Part 2: Philadelphia

On Monday, the 20th we started our adventure in Philadelphia. That morning we grabbed some breakfast at a local diner (compared to the other food we had it kinda sucked) and took the 40 min. train ride into the city. We stopped at the Reading Terminal Market first to check it out. The Reading Terminal Market is a farmer's market-type place that has tons of vendors selling food, produce, gifts, and just about anything else you can imagine. We walked around there for a while, I bought some awesome German chocolate at this place selling German food, and then we made our way to the historic district. Once we got there, we got tickets to tour Independence Hall, walked around there for a bit, and saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington Square. Then we walked to the Philadelphia Mint, the Betsy Ross House, and to Elfreth's Alley, the oldest street in America. All of that stuff was pretty cool to see. On a side note: we did want to see the Liberty Bell, but there was a gigantic line to get in for that so we decided it wasn't worth it (I've seen it before so that was ok). After our walk around the historic district, we went back to Independence Hall for our tour. I liked that a lot. Our tour guide knew a lot about the history of the building and it was just cool to be in the actual place where the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Philadelphia Mint

Betsy Ross House

Elfreth's Alley

Independence Hall

Signing room

One goal we had while we were in Philadelphia was to have a real Philly cheesesteak sandwich. There are 2 famous places that sell them - Pat's and Geno's - so for dinner we made our way to Pat's for an authentic Philly cheesesteak. We had 2 different maps that we were using to navigate the city throughout the day and somehow between the both of them, we really mistook where Pat's was. Long story short, we got super lost, ended up on the opposite end of Philadelphia, and then walked across the entire city to find this place. I don't know how many miles we walked but it felt like a ton. Once we finally found Pat's we were SO happy. Was it worth it to walk all of Philadelphia for a Pat's cheesesteak sandwich? I didn't think so, but it was still good...and now I can say I ate at the famous Pat's :)
After dinner we headed over to JFK Plaza where the famous "Love" sculpture is. That was also sort of anti climactic (because the sculpture is a lot smaller than it looks in pictures), but it was a nice place to sit and rest for a while...and luckily our train station was close by so we could just head on back to our hotel in Trevose.

Pat's, King of Steaks

Philadelphia City Hall

The City of Brotherly Love

On Tuesday we got up and went right back into Philadelphia. This time we got breakfast at a French crepe place inside the Reading Terminal Market, and that was a great decision. Definitely better than the place we had breakfast at the day before.
The main thing we did on this day was the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This is where the famous Rocky steps are, and also where there are some sweet paintings (which I was most excited about). We caught a bus to the Museum, took a picture of the Rocky statue, walked up the steps, and spent the next few hours in the museum. I have taken a couple of art history classes at school and really like looking at art, so it was so fun for me to be able to see some of the actual paintings that were painted by artists like Monet, Van Gogh, and Renoir. The museum itself was also awesome. It is an amazing building!

Rocky

Lots and lots of steps

View of the city from the museum

Inside the main entrance

Monet

Van Gogh

Once we left the museum we took a short walk over to the Eastern State Penitentiary. It would have been fun to go inside, but we didn't want to take the time or spend the money to do that, so I just took pictures of the outside. Next, we went back to the Reading Terminal Market to find some lunch. I decided I wanted to try another cheesesteak sandwich to see if Pat's really lived up to all the hype, so that's what I got. To some, this may be considered blasphemy, but the sandwich I had at the market was better than the one I had at Pat's...that's just my opinion.
After lunch we walked back over to the historic district to catch a duck boat tour. They have these trolley bus/boat things that are both a bus, and a boat and take people on tours through the city. On the duck boat tour we drove all around the city, learned all about the history of the buildings we had been seeing for the past 2 days, then took a boat ride in the Delaware River. It was really fun and a nice break from all the walking we had been doing.
After the duck boat we grabbed a quick dinner at a train station, then went to the World Cafe Live for the Joshua Radin concert. Wes got us tickets to this concert and I'm so happy he did! (Really, the concert was the main reason we decided to go to Philadelphia) I have been a Joshua Radin fan for a few years, and seeing him live was so great...he is awesome! We had a really fun time at the concert, then went back to Trevose to spend one more night at our hotel there.

Eastern State Penitentiary

On the duck boat!

Benjamin Franklin Bridge

Joshua Radin...love him!