Thanksgiving in Philadelphia!

 Philadelphia was never on my list of cities to see on the east coast until I saw Tiffany's blog about their trip there. It looked so fun and seemed to have lots to see! Since Trav had a whole week off for Thanksgiving, we started planning our trip for the first half of the week, so we'd be in town for actual Thanksgiving. Then the forecast showed rain and lots of it, but the end of the week was blue skies. So instead, we headed out Thanksgiving morning for Philly! Our trusty traveling companions, the Shaws, decided to join us, so we caravaned together. I was pretty darn excited.

 Let me offer you a piece of advice. Don't travel with a 9 month old. Weston was NOT happy about being strapped in his carseat for 7 hours. My usually happy baby screamed bloody murder for the first hour straight. I can kind of understand. Facing backwards is way boring. No DVD player, no landscape. But still, I think we all wanted to cut our ears off. He finally fell asleep for about an hour but then continued his ranting and raving. I was starting to think something was seriously wrong. So I pulled him out of his car seat and he was instantly a happy camper. That kid. He just wanted to crawl! (Which he just started doing, by the way). I let him crawl all over me for as long as I dared, then had to strap him back in his torture chamber. After about 3 1/2 hours we arrived at the church history site at the Susquahanna river.

(Oh yeah, we just skirted Scranton on our way. We really wanted to see Jim and Pam, but figured they were with family enjoying Thanksgiving lunch, and didn't want to bother them. I would have settled for lunch at Poor Richards, but it was closed. :)

This is where Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdry were visited by John the Baptist and given the Aaronic Priesthood. It's also where they were baptized. Apparently there is a dirt road that you can drive down to get to the actual bank of the river, but it was a giant mud bog when we found it, so no four wheeling for us.

There is a cemetery right next to the monument where Emma Smith's parents are buried, and an infant child of Joseph and Emma's. I thought it was cool how they blended the original headstone with a newer one.

Collin fell asleep for a couple hours on the second leg of the trip. Who sleeps like this? I couldn't help but reference HotRod ..."Ya like what ya see?" haha.

I think we pulled into the city around 4:30pm, checked into the hotel (Holiday Inn... not. too. shabby. Thank you Hotwire! Also, anything compared to what I stayed at for Time Out For Women would have the Hilton.) Now for dinner. Everything I looked at online had Thanksgiving dinner starting at at least $26 a person and going to $90. (But kids under 12 were only $18... how nice). There really weren't a lot of other options, so the Hard Rock Cafe it was! Can you believe it was a 45 min. wait? On Thanksgiving?! It didn't help that Collin was HY.PER! And remember that the Hard Rock plays.... hard rock. Like Ozzy Ozborn style stuff. I wanted to cover my ears. But Collins inner demon was set free and loving life. He was literally doing break dancing twirls on the floor, followed by somersaults, while randomly jerking his arms and legs around. It was like he didn't have control over his body, he was instinctively moving to the music. I have good reason to be worried for the teenage years.

The food was really good. The pilgrims had pulled pork sandwiches, right?

Our hotel was right in the middle of the city. Hallelujah, no subways!! I can't even imagine taking our double stroller on a subway. (Did I mention we got a double stroller?! The Graco Quattro Duo Glider.... 4000. Just kidding, not 4000, but sounds like it, right? Craigslist for $80! Normally over $200. And it looked brand new. I was stoked!)

Anyway, we wanted to do a city tour, but they were too expensive. Plus, I read online that the one I originally wanted to do, had two people die on it last year. No joke. It's called the Duck Tour and it's a car/boat (red flag right there, huh?) that goes into the Delaware River and one had engine trouble and a barge ran into it and it sunk and two people died. I was watching YouTube video of people being fished out of the Delaware and started having a major anxiety attack. But anwyay... :)

We started with the Liberty Bell. The museum is built on the land where George Washington's house used to stand. Here is a part of the original foundation.

On the drive home, Trav half joked, "I'm still not sure that I get the whole {Liberty Bell} thing." I had to laugh cuz I sort of agreed. I guess it's more just a symbol of liberty and freedom than anything else. It would ring to signal the start of meetings, but it's not proven that it actually rang on July 4, 1779. But it's super old, so that's cool. :)

 This is Independence Hall, where the Constitution was written.

 You have to take a tour to see the inside of Independence Hall. We all got settled in our seats and then our pony tailed tour guide opened his mouth. Just look at the faces on the Shaw family... Gavin included. An appropriate reaction to this guy's voice. Imagine Chris Farley doing his motivational speech bit on SNL...  but LOUDER. Same intonation though.

