Road Trip Day 1:Gettysburg and Philly

Today Matthew and I are celebrating 3 years together, yes today marks 3 years since our first date, so this morning we decided to take a little trip. We began by saying goodbye to Pittsburgh; four hours later we were in Gettysburg. The first thing we did when we got there was watch a documentary about the history surrounding Gettysburg, narrated by Morgan Freeman and experience the cyclorama, which is an amazing 360 degree art display and takes you through the Battle at Gettysburg. Note for all who go to Gettysburg...these two items are MUSTS! After we finished the cyclorama we took a very fast walk through the museum. This was also a cool thing and there was lots to be learned, but unfortunately we were on a tight schedule and had to rush through it. After leaving the museum we drove part of the auto tour and stopped at some of the monuments. The auto tour also has an audio tape available to listen to for a fee which I have been told also has many interesting facts about the monuments and battle, but again we had limited time. We didn't see all 1300 or so monuments, but we did take photos of a few we liked.

Three cool monuments along the auto tour route

After finishing our fast tour of Gettysburg, Matthew and I headed to Philly! In Philly we had to make some tough choices. So much history and culture, but again so little time. We decided that we really wanted to experience 4 things: 1) The Liberty Bell, 2) Independence Hall, 3) A genuine Philly Cheese Steak, and 4) The Rocky Steps (no matter how corny it is and although he is not a real person). We weren't sure if we could make it to everything in such a short period of time, but we lucked out; there was an open house for Independence Hall and the tours for it began right after the Liberty Bell Center closed and as our luck would have it we got there in perfect timing to go through the Liberty Bell Center. After Independence Hall we even had the chance to walk over to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

I learned some interesting facts about Independence hall: 1) The term "stand trial" came from the fact that back in the day the accused had to literally stand in a cage for his/her entire trial, 2)The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed in the same room, and 3)The chair that George Washington sat in in Independence Hall is still there...it is one of the only original pieces of furniture still exhibited, most of the other items are period furniture.On our way back to the car we came upon a couple of interesting things...a lamp post of a historic journalism site, a beautifully waving American flag, a funky fountain and a miscellaneous monster (I have looked up this monster and it is the Philly Phanatic...mascot for the Philly's B-ball team)

After all that history, our appetites were calling and we were informed by some locals of the original Philly Cheese Steak place, so of course we texted Google with our handy dandy phones and plugged the address into our handy dandy GPS named Mandy (the name of the voice we decided upon) and within 20 minutes we were in line at Pat's King of Steaks.

After feeding our hunger we made our last stop at the Rocky Steps. Before this trip, while researching where the steps were, I came across some interesting facts about these steps and more specifically the statue of Rocky that is at the bottom and to the side of the steps. For all of you who don't know, contrary to popular belief (of some BIG Rocky fans!) Rocky Balboa is not a real person and is not based on anyone who ever was a real person...I know that shocks many, so the fact that there is an actual statue of this fictitious character already is a little silly to me, but what makes it even better is the debates about the statue and the number of times it has been moved. If I am correct in my history the statue has been in 3 different spots on the grounds of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and at one point was moved to a separate location entirely...all this moving and debate over someone who isn't real! It is all silliness to me, nevertheless, I still visited the statue and steps...I suppose that makes me silly indeed.

After our adventures on the steps, Matthew and I headed toward Scranton, PA...indeed another place dedicated to fictitious characters! The plan was actually to stay at a KOA about an hour outside of Scranton, but Matthew was very concerned for his--I mean our--ability to sleep in the hot and humid weather and thus convinced me (after several months of planning and budgeting) to stay in a hotel that in the end turned out to be three times as much as it would have been to stay at the KOA and to me smelled and felt like we were sleeping outside anyway!! Okay, maybe I am exaggerating a bit, but my point being that it was definitely not worth the money we spent, so to anyone thinking of going to Scranton, do not stay in the Econo Lodge in Clark's Summit. All in all the first day of our trip was wonderful; we had a great time learning more about our country's history and spending time with one another after being apart so long!