Yesterday we took a trip up to Philadelphia to visit some of the places where our founding Fathers began this nation. Our main goals were the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and a Philly cheese steak sub. We also took an unplanned tour across the Ben Franklin bridge to New Jersey when I ended up in the wrong lane getting off I-95. Back in Philly, we found parking ($16 for the day), and after a short walk and we were at the Independence National Historic Park Visitor Center. There we got tickets (free) for Independence Hall and the boys got a couple of souvenirs. 
The Liberty Bell is now housed in its own building across Market Street from the Visitor Center. It also has several rooms of information about the history of the bell. See Marianne's post for more photos of the bell.
Across Chestnut St. from the Bell is Independence Hall. We took some photos and went to see Franklin Court, where his house and printing shop once were (they were not preserved). There is an underground museum with history, artifacts and a short movie about his life and contributions to the founding of our country. He was quite an extraordinary man for his time. We returned to Independence Hall for our appointed tour time. One of the Park rangers gave a brief history of the building and the work of the founding fathers that occurred in the building.
We returned to the car by way of Ben Franklin's burial place and started looking for a place to sample the famous Philly cheese steak. We stopped at a sidewalk cafe on Market St. near the river. We were a little disappointed in the cheese steaks (Michael loved his chicken club sandwich). All in all, a very interesting and enjoyable day.
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