On Saturday morning, Holly and I were up before dawn so that we could make it to Philadelphia in time to do a session at the temple.  I love the Philadelphia Temple, and it was only one year ago that it was dedicated.  I was so excited to show it to Holly.

We made really good time to Philly (which has actually never happened to me before – Philadelphia traffic is no joke), and I so I took some time to get some pictures of the temple.  While I was taking pictures of the temple, Holly was sneaking pictures of me :).  I love them!  But I am partial to pictures of me with a camera in my hands.

It was a particularly busy day at the temple, since it was about to close for two weeks of maintenance, and so we almost didn’t get into the session.  Luckily, we did, and it was wonderful, and I loved getting to spend time with Holly at the temple.

After we finished at the temple, we walked to Reading Terminal Market.  It is such an awesome place, and I had to take Holly there to get some of the best donuts I have ever eaten.  They are so amazing!  I am not even joking.  Best donuts ever.

It was so awesome to walk around the streets of downtown Philadelphia with Holly.  We walked around and had so much fun, in spite of the heat.  At one point, we walked right through a parade in China Town – I didn’t even know where China Town was, and so we were there by accident.  So funny!  Oh, and we totally saw an orange Ferrari driving down the street.  So awesome!

For lunch, we went to a place that I have been wanting to go to ever since I first researched things to do in Philly last year, The City Tavern.  It is an old restaurant/tavern that has been around since the 1700’s, and they serve authentic colonial food (and the servers are dressed in colonial attire.  Holly and I shared the Chicken Pot Pie, and it was amazingly yummy.  And the surroundings were beautiful, and I really loved the pewter water goblets.

After lunch, we walked over to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.  Our tickets were for the very last tour of the day for Independence Hall, and so we wandered around looking at other things.  First and foremost, we had to go see the Liberty Bell, which I love.

After the Liberty Bell, we decided to check out other things in Independence Mall.  Unfortunately, the National Mint was closed because it was a Saturday, and we discovered that a lot of the things that we were going to do to kill time charged a bunch of money.  When we went to the graveyard to see Ben Franklin’s grave, we looked in the gate and saw the sign that said, “A penny saved is a penny earned,” and so we decided that Ben Franklin didn’t want us to spend our money ;).

By three in the afternoon, still almost an hour to go before our tour, and we were exhausted.  We had been going since 5am, and then had walked miles and miles in the 90 degree heat.  We looked at each other, and knowing we still had to walk the two miles back to the car and drive two hours home, we decided to skip the tour.  

I felt really bad that Holly was going to miss it, but she was okay with it, and we were really worn out.  And so we walked back to the car, but not before I took her to Steve’s Prince of Steaks to get an authentic Philly cheesesteaks.  They are so yummy!

As we walked back over to the temple, where we had parked, the lighting was amazing, and it was the perfect light for pictures.  So I grabbed my camera out of the van, and took pictures, pictures, and more pictures.  (This is just one I took with my phone – you will have to wait for another post with the ones from my camera.)  I wandered a couple blocks away to get the best shots, and I even, at one point, was hanging on a fence on a freeway overpass to get the right shot.  I was in heaven, and it felt like a tender mercy to be able to get the pictures I really wanted.  Holly was such a good sport to let me go into photographer mode :).

After I got my pictures, we hit the road.  We may have missed a few turns on our way out of town, or rather, I may have missed a few turns.  It did mean we ended up driving right past the “Rocky steps,” so Holly got the complete tour of Philly.  Our drive home was great – eating our delicious Philly Cheesesteaks, singing along to the Evita soundtrack, and having the best time :).  

It was such a fantastic day, and I feel so blessed to be spending so much time with Holly, and making so many wonderful memories.