Our only goal for the trip was to find a good place to live when we move, so we looked at many different apartments. We narrowed it down to a few that seemed like options, and we were leaning towards one of them. I decided to look up reviews about it on apartmentratings.com. It had a 70% satisfaction rating, which I thought was pretty good. Usually the only people who take the time to post a review online are the ones who had a bad experience. Bethany was nervous that it was only 70%, so we looked up the other places we were considering. 25% was the highest rating and most of the comments on all of them were complaining about roaches, rats, and skyhigh utility bills. The only complaint on the 70%'er that had not been resolved was that people did not clean up after their dogs in the lawn areas. I think we can live with that.
Once we found our place, we were officially on vacation, so we hit the historic sights.
I loved seeing the Liberty Bell. It is probably the most boring and least important of the monuments in Philadelphia, but I felt electricity go up my spine when I was in the Liberty Bell Center. It was one of those times that you feel the importance of freedom and how incredible it is whenever a people gain it.
Angelique loved the Betsy Ross house. The impersonator knew how to entertain a two year old girl. The little piece of paper in Gigi's hand was from Betsy's demonstration of how she convinced George Washington that a five pointed star is better than a six pointed star: you can make a five pointed star with only one snip. It sounded impossible, but she did it. I think I was as impressed with the trick as Gigi was.
Another really great part was the original Supreme Court and Congress Hall. We were too late to get into Independence Hall (good thing we are moving there), so we went on a tour of the building where the original House of Representatives and Senate held their meetings. It was during that tour I realized that in law school I will be studying the Constitution less than 3 miles from where it was written and signed. Pretty cool, huh?
Probably the best thing about our trip (besides the fact that Bethany was made out of money :)
was the chance to spend time with Candy and Tony Rombola (they sound like mobsters, don't they?). Candy is Bethany's only sister and she is the real reason we are going to Philadelphia. They were fantastic hosts, and Tony makes great Italian food. (Grazie tante, Antonio!)
