The Founders

On a random whim, I decided to take a weekend trip to Philadelphia. With Megabus, the round trip cost was only about $30! On top of that, most of the sightseeing in Philadelphia can be done for free. It was a great refresher lesson about our country's history and its brilliant founders. It was also my chance to visit my friend, Thomas, my former section leader from the Michigan Marching Band and a 2L at Temple Law School.

It was also "Beer Week" in Philadelphia, so Thomas and I went to a couple of bars to participate in some of the events, which included meeting the owners of Grand Rapids-based Founders Brewery and try their beer specials. Factor in an awesome farmers' market and some cheesesteaks, and it all adds up to a tasty AND educational weekend!

Independence Hall

The inside of Independence Hall. Thomas Jefferson sat here!

More Independence Hall...This was a sort of courtroom.

The Senate's Chamber was much nicer than that of the representatives. Do you think our founders came to this building, and then walked to the bar and drank Founders Beer? Because that's what I did.

This was a nice surprise! There was a choral class visiting Independence Hall, and they sang for us! And my camerawork rocks!

House of Representatives.

The Liberty Bell. Too bad it's broken. Thomas was telling me about how the site for the Liberty Bell Museum was built on top of what used to be a cemetery for slaves. Pretty ironic, considering that it's supposed to be a symbol of, well, liberty and freedom. I guess we should just blithely ignore the hypocrisy. Tra la la.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Okay, so Philly has a huge indoor market called the Reading Terminal Market. They have TONS of different types of food there from many different backgrounds. Here's the "Pennsylvania Dutch Chocolate".

Butter Almond Bliss. Google needs to figure out some sort of gadget to incorporate actual scents into Blogger.

Apparently, there is a big cheesesteak Rivalry between Geno's Steaks and Pat's Steaks. The buildings face each other in a busy intersection. Geno's has the extravagant bright lights, but I've heard Pat's has the better steaks, so I went with Pat's.

Philly Cheesesteaks, the reason Philadelphia is one of the most obese cities in the world.

And, of course, words simply cannot convey how awesome Thomas is. Thanks for taking me around town, Thomas! Here we are with our cheesesteaks. I admit that it was tasty, but I felt pretty disgusting for about 24 hours after eating it. I'm guessing Philly Cheesesteaks became popular well after 1800, because I don't think our founding fathers could have created a government while suffering from extreme indigestion.