East Coast Trip part 7: Philadelphia

We got up early Sunday morning and drove down to the Jersey Shore. It wasn't very impressive but I think it got pretty damaged from hurricane Sandy a couple years ago. Its still nice to be right by the ocean though.

Josh in our Jersey hotel doing his best "situation" impersonation

Sunday we planned on going to Philadelphia. Philadelphia was my least favorite stop on the trip, it was very disappointing. Its not the cities fault though. We were visiting on the same weekend the pope was visiting. He did his big stuff on Saturday but was holding a mass at the art museum on Sunday so most of the city was still closed off. We had plans to go to Independence Hall which was open but the majority of the roads were closed. So we parked about a mile away and had to walk. The city looked like a ghost town. The national guard was at almost every intersection and the city had put up barricades on every side street (a bit excessive if you ask me). Needless to say, not a great first impression. Hopefully we can go back someday when things are a bit more normal.

Pretty much what the whole city looked like...kind of creepy

We had plans to see lots of things in Philadelphia but the only place we could get near or dared to drive near was Independence Hall. Mike had really wanted to run up the Rocky steps but we didn't even attempt to drive closer to the pope. So this statue on Independence Hall was as close as we got.

Independence Hall was still pretty impressive though and I really was excited to be there because it was the only place on the whole trip that I had never been. Its always exciting to be in places that are so historic and so important.

We saw the Liberty Bell. It was bigger than I expected and I was really tempted to touch it but I'm pretty sure I would have been in big trouble if I'd done that. Good thing Daniel wasn't there cause he would have haha

They also have a welcome center with lots of information about what you can see on Independence Hall. They also have some statues and what is left of the President's House.

Finally we got in line to go inside Independence Hall. We had to go through security and then we waited outside since they count you off into groups. I didn't really how small it is. It looks so much bigger in pictures than it really is.

When you get inside they take you to two different rooms. The first room is the court room. The building was actually originally built to be the town courthouse. The most interesting part was the cage in the middle of the room where the person on trial would stand which is where the phrase "standing trial" comes from because you would literally stand trial.

After the courtroom, you go across the hall to the signing room. The only original item in the room is the chair at the front of the room which is named Washington's Chair. It was pretty amazing being in the room where our government was formed.

After Philadelphia we drove down to Baltimore, Maryland and went to Fort McHenry. We looked online and it said it was $7 per car but we got there and found out it was $10 per person. It was still cool to see the fort. This is the fort that inspired the writing of "The Star Spangled Banner".

Next we headed to Washington DC. Stacey and Doug had never seen the DC temple so we wanted to take them there. This is my favorite temple. It is so beautiful and it is surrounded by hills and trees so it really stands out. I actually walked around the temple a bit by myself and it was so nice to just sit on the steps of the temple and have a few minutes to myself.

Another great thing about this temple is the amazing visitor center. We talked to some nice sister missionaries and also enjoyed looking at a cut out of the inside of the temple.

After left the temple we headed towards DC and our hotel. It was a nice hotel and we had lots of space. The only strange thing was that it was a handicap room so it was a stand up shower and the floor of the bathroom basically flooded every time we took showers. The beds were comfy though and the hotel had yummy breakfasts and a great gym. When we got back to the hotel we relaxed and planned our adventures in DC.