We had to take last week off work because Miss H’s normal daytime caregiver was off to Paris to see her sister get married (so jealous) so we decided to spend a few days in Philadelphia and then a few days at a farm near Lancaster. Kerry had never been to Philadelphia (and I had not been there as a tourist in a very long time) so we decided to explore a city that was not too far from home.
We found a great hotel that was near all the major sites and gave us a room that was pretty much a small apartment. The Morris House Hotel was perfect and the staff was so nice!
Miss H loved all the doors in our suite and really loved the blue recycling bin that she could fill and drag around. We loved having a bedroom, living room, kitchen and nice size bath!
We had fun visiting the historic sites- like Independence Hall.
The liberty bell.
Miss H most enjoyed Franklin Square- there was a huge fountain, lots of grass to run around on, a big playground and a carousel. We got to meet up with Sandy, Adam and their son Cooper for time at the playground and a great dinner.
We all went to Jones for dinner and Cooper really wanted ‘perogies and blue water,’ but unfortuantely the perogies were not on the menu. The kiddos enjoyed gourmet grilled cheese and fresh steamed peas while the adults had some yummy sandwiches.
Cooper really can say perogies and is the only 18 month old I know that can clearly say planetarium. Miss H loved stealing the peas from his plate (I am sure they tasted much different than the ones are her plate) and got quite a fan club from the wait staff with her hello/goodbye routine.
Speaking of food- we had other great meals and snacks while in Philly. We had great pizza at Pizzicato followed by delicious ice cream from the Franklin Fountain.
If you get your ice cream in a cup, you will get it in what we think of as a chinese take out container.
According to the girls helping us with our order- these boxes were originally designed for ice cream. Who knew?
Miss H loved the black raspberry ice cream.
Of course, in Philly- you must get a Philly Cheesesteak. We ventured over to the Reading Terminal Market and had two great sandwiches but neither of us ordered the local version with the cheez whiz.
Lucky for us we did a lot of walking (one day it was over 8 miles according to MapMyRun.com) to burn off part of the cheesesteak and ice cream 🙂
We went to the ‘Rocky steps’ (aka- the Philadelphia Museum of Art).
We wandered through the Seaport Museum at Penn’s Landing.
Miss H tried to make friends with the people in one of the children’s displays.
Some other random photos that I liked:
On Wednesday, we checked out of Philly and headed to Valley Forge.
all three of us 
Looks like a great trip! Can’t wait to hear about the next leg of it.