Hall! {close up version}

Independence Hall/Liberty Bell Visitor's Center

Welcome to Independence Hall! Well, the far away view of it at least. At our first stop, we started  across the street at the Independence Hall /Liberty Bell Visitor Center in hopes of grabbing tickets to take a tour inside of Independence Hall! {Which sadly, we failed...first come, first serve is hard when tickets are available at 8:30 AM}

The Visitor Center was a great place to get us in the 'historic' mood. Inside there were a lot of New England characters playing roles and telling stories of what happened at Independence Hall. {Which for those who don't know this is where the Declaration of Independence was signed}. There were several 'New Englanders' playing instruments that you don't particularily see nowadays, one man was writing vistor's names in calligraphy with a quail pen and ink from a bottle, as well as a woman who would teach you how to knit! Also in the Visitor's Center there were exhibits to see about the Declaration of Independence/Liberty Bell as well as movies that you could get tickets for to view the reenactment of the making of the Declaration of Independence. {Heads up, the movie was lame}.

It was a beautiful day to be out sight seeing, as you can tell from the pictures there wasn't a cloud in the sky at all, and very surprisingly the humidity wasn't horrific for being so close to the shore! {Which was very good news for my frizzy, long hair!}

Next stop? Across the street to the Liberty Bell Center!

Sunday Destination: Philadelphia!

This last week Jamison and I took the long drive to visit Philadelphia! We made sure to see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Love Park and to visit Geno's and Pat's to decide for ourselves who really does have the 'world's best' cheesesteak!

We took a lot of pictures of our trip and some videos that will hopefully load up on Blogger...so check out the next couple of posts to see what we did!

And although there may not be a lot of words in each post, you will definetely get the experience from the pictures!

 {There is a good chance of duplicates...I can't decide which pictures I like best!}

                  xoxo,
                                                 auburn