PENNSYLVANIA

PHILADELPHIA

City Hall

I'd like to say this was our first glimpse of Philly, but unfortunately not. We had to drive through block after block after block of filth! There was trash on the sidewalks almost ankle deep! Maybe Lady Garmin took us in a bad way, but our first impression was totally ruined! We headed as quickly as possible (which wasn't very!) for Independence Hall. It was a God thing that we were all in one car instead of our usual two! The evening before our Chrysler 300 broke down outside of Philadelphia and long story short, Avis replaced it with a Crown Vic! We were all pretty bummed at it's ride, but God knew we'd need the bigger car to get through Philly. I can't imagine if we'd have had to try to follow Jess & Drew (& Miss Garmin) through downtown Philly, not to mention pay to park two vehicles! You know God cares about the little details in life! He is our awesome provider...And the next day we were able to get another Chrysler 300!
Anyway, this picture of City Hall was taken through the windshield as we made our way through downtown.

This of course was our goal. We took the tour of Independence Hall and went across to the museum where the Liberty Bell is kept. We all took this same view of the Liberty Bell with Independence Hall in the background, but Andrew's is the best. No, sorry, Jessi took that one. She managed to get it without any people in it, which was an amazing feat when you consider how many were milling about!Of course we had to have Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches for lunch, and on the way we found Benjamin Franklin's Post Office! This passage way was the one he used to get back and forth from his house.
I'm sure there was a lot more we could have seen in Philadelphia, but it was hot and muggy. We had a bad taste in our mouth, and not so much from the sandwiches as from Philly as a whole. We left and didn't look back, heading for Longwood Gardens a day ahead of schedule!

Longwood Gardens ended up being another highlight in our trip. Even though we don't feel the need to ever go back to Philly, we would definitely go back to Longwood Gardens!