 He was a gem, that's all I have to say. It's a true miracle that Weston slept through it.

 Here is the actual room where the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution. The tour guide is shining a light on the sun etched into the back of that chair, which was Benjamin Franklin's. Maybe you've heard the quote where he says he didn't always know if it was a rising or setting sun, but after the document was written, he knew it was indeed a rising sun. I don't think it really sunk in that this was the room where our country's government was established. I have a very real appreciation and testimony of the founding of our country. I don't think most people realize the time and effort that went into writing the Constitution, but I have no doubt that God was a part of it.

In what is called the "Essentials Room", there are original drafts of the Declaration, Articles, and Constitution. We saw the final drafts in D.C., so it was cool to see the first, working drafts.

 Up the road is the Graff House, or Declaration House, where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence.

 This is actual room he wrote it in.

 And this was his bedroom, just across the way from the office.

 For lunch, we had heard it was fun to go to the Reading Terminal Market. (Pronounced, Redding). It is a massive building, filled with all sorts of foods and merchandise. From fresh meat, to chocolates, to soaps and perfumes. And it was chaotic. Shoulder to shoulder people. Packed to the walls with shops and stands. A million smells and just as many noises. We were crazy to have a double stroller. I wish I took a picture of the inside, but I was busy videotaping. Collin was so happy to take another picture.

 A stroll down Chinatown....

 Then we headed to {Love} park. There was a huge area with giant checkers and chess pieces that the kids ran around on while Rach and I nursed the babies. We also ran into two other families that were pushing double strollers and I asked if they were Mormon. I was right! One family was in their 2nd year of dental at Temple and the other family lived here. It was fun to talk to them for a minute. I might be turning into Grandpa Jess.

 I told Trav we better take a picture under the {LOVE} to prove that we really love each other. :) (Side note: I am gargantuan! There was a ton of people taking pictures under this thing and I was the only one who had to duck down so as not to hit my head. I wasn't even sure if I'd be able to stand up straight under it. What would Taylor Hawes be doing? :)

 Next, we went to {The Bank} and saw the "Money in Motion" exhibit, where we got our bag of $100 in shredded money. Trav's still working on piecing that thing together. The bank has the machines that count money and sort out the money that needs to be destroyed.

 This is when Collin fell asleep and I got to carry around a 2 year old for a bit. He must have been really tired to stay asleep in my arms.

 Next up was "The Mint", where they make money. Apparently it's the largest and highest producing mint in the world. We walked along a corridor and looked down at the massive warehouse where they had machines with long belts of metal coming out of them, before the coins are cut out. We learned that a penny is only 2.5% copper. The rest is zinc!

 We also saw Benjamin Franklin's grave. It's usually covered in pennies, because he coined the term (get it.. "coined" haha, I'm hilarious) "A penny saved is a penny earned." There was a man standing next to it that had just swept all the pennies off and he added the phrase, "A penny tossed, is a penny lost".

 Betsy Ross's house charged $4 a person to go in (what a rip) so we just looked at the outside. Her tombstone is outside in her yard... a little odd (isn't that where the family pets are buried?), so we saw that too.

 The only thing that we had to drive to see was the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Parking was heinous. It was a miracle when we found a spot, and then as we were unloading the stroller, one of Trav's classmates drove up behind us in traffic. What are the chances?

I guess this art museum is the most famous one besides the Met in NY. It's super expensive to go in, so we just had fun running up and down the "Rocky" steps. Collin also made use of it's bathroom. so that's somthing. :)

 This was the view from the top of the steps. What a beautiful skyline Philadelphia has!

 There is even a Rocky statue next to the museum.

 We were told to go to Geno's to get the best Philly Cheesesteak. It was a little like Vegas.

 They were just OK... but our opinion must have been the minority because that place was packed!

 The next morning, we checked out of the hotel and drove two hours tooooooo.. Hershey, Pennsylvania!!! I felt like I was driving to Disneyland, that's how excited I was. First, we went to the Hershey Factory and went on the famous chocolate tour, where it shows how chocolate is made.

 You get on a moving car, type thing and go through the "factory". It reminded me of It's a Small, Small World. (Or the boat ride on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but that's super creepy so I tried not to think about it.)

