Conley Finnish Adventures 2: Last Stop: Philadelphia!!

There was so much history in Philadelphia, it was really cool to walk through the small area of downtown Philly and experience the area that basically created the country of the United States. We were fortunate enough to do a tour of Independence Hall, which is the building where the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were created. We stood in the famous Assembly Room where the Declaration was signed and saw the chair where George Washington sat!
We also got to see the Liberty Bell, which was neat. Andrew had been to the area a couple of years ago for a business trip and bought her a Liberty Bell figurine from the airport. Now I got to see the real thing!
For lunch, we went to the market and had a Philly Cheesesteak. There were a few booths selling them, but I went to the one that had the longest lineup (well, it was the only one that had a lineup) because I figured that must be the best one. There was a newspaper clipping on the booth that showed Barack Obama having a cheesesteak from there, so I figured if it's good enough for the President, it's good enough for us. And it didn't disappoint, it was delicious!
Andrew wanted to challenge his photography skills by going to the Eastern State Penitentiary, which is no longer operated as a penitentiary but was one of the largest and most modern facilities of its time. Andrew got some fantastic shots while I took the kids to the Boathouse Row and playground. We walked to the outside of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where the famous stairs of the Rocky movie was filmed. There is a Rocky statue outside as well. Of course Andrew had to run up the stairs with the kids singing the famous song, it was cool.
There is a trail you can follow through historic Philadelphia to see most of the main highlights. We did see the Benjamin Franklin grave site, finishing off with the amazing City Hall and the LOVE Park.
The historic part of Philadelphia is quite small, which was good for us because we only had a day and a half in Philly, I think, before we drove back to Boston. We got to see all of the main attractions and learn a lot about the history of the US.
This concludes our 10 day road trip around the northeast part of the US. It was busy, but wow, we did get to see a lot of things and create some great memories with our kids. We are so blessed that they are such good travelers. I am happy we managed to get Andrew out of the Harvard lab for a week and have some quality time just the four of us.