Philadelphia

On Friday we decided to head into Philadelphia so see what we could see.  After arriving at Independence Square and finding a parking spot we headed to the visitors center to get tickets for the Independence Hall Tour. They are free, but the appointed time is usually an hour or two after you get them depending on how many people are there that day.  It was noon and our time was 2:00 p.m. so we decided to find the Reading Terminal Market based on a recommendation from Tricia and Mckay. It was only 6 blocks away so we walked and my kids got to see what it's like to walk around in a big city.  Tricia described it as a farmer's market with permanent booths and said we should definitely get a hot apple dumpling.  

Armed with this limited information we found it and soon realized it wasn't just a little market, it was absolutely huge!  Yes, there were plenty of places to buy produce, but there were also vendors selling every type of food imaginable along with meat, seafood, sweets, etc.  When I saw just how big it was and how many different things you could buy I didn't know how we were ever going to find the hot apple dumpling place.

Britton got a kick out of the rules on the door to the market.  The last one reads, "No grumpy people."  I think that should be a rule everywhere!

Friday at noon was a very busy time to hit the market.  It was packed!  After wandering down several aisles (I think there were about 13 full aisles of vendors) We finally found the hot apples dumplings made by the Amish.

The Amish women were all wearing their traditional outfits with the hat/bonnet thing pinned to the back of their hair.

Mckay told us to look for a donut shop called Beiler's and said the donuts were to die for.  They are made from  scratch by Amish people who could be seen hard at work behind the counter.

We decided to get a dozen for Mckay and a dozen for ourselves, but then Adam saw there was a special deal if you got 3 dozen so that is what we decided to do.  Adam tried to be as quick as possible since there were a lot of people in line, but selecting 3 dozen donuts still takes a bit of time. After tasting a few of them I agree with Mckay, the blueberry fritters are the best.  So yummy!

We could hardly be in Philadelphia and not try a Philly cheesesteak sandwich.  We found the vendor that had the longest line and got in.  We figured a long line meant it had to be pretty good.

Sure enough once we got to the register to order there was a picture of President Obama at that very spot getting a cheesesteak, too.  

Apparently "Carmen's Famous" is actually quite famous. :-)

A family with 4 kids at a VERY busy lunch location was quite a spectacle, but the food was absolutely delicious. You can see Korinne lifting 2 dozen donuts from Beilers. They were big boxes!  I think the market was one of our favorite things on the trip.  It was so different from anything we had seen and the food and donuts were fresh and amazing.

There it is, the famous Philly cheesesteak.

The donuts got heavy going back to Independence Hall so Britton took a turn carrying them for me. What a guy. Anything for a donut, right?

We had just enough time to see the Liberty Bell before our tour.

J-mo the ham.  He is really into photo-bombing these days.

The Park Ranger who did our tour of Independence Hall was clearly very passionate about his job.  Our tour group had people from all over the world including Japan and South Africa . 

This is where both the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were debated and adopted.

George Washington himself sat in that very chair.

Abraham Lincoln stood in this very spot to give a speech in 1861.

I have about 15 of these pictures, but I never was able to get one of Jameson actually smiling at the camera.

By this point Jameson was pretty tired of historical sites. Notice him laying on the grass behind Britton.

Britton kept calling Benjamin Franklin "B. Frank" as in "Hey, let's go see B. Frank's grave." Jenna was the only taker on this one so I went with them and Adam took Korinne and Jameson back to the car. Once again we were trying to get a jump on rush hour traffic out of a major city.

Britton, Jenna and I walked through the visitors center on our way back to the car and when I saw the Rocky statue I couldn't help but get a picture of it with the kids.

As you can tell by the look on her face Jenna had no idea who Rocky was or why I would want a picture of him. Looks like I better give my kids a few lessons from Rocky Balboa. If I'm going to yell "Yo Adrian!" I at least want my kids to get the joke!

We were popular when we arrived back at Mckay and Tricia's house that night. Donuts for everyone!

Mckay took Adam and me (and Jameson) to their local grocery store to load up on snacks and food for the trip to upstate New York the following morning.  Wow. This grocery store was something else.  It went on and on and on and definitely catered to a different crowd than where we come from. Jameson loved the moving train hanging over the dairy cases.  Not sure what it was for, but it was cool.