The tour is free and the bit of chocolate at the end is free, but then you finish in the gift shop, so that thing pays for itself, easy. We even found that big bar of chocolate we get every year in the mail! :) I wondered why I'd never seen it in regular stores.

 Right now it's "Christmas in Hershey" at Hershey Park so everything was decorated for Christmas! It was right next to the factory, so we grabbed some lunch, then headed inside. It was only $13 a person and kids 2 and under were free! Amazing deal considering it's usually over $50 a person during the summer.

They had places to measure how tall you were so you knew which rides you could go on. The tallest you had to be was a "Jolly Rancher". We were afraid Rach wouldn't make the cut, but she did!! :)

 Classic Collin face.

 It was fun to see how happy he was on all the rides. He was having the time of his life. Pay off for all that boring driving and walking to historic sites stuff.

 And this one was super good and patient. Just happy to be along for the ride!

 Collin LOVES Gavin and they had a ball riding all the rides together. I was just grateful neither one of them figured out how to slip out of the flimsy seatbelts and jump ship in the middle of it.

 We probably waited the longest for the Starship ride. When it started, I made it go straight to the top, and then screamed my head off the entire time. When I got off, Trav had coached Rachel to say, "Way to go, Sharon". :)

 After so many kiddie rides, the adults needed one too. "The Claw" was rated 4, for being a high speed, thrill ride. I was bummed that all of the rollercoasters were closed, but this one was way fun and super intense. Rach and I rode together while the guys stayed with the kids, then we switched. I have a huge fear that my harness is going to come undone and I'm going to fall out in the middle of the ride. And this thing swings completely vertical so that you are airborn against your harness. I was hysterical. Rach was laughing her head off and about half way through I kept saying, "OK, I"M DONE! OK, I'M DONE!" And I want to go to Cedar Point at the end of this year?! Hmmm. Doug and Trav rode the whole thing with their hands in the air. They had to make up for originally seeing the ride and saying, "No thanks, that will make me sick." To which Rach and I guffawfed and said, "See ya!" They needed to earn their manhood back. :)

 Here's Trav and Collin, wiping the floor with Rach and Gavin. :)

I'm so mad I didn't get a picture, but after this we got corn dogs at a stand called "Prairie Dawgs." Seriously, that was the name! We were dying. This will also be remembered as the spot that we got burning hot, hot chocolate and Rach told me, "Just sip up through the slit in the lid and it won't burn you!" Completely trusting, I did so, and got the jolt of my life as scalding liquid melted my mouth off! My initial reaction was to give her a hand gesture, but then we all just died laughing. She didn't mean to trick me, I guess I just didn't do it quite right. Lesson learned!!

Fireman obsession intact...  check! He was thrilled to drive the firetruck. He's showing us his big, fireman muscles. He's told me before, "Mom, I grow up NOOOWWW and be strong fireman!"

 Have to have a group shot! It was a fun day in Hershey! And even more fun that we got to share it with our good friends. We have now seen Boston, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia with them. And we are dreaming of doing a cruise together to celebrate the end of dental school. I don't think we'll know what to do with ourselves when we want to vacation and don't have them near us! However, we just found out that Doug was accepted to the ortho program in Fort Lauderdale, FL, so I think we'll be planning a trip to Florida in the next couple years!

Before we left I had to grab a frozen hot chocolate from the Hershey Factory. We love the ones that DQ makes, so I figured Hershey had to make them even better. I was right. It was divine. The best thing I ate on our whole trip!

We started the drive home close to 6:30pm and it was about five and half hours. The boys fell asleep pretty fast. I watched Dirty Dancing for the first time ever and LOVED it. Trav wasn't interested in listening to it (shocker, right?) so he was alone with his thoughts. :) 

I have realized that we definitely have our {roles} when it comes to trips. 

I dream them up and do all the planning. 

I shop, pack and set the itinerary.

He does all the driving. 

He wrangles the child while I read all the signs in the museum. 

He smiles and says "Whatever you want" when I ask him what he'd like to eat, see or do.

I take all the pictures, video and document it all on the blog. 

He funds it. (Well, ultimately he will).

I think we've got it worked out pretty well. He's a fabulous traveling companion. And after this trip, we've decided we need to only take trips to Disneyland and the beach with the kids and leave everything else to be just us! (They are a heck of a lot of work)

And we didn't even miss out on the traditional Thanksgiving dinner... it just came later on Sunday evening. I love that my plate is basically one color... and that color basically equals fat. It was delicious. 

Thank you Philly for a Thanksgiving to remember!