We have been looking forward to going to Philadelphia to eat a Philly Cheesesteak ever since we moved here. Apparently the Best Cheesesteak in Philly is Geno’s, but 7 out of 7 in our group felt that our local mom-and-pop place tops Geno’s by far. If you want to see where we go for Philly Cheesestakes, check out the Philadelphia Grille on the google machine. They also have a mean cheese pizza and I really enjoy their eggplant parmesan. Quite a varied menu AND THEY CAN GET ON POST which is a huge benefit for those of us living in this “gated” community.
While cheesesteaks are perfectly valid reasons to travel, trying an authentic cheesesteak was not our only reason for heading south. Below is a quick run-through of the fun things we saw on our quick overnight to The City of Brotherly Love.
HOTEL: We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express – Penn’s Landing.
Anna woke at 0600 so we snuck down to the lobby, thankful they had seating for breakfast and a staff member handing out breakfast items. We had a beautiful view of the Ben Franklin Bridge. We had a girl’s hotel room with Anna, Maddie, and myself. The boys (minus Bailey, who stayed home) all piled into another room.

We were able to leave the Truckster in the hotel parking lot and walk the old part of the city on foot. It was pretty cold but Anna wore her “cold pants” (ski pants), and she never complained about being cold. I wish I had known that this was a thing when the bigs were little. Germany taught me so many things about cold-weather living.
Elfreth’s Alley – The oldest residential street in America



The Betsy Ross House

Independence Hall – So. So. Cool.
Liberty Bell



Benjamin Franklin’s Grave
Rocky Steps – Matt, Carson, and Parker ran the steps!


There will be another blog post when we go back for detailed tours. This was a scouting mission and a taste-testing excursion. Next time I want to actually tour the Betsy Ross House.
There are so many historical sites here in this part of the nation that I have yet seen. Excited to be here for a few years to check them out.
I love Philadelphia! We went there several times when stationed in D.C… the BEST homeschool field-trips and it looks like your first trip there was amazing!!
It was lovely, short, and sweet. But gave us a taste of what we want to do when we go back AND some good ideas of things to study between now and then!