Philly Trip

I have always wanted to go to Philadelphia to get a legitimate Philly cheese steak.  I proposed the idea when we were talking about activities to do for institute and we actually ended up doing it, today!  It was a bout a 4 1/2 hour trip but boy was it worth it.  We got there just in time for lunch.  If you watch the food or travel channel much you might have caught a show talking about the "big debate" in Philly and who has the best cheese steak.  There is a corner with 2 famous shops that get most of the hype so we decided to check that out.  I was so hungry when we got there that we ate one from Pats and then ran across the street and tried one from Geno's.  I downed 2 cheese steaks in about 15 minutes!!

One of the big controversies is whether to use cheese whiz or provolone, so of course I tried one of each =)  BY FAR the cheese whiz was much better.  The provolone had no flavor to it, pretty much just tasted like water.  So when we went back for dinner I got another cheese whiz!

This is a picture looking from Pat's across the street to Geno's.  I might have to cast my vote for Geno's (despite the fact that that is where I got the one with the provolone) because I liked the bread a little better.  It was softer.  Pat's bread kind of hurt my teeth trying to bite through it (mom would probably prefer Pats due to that :)  Besides the bread, the meat, onions, and cheese whiz tasted about the same from both places.

This is just a random building in Philly.  The city its self was CRAZY.  The streets were small and crowded with cars flying everywhere.  One thing that was interesting is that cars would park in the middle of the street.  If you picture a 4 lane road (2 in each direction) you know how there is usually a big yellow section that divides the 2 directions well people would park their cars in the yellow.  So you would be driving down the road and in the middle there would a row of empty cars.  Some of them even would hang over into the left turn lane.  I don't know if that even makes sense or if you can picture that or not but it was pretty strange.

It also was a pretty dirty city.  The wind was EXTREMELY strong (which made it really cold) but it also made it seem like it was raining trash.  You would be walking down the sidewalk (which had animal poop EVERYWHERE) and plastic bags or small pieces of paper would just start falling out of the sky and landing all over you.

I was walking down the side walk (dodging falling trash) and I saw this statue.  I was looking at it and then looked down at the description/name and saw "The Singer".  Apparently its real name is "The Signer" (I might be a slight dyslexic, who knows...)  But if you were to just look at it what would you think it would say?  Looks like he is singing to me!!

Here is Independence Hall.  Of course when I go to Philly it is under construction.  We were still able to take a tour of it though.  Found out its original name was NOT Independence Hall, can't remember what it was though.

The Liberty Bell.  Pretty cool to see!!

 

Inside Independence Hall.

This is the room where the Constitution was actually signed.  Learned that it actually wasn't signed until August 2nd (or 22nd, don't remember)  July 4th was when it was accepted I believe.  The chair in the back is the actual chair that George Washington sat in during all of their meetings.  It is the only "original" item in the room.  Also learned that after President Lincoln was assassinated, on the way to bringing his body back to Illinois they stopped off there and had an open casket in that room for the public to go and pay their respect.  

A few more items from Independence Hall.  (thought mom might like the piano)

And of course, the "Rocky stairs"!!!  This last picture was from the top of the stairs looking out over Philly.  Nice view.  And no, I did not run up the stair and pump my fists and the top like Rocky  :}