To Philly Cheesesteak...or not?

The answer to this question is one I'd never thought much about until about a week ago. Supposedly you have to go to Philadelphia to get a good one, and that never seemed very likely to happen to me. Then last week I went with Joe to his conference (Academy of Management), and it just happened to be in Philadelphia. The trip was good, it was fun to drive all the way up there past some big cities and all that. Before we left my brother Joseph said to be sure to get one of these famous sandwiches, and I said 'okay, sure, whatever'. Then last Monday we were at the Reading Terminal Market for lunch. (If you've seen National Treasure, it's the place where the chick and the nerdy guy hide from the bad guys. H0wever, it's about 12 blocks from Independence Hall, so I'm not sure they would have actually run there to hide; it was good in the movie though....anyway). It's this really cool place-kinda like a food court but like 10 times bigger with any type of food you can think of. When we went there for lunch, I looked around to see 'what was good', and ended up at the salad bar. Joe got the cheesesteak. Not that it looked bad to me so I got salad...I think there's some wierd part of my pregnant mind that craves salad. Almost every time we go out to eat now I want salad, instead of a yummy burger and fries, steak, or just about anything else.

Well, enough of that. The rest of the time in Philadelphia was good. We stayed in the Courtyard Marriot because that's where the conference was, not because we enjoy spending hundreds of $ on hotel rooms. It was right downtown across the street from the courthouse, which was closed for rennovations, and the Masonic temple which I couldn't go in because I'm a girl and therefore cannot be a Mason. The architecture outside was cool though...So, downtown...oh yeah, it was about 6 blocks from the historical 'mall' (I think that's a funny word for it, but that's not my business really...) with Independence Hall and the Ben Franklin home and such. So, while Joe went to the conference Karen and I went there and saw all the cool history things. One note to all of you who are thinking of traveling to this area soon: This is not a very stroller-friendly place. Karen was fiesty and I couldn't let her walk around by herself because she was trying to run away and find either daddy or home (depending on the minute). So, on the tour of the Hall she was in the stroller. I had the privelege (along with some kind French guy who didn't speak English) of carrying the kid in the stroller up the big staircase to the second floor and back down again. I don't suggest it for anyone. Other than that we had a pretty good time going to the museums and historical places. Karen got bored and fell asleep in the stroller (note picture of her sleeping in front of the Liberty bell).

This was just the first half of our vacation, I'll put the DC part up later because urgent things like food and naptime are calling to me now.