Philly...

Hello all! Well, yesterday was an awesome day...long, but really fun. Our director took us all to Philadelphia for the afternoon to see the sites and eat some good food. It was quite the adventure to get down there...we left at 11:30 only realizing as we were packing up that we had 12-person van for 15 people...needless to say that was going to be a problem, so we had to call Enterprise (45 minutes away PS) to see if we could switch cars on our way out. Thankfully they had a van we could take and with two boys crammed in the trunk we made our way there. After picking up the new car, we thought we were good to go until we ran into loads of traffic. It ended up taking us about 3 and half hours to get there...but it wasn't too bad!

When we arrived around 3:15, we were told that we could walk over to Independence Hall and go through the building without tickets (we lost ours when we were an hour late), but first we should go by and see the Liberty Bell. Now, I think I had some ideas of grandeur about how the Liberty Bell looked...but I was surprised to find that it is now inside this small glass/concrete structure kind of hanging there by itself in the middle of the room...but it was still really really neat to see. It was cool seeing something you've seen in pictures all your life...and I got good pictures myself!



After the Liberty Bell we walked over and got in line to see Independence Hall...let me just say, I think seeing the inside of this building topped all! We walked in and went to the courtroom where the park ranger gave us the history of the building and the room. Then he told us to turn around and walk into the next room where the Decoration of Independence and the Constitution were signed...and AHH it was AMAZING! They even had the original chair-the "sun chair" as I call it-there...it put me into complete awe...being in the room where so much history happened was incredible. It makes me appreciate everything I'm doing back in DC...

When we got out of Independence Hall, we had just enough time to catch the last tour of the old House and Senate next door. We actually got to sit in the House chairs which was pretty sweet...we also got to go upstairs and see old Senate chambers and committee rooms...its strange to think how much its evolved since then...everything is so different now then it was back then.

By the time we were done with seeing the sites we were pretty hungry, so we walked down a few blocks to a very famous Philadelphia steakhouse called "Jim's"...and let me tell you, it was some of the best food I've had in a long time! I've never had a cheese steak sandwich before, so it was a fun experience! After dinner, we climbed back into the van for a much shorter ride home...

It was a long day but it was really really really fun to see everything! I've never been to Philadelphia before and to see the beginnings of our government really helped put DC into more perspective for me. I feel like this trip made everything come full circle...especially since its almost over I feel like I can look back at what I've done and feel really happy about everything I've accomplished. Anyway, back to homework, but I will keep you all posted on my last two weeks in DC! Miss you all!