Sunny with a Chance of Clouds

What do we do when we have a long holiday without the kids? Instead of moping around and missing them, my husband and I celebrated Thanksgiving weekend by driving five hours to the City of Brotherly Love. Why not?! We had nothing else going on!

We ate leftover Thanksgiving ham in sandwich form. We stopped a couple of times – for gas and caffeine. The traffic moved pretty smoothly, and we got to Philly around 1:30pm. After driving for 15 minutes around the hotel looking for parking, we walked to the Residence Inn and checked in – we had a beautiful view out of our 20th floor window!

We walked many blocks toward Independence National Historical Park. We passed the house where Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence on our way to the Visitors Center. I stamped our National Parks Passport, and then we walked to Independence Hall and took pictures outside.

Then we went to the Ben Franklin Museum – what a brilliant man. We saw the bifocals he invented – when he was 78 years old!

We walked to the car, and moved it closer to the hotel. After that, it was time for food and drink. We took care of that with a bar, a wine bar, and a German brew pub.

Then back to the hotel for bed!

This morning, we slept in, ate a mediocre breakfast at the hotel, then began our walk back to Independence Center. We explored the Reading Terminal Market,

and found delicious coffee among the produce and fresh meat stands. We walked to the Liberty Bell – waited in line for 30 minutes but had good conversation with those standing behind us. Then we walked up to the iconic symbol of freedom – so cool to see the original Liberty Bell, with its infamous long crack.

We also walked the oldest neighborhood street, Elfreth’s Alley, down the cobblestone road.

Then to Sonny’s for a famous Philly Cheesesteak sandwich. The place was packed!

We headed back towards Independence Hall, but our tickets’ entry time was still 3 hours away, so we decided to head home.

Good thing, too, since heavy rain came! But we drove carefully home through 5 states – PA, DE, MD, WV, and home to VA. Not bad for a day and a half!