In West Philadelphia born and raised. . .

Okay, so maybe not born and raised, but it was in Conshohocken (west of Philly) where we spent most of our days. (I thought about doing the entire story of our trip to "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" but then I realized that nothing rhymes with Conshohocken)

This trip turned out well which was an answer to a lot of prayers. We were nervous about a lot of things: How would the kids do with their grandparents (the boys are both mama's boys and notoriously bad sleepers)? Would Lisa be able to leave the boys for 4 days (we haven't had a night away from them since Tyler was 10 months)? Would I be ready for my test (I took it a lot earlier than most people do and I have heard of quite a few people that had to retake it)?

Luckily, everything went really well. I gave the boys and Lisa each a blessing before we left and my dad gave me one as well. I think it helped Lisa and the boys and I know that I was better able to cope with the stress afterwards.

Now, not to de-glamorize our trip but the vast majority of it was spent traveling. Basically all day Wednesday and all day Friday we were on the train or in the airport or on the plane. That left Thursday for us to play around in Philly (actually only half of Thursday because I was in my test until 3:30). Alright, so I just completely de-glamorized the trip for even me. Hmm. . .

Oh, well. We really did have fun in the time that was permitted us, and it was definitely an experience. Since we really wanted the "city experience" (but more likely because we are poor) we relied exclusively on public transportation. The trains took us through the ghettos with their crumbling row houses, dirty streets, and all the other basic signs of poverty that you would expect (except for a very high percentage of Mercedes?) We were both very impressed with the subways (impressed = "Whoa! These subway stations smell strangely like a urinal!").

We walked around the historic part of town and saw a lot of old buildings like Independence Hall, Christ Church, the First and Second National Banks, etc. The history in that town is amazing. The size of the city is amazing as well. It is so expansive and at the same time all of the buildings are so compact and smooshed together.

I think the highlight for me was going out to dinner at this little deli near our hotel and having a cheese steak (you don't call it a Philly cheese steak when you are in "Philly"). Yep, that cheese steak was right up there with meeting the "real" Ben Franklin.