Philly Cheesesteak and the 4th of July

For those of you who know me, you know I can't take less than 100 pictures when I go to a place of distinction. So, this is going to be loaded with pictures, I hope you don't mind. When we first moved out here I told Brian I wanted to go to Philadelphia for a real Philly Cheese Steak sandwich. Since I was feeling much better on the fourth Brian talked me into (and it was real hard to do it! lol) going to Philadelphia for the celebration. We got there around 11:30 am and went straight to Geno's for the best sandwiches Philly has to offer! (I provided a link below if anyone is planning to go.) Many famous people have their picture with Geno. I do not, but he did serve me my sandwich!

Once we got our sandwiches we were ushered over to the condiments table. We asked some fine Philly folks what they recommended for the toppings to our sandwiches. One man said hot sauce and peppers. So I went over and did a thin line of hot sauce across mine and proceeded to the mustard. Another man came over and said, "honey I would recommend tasting the hot sauce before you eat that sandwich! It is extremely hot." So I dipped my finger in, barely got a dot, placed it on my tongue and for the rest of the day I wished I had not! I can eat wasabe plain with barely even noticing, but I can not handle extremely spicy hot sauce, you know, the kind that is so hot it has no taste to it but burn. Brian, showing me he loves me, happily switched me sandwiches. Now, you need to understand something about this hot sauce! It is the kind that burns so fast all you feel is pain. When applied on contact the skin is instantly seared off and only pain remains! No water, no matter how great the application, can quench this fire! With that.... please continue reading....

Once we were settled in the van Brian took a giant hungry bite of his sandwich, he did ok for the first few bites. About half way through he started turning red and sweating. I looked at him, waiting, and then I saw it....the most frantic look in his eye! It was terrifying! He went in search of his watter bottle, he downed 22 oz within a few seconds and started grasping for another. I handed him mine. He drank as if he had just crossed the Gobi! Once the initial shock of the heat was over he proved he has a death wish! he finished off his sandwich! That of course started the whole routine over again. I was floored! I couldn't believe after all that he would even try to finish that sandwich! Ysabel, hating to see her daddy in such pain passed him up her ice water. (Granted, since she has his sense of humor, she was giggling all the while!) Her ice water only lasted a matter of seconds also.

As I was trying to be supportive of him, (mostly because I was the one who put the hot sauce on the sandwich,) I tried not to giggle with Ysabel. But, inevitably I couldn't help it and the laughter ensued. The desperation returned to his eyes, the nose started to run, his face returned to a brilliant shade of crimson, and the life or death hunt for water began again! I have seen desperate people on tv searching for something to quench a fire like that, but never Brian, he loves his spicy food. This was seriously hilarious. Needless to say, if we go back, we will NOT have the hot sauce.

Philadelphia was beautiful! We parked the van and walked to the visitors center where employees were handing out 10,000 Tastycakes to celebrate the nation's birthday. At the end of the hall others were doing temporary tattoos. We just had to have one, so we stood patiently in line and each acquired a festive, red, white and blue, tattoo.

We walked out into the square just as 3 men came up the walk. One man had a flute, one a drum and the other was leading them. The leader stood in the square and read to us in great enthusiasm, the Declaration of Independence. It was extremely moving to be in Philly on the 4th and hear that document read. They placed employees dressed as commoners and British Loyalists in the crowd. They cheered or hollered "Treason!" Yeah! I cried. Ever since our summer in VA I have deep patriotism.

After his reading he asked who would like to join the colonial army. We followed and were drafted. We were taught to march, stand in a "trim line", about face, left face, right face, etc. We were given firearms and taught to load and shoot, to use the bayonets, etc. It was great. Ethan was even asked to hold the colors for our troop. We were discharged after our training and given a receipt of our labors signed by General Washington himself!

After our honorable discharge we were able to visit Congress Hall, Independence Hall, and the Liberty Bell. Those buildings were beautiful and you could feel the reverence in each. I had forgotten that President Washington did not wish to serve two terms. John Adams wrote him a letter reminding him that he was the only person holding our nation together. President Washington served another term but made it known he would not serve a third. Anyway....We also were able to visit the grave side of Benjamin Franklin. That was a great experience. The pennies on his grave are in remembrance of his saying, "a penny saved is a penny earned." People believe it is good luck to toss a penny on his grave. I recommend this city to all for 4th of July celebrations! It was worth the hour and a half drive!

We didn't stop there! We ate our pb and j sandwiched in the van on our way back to NY so we could watch the fireworks over the Statue of Liberty. We got to Liberty park with about 2 hours to spare. We played and rested, tried to dodge the rain, waited and dodged more rain, then the fireworks finally started. They were beautiful! Rebekah was correct about all the other shows going a the same time, I have never seen so many fireworks at one time! IT was truly beautiful! I did enjoy the 4th! I hope you all did as well!