Philadelphia, PA

This past weekend Rebe and I went to Philadelphia, PA for my Step 2 Clinical Skills test. It is a very expensive test that was invented in the early 2000's to steal medical student's money by having them pay for "actors" to come in and "act" like real patients while students are tested on their interviewing and physical exam skills. It is $1500 and there are only 5 places in the country to take it. Every medical student in the country has to pass the test in order to graduate, so we went to Philadelphia because it was the closest site. We found out that Amish country was on the way to Philly so we stopped for a few hours on our way to Philly. First, we ate at a little meat shop that had freshly lean ground beef hamburgers, fresh cut sweet potato fries, sarsaparilla soda, and homemade apple fritters. It was delicious. We then went and saw a few sites in Intercourse, PA. Here is the buggy we saw right outside the meat shop. We found out later you are not supposed to take pictures of the Amish because they think it is a graven image. Oops.

We didn't get to do much historical things because we ran out of time, so we didn't learn much about the Amish, but we did see some quilts in the quilt museum. I guess these things are really hard to make. Rebe was really impressed by them, and some of the hand stitched quilts cost $1500.
We had to leave early because Rebe bought me great tickets to the Phillies game later that night. We got to the hotel, dropped our stuff off, then took the subway down to the game. We were so close, and it was an action-packed game. We saw three home-runs, a triple, a double-play, the Phillie manager fight with the ump for 5 minutes on the field, the new big trade Hunter Pence make his starting debut for the Phillies, and the best of all Cliff Lee was the starting pitcher and he went 8 and 1/3 innings before being pulled with 15 strike-outs. Rebe even liked the game and said it was the most fun she had ever had at a ball game.
The next day we went and saw all the historical sites in Philadelphia. We saw Independence Hall. However, it was under renovation when we were there, so you can see the lame scafolding and tarp with an image on it around the spire of Independence Hall. It was really cool to hear all the things that went on there like the signing and ratifying of the Declaration of Independence and and Constitutional Convention where there Founding Father's got rid of the Article of Confederation and came up with the constitution.
Inside was interesting as well. This was the room where they had court meetings.
We also saw the Liberty Bell that day. The bell has had a lot of famous visitors over its lifetime and probably is the most famous symbol of liberty in the world. (Maybe with the Statue of Liberty). You cannot touch the bell now, but you could get really close.We walked into the city center for lunch and ended up at the Reading Terminal Market. They had more vendors/restaurants then we could count. I got some authentic Chinese Food while Rebe got an awesome Oven Roasted Turkey sandwich. We also had cookies, ice cream and chocolate there. We ate a little unhealthy on this trip. We finally made our way over to Fairmont Park with the LOVE statue. We were a little disappointed it was so small, but we still had to take a picture of it. We thought it was going to be at least 4 big letters that were about 2 stories tall.
It was a really hot day, and there were people swimming in the downtown fountain. We decided we had at least get a picture of us in the fountain.

I took my test the next day, so not much happened. Funny thing was, I ran into my old friend from BYU taking the test the same day. There are only 24 medical students allowed each day to take the test, and he came from Columbia University in New York on that day. It was good to see Jon again. That night, we decided we had better go get the Philly experience with a Philly Cheese steak sandwich. We took the subway and walked to Pat's King of Steak. Pat's is the original, but right across the street there is Geno's who is also really famous. We decided to go with the original. We both got our sandwiches "wit" onions, however, I got the original Cheese Wiz on mine and Rebe got provolone. They were pretty snacky.


The day we left, we went to the US Mint and to Valley Forge. The US Mint wouldn't let you take pictures, but we liked seeing all the coins made. Valley Forge was a winter quarters during the Revolution. There were no battles fought there, but we did get to see Washington's Headquarters. We should have spent less time there, but it was still interesting to learn.
We got home in the evening on Tuesday and we were very impressed with Philadelphia. It was much more historical and rich in American spirit than New York City. Overall, we would recommend the trip to anyone.