Philly

This past weekend Matt and I took a little drive up to see the sights of Philadelphia. First off I have to say that I love Philly! The architecture is amazing and the city is full of so much history! We ended up not seeing as much as I'd liked to have, but still saw some neat places. Our journey started after a struggle to find a parking spot on the small/tight streets of the city. Then we headed to our first destination, Independence Hall. Unfortunately they ran out of day-tour tickets so we had a few hours to kill until they did their open house tour in the evening. So we crossed the street and saw the Liberty Bell. It was kinda weird because the bell is inside this brand new building/museum...I guess I just pictured it being outside on display.

We then ventured on down the street and passed some old famous buildings that date back to Revolutionary time. As we walked down one of the charming streets we entered the First Bank of the U.S. Inside they had a museum displaying hundreds of original paintings of our forefathers and a statue of George Washington that had been displayed in Independence Hall for centuries. As we were just about to leave they announce a special slide show presentation that went through the history of Independence Hall. We still had time to kill and Matt thought it would be interesting so we joined the group. Well lets just say I learned a lot of history about the building as Matt's head bobbed to and fro while he slept the WHOLE time. Needless to say I was embarrassed!

Now that we were re-energized...or Matt at least, we got in line for our tour. Independence Hall was neat to see and crazy to think that in 1776 our nation changed because of what went on in that room. The building has some really neat moldings and woodwork inside and have been restored magnificently! I cant tell you how much I love living in an area that is close to SO much history! I love that every weekend Matt and I can take an adventure to gain more appreciation for what our forefathers sacrificed for us. Its crazy to think that we've been to so many places that we had only heard about from textbooks growing up, and can now go and experience them ourselves. I love living back east!!!

Thats Independence Hall in the background

The floors at the First Bank of the U.S....I have a thing for checkered floors.

The beautiful moldings!! It makes you wonder how they did that back in the 1700's!

The chair at the head of the room was Washington's original and has a sun carved on it just like the Sun Stones on the Nauvoo Temple, pretty cool.

This was the gorgeous sunset we got to drive home to.