East Coast Part 1

Louis and I just recently got back from a wonderful trip together!  We got to see many new things and visit with lots of family.

We started out at Josh and Megan's house and got to meet our new nephew Lincoln!  On Wednesday and Thursday we were able to babysit baby Lincoln.  He is a wonderful little baby, very relaxed.

The one thing Louis said he wanted to do on our trip (besides be with family) was go to Philadelphia.  So on Friday morning we all got in the car and headed out!  This is pretty much the only day I took pictures the whole trip, so enjoy it.

We started by going to Independence Hall.  The building was really beautiful, but it wasn't my favorite stop of the day.  

definitely click to enlarge this one

After Independence Hall we went over to see the Liberty Bell.  We were lucky to get there when there was a really short line.  Just so everyone knows, we did not lick the Liberty Bell.

After the Liberty Bell Louis and Josh walked over to Benjamin Franklin's grave, and Megan and I sat on a lovely shaded bench so she could feel Lincoln.  We were entertained by birds and squirrels.  

After this we had planned to go and have a tour of City Hall.  When we arrived we found out that all the tours were full for the day.  The outside of the building that we saw though was beautiful.  Maybe if we ever go back to Philadelphia we will try to go earlier so we can get in a tour.   Instead we walked to a park and had lunch.
Oh first we stopped at the Love Park (not sure if that's what it is actually called) we had thought about having lunch there, but there was some protest like thing going on as well as some dude dressed like John the Baptist taking people into the fountain.  We just decided to take a quick picture then keep moving.  Luckily you can't see the John the Baptist impersonator in the background of our picture.

While we were eating lunch we saw some construction near by and Josh thought it might be the temple being built.  A quick online search confirmed that and also told us that they had a visitor's center set up.  After lunch we decided to walk over and take a look.  

The visitor's center ended up being closed so we just walked around then headed onto the Franklin Institute.  I believe we ended up staying at the Franklin Institute for 3 1/2 hours.  It was a bit expensive, but sooooo worth it.  

It is a huge interactive museum.  There are so many different exhibits to walk through.  Some of my favorites were Sir Isaac's exhibit, the electricity exhibit, and the gift shop was cool to walk through. 

Louis also got to ride the sky bike!

After the Franklin Institute we attempted to walk over to the Rocky steps (Philadelphia Museum of Art).  We were not able to get over there though because of some big street concert they were having.  So that ended our day in Philly.  On our way out we stopped at Geno's for a Philly Cheese Steak.  Our verdict, good, but it needed some kind of sauce.  Maybe that's because we got Provolone cheese instead of the processed American cheese.  

The next day we were heading down to Cumberland to go to my sister Charissa's.  Before we headed out though, Josh finally convinced Louis to shave his head.  Pretty much from the moment we got to their house Josh had been asking Louis about it, not to mention the years before this that he has been trying to get him to do it.  I told Louis he could do what he wanted, he might as well try it out once.  If he didn't like it, his hair would grow back quick enough.  After it was done we found out that there was a bet between at least three of Louis' sibling and Josh that Josh wouldn't be able to convince Louis to shave it.  It looks like Josh will be getting plenty of Crown Burger when they come out for Christmas.  I kind of feel like Louis was tricked and I don't like that.  It's a good thing Louis ended up still looking hot.

That was the end of our time with Josh, Megan, and Lincoln.  We had a really great time and are very grateful for all they did for us while we were there.  We look forward to seeing them in December.  

Next post I will write about our time with Charissa and Don, and Sarah and Jared.