Fell in Love with the City of Brotherly Love

This last weekend Mitch and I went to Valley Forge and Philadelphia with the Washington Seminar program. We loved exploring Philly and Valley Forge was a historically enlightening visit (yes that is right, I just referred to it as historically enlightening).

After a 3 hour bus ride with all the other BYU students, we arrived at Valley Forge. For those of you who haven't been there before, you must go because it is absolutely beautiful. The National Park is so lush, green and beautiful. We spent Friday on a tour of Valley Forge and were able to see where George Washington and his men lived during the winter they spent there. Besides the very hard bed we slept on in the dorms we stayed at, it was a great trip there.

The green fields of Valley Forge 

On Saturday morning we woke up and headed to Philadelphia. We went on a tour of Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Constitution was written and then we toured the Constitution Center Museum. The past three weeks I have learned so much about our government and the founding fathers, so being able to be in this historic building was such an amazing experience. It is incredible to think that what those men did in that room has allowed me to enjoy the freedoms that I have. We are so blessed to live in America.

In front of Independence Hall 

In the room where the Constitution and Declaration of Independence were signed

After we toured Independence Hall we were able to spend a couple hours on our own exploring Philly. Since my Dad and brother Tyson both served their missions in Philadelphia, I have heard about this amazing city my whole life and was excited to get to do some exploring of my own. The first thing I wanted to do was try an original Philly Cheesesteak, so Mitch and I walked to Pat's and Geno's to get a cheesesteak at each place and do our own test to see which one was better.

And after trying both we decided that Pat's was better (even though the line for Geno's was way longer).

Mitch and I spent the rest of the day walking around and exploring the city. I didn't have any idea what Philadelphia would be like or what to expect, but I quickly found that I love the city. There are so many beautiful things to see in Philadelphia and the buildings and churches we saw were incredible. Of course the two things we were most excited to see was the LDS temple that is under construction and the famous Rocky steps and statue.

After a long day in Philadelphia, Mitch and I were really excited to come home to D.C. (I never thought I would say come home to Washington DC). If we could spend all of our time exploring new cities around the country and the world, we would. We are on the search for a job that will pay us to travel around the world - we will keep you posted if we find one!