I have been to quite a few major cities over the years, but I had always managed to miss Philadelphia! I finally got to this historical city this past summer and I couldn't wait to see all the history that was waiting for me there!

We decided against doing any of the paid tours, as our time was short. We figured we could walk to most of what we wanted to see and save time since we didn't need to worry about the lines of people as we were waiting to get on and off the Hop on Hop Off Busses.

We started by standing in line to get tickets into Independence Hall. The next available tour wasn't for a couple of hours, so we ventured over to the Liberty Bell next. I'm not sure exactly what I expected, but for some reason, the bell is much smaller than I thought that it would be! It was still nice to see, although we were quite rushed due to the amount of people that were there.

We began to walk around the city, and while they have signs up, they can be a little confusing. I think we walked past the same buildings a few times as we wandered from one attraction to the next.

We managed to find the Betsy Ross Museum, Benjamin Franklin's grave, and the Ben Franklin Museum. We only ended up going into the Ben Franklin Museum, as we needed to get back for our tour time.

I think that the best part of our day was going through Independence Hall and seeing the building next door. We learned quite a bit during our tour, as our guide was very knowledgeable, and he even put humor into it to keep the kids' attention.

I was impressed that we could see the real Declaration of Independence, as well as the Constitution, as I would have thought that they would have been locked up tight.

I was so happy that I finally made it to the City of Love! Oh, and don't forget to grab a philly cheesesteak if you happen to visit! Yummy!