Don't Wager on this!: Philly, PA

Since we got to our campsite so late, and left so early, the kids didn't even get to see where we camped. Jeremy and I quickly packed up in the morning of Friday, August 12. We were supposed to be at the Stake Center across from the new temple by 8:30 for our tour at 8:45am. Well, like any big city, there is always traffic and we got in to Philadelphia right around that time. But trying to find a place to park our RV was very difficult in the downtown area. Luckily, my parents found a nice gentleman who was volunteering and let us park in the volunteers parking lot. It was a but stressful driving around and navigating the one way streets and trying to figure out where we needed to go, but once we parked, we hoped out and walked a couple blocks to the temple site. It did not disappoint. It is interesting, thought, how when we are trying to do something spiritual, we are attacked by stress and other potential problems that could harm the situation. We didn't give in and had nice experience on our tour of the Philadelphia temple. The rooms were decorated so nicely and the artwork was amazing. In the baptistry, they had some murals depicting Joseph and Oliver getting baptized. Some of the vases and pots in the temple had ships and flags on them, reminiscent of the port it is. There are two huge staircases on either side of the temple that took us to all the rooms. The celestial room was so peaceful and I loved sitting in there with my family and looking at each of them and hoping and praying that they were feeling the sweet spirit that I felt there. The temple is where we are sealed together to become eternal families! That is such a comfort to me that as long as I keep my covenants, I can be with them forever.

I'm sure we had a picture with my parents, too, but I must not have a copy of it. It really was a highlight of our trip to walk through this temple with our family and see where the church started to where it is today. Truly a miracle.

After the temple, we walked back to the RV's, changed, had a quick snack and headed out to walk around Philadelphia. We couldn't pass up the chance to explore a little history in the city of brotherly love. Mind you, it was a probably over 90 degrees at this point and very humid. We were roasting. I luckily had my camelback that I filled with water, but with 6 people drinking out of it, we ran out after the first hour, I think.

As we walked toward the historic area, we came across a man that told us a funny story about squirrels in Philly and how Benjamin Franklin had one for a pet. After sitting in the shade, listening to his story, we kept walking and found the National Park where the Liberty Bell is. We went into the building that was nice and air conditioned and found another one of those guys to tell us more stories about the history of Philly when our country was being born. I feel like I still don't know much about our country's history, but it was fun to learn more and feel like I was in a really important place, even if it was for just a few hours.

After the Liberty Bell and taking a picture in front of Liberty Hall and feeling the pain of how hot it gets there and thinking of our forefather sequestered in this hot, probably really smelly room, writing the Declaration of Independence, we worked up an appetite and found some authentic Philly lunch. Jeremy got a Philly Cheesesteak and I had pizza. Unfortunately, the restaurant was hotter inside then it was outside, so we didn't find a lot of refreshment, but we were able to be fed and then walk back about 2 miles, in the hot sun, to the RV. Poor Scotty was so miserable and I think all the kids and us, got pretty dehydrated that day.

We got the AC cranking and started our drive toward Washington, DC. Wyatt still really wanted to go to Gettysburg, but we decided to just go to the RV park, go swimming, get some groceries and hopefully just relax and gear up for a long day in DC the next day. The RV park was awesome! They had a couple of swimming pools, splash pads for the kids, playground right by our RV, a place to watch the Olympics and eat ice cream. We were set! We had been missing watching the Olympics because we could never get our cable or Satellite to work right.