June 30, 2015

Felix Baptism

Eisenhower Farm
Eisenhower sunroom
The baptism of my nephew Felix took place in Philadelphia and my family and I decided to take advantage of the destination and spend a couple days exploring the city. I had visited a few years ago with Jess and had a great time so I was looking forward to going back. My parents and I drove down on Friday and took a detour to Gettysburg first. I have been to Gettysburg twice before but never to the Eisenhower National Historic Site. It is its own NPS site so I was glad to finally be able to check another one off my list. The only way to get to Eisenhower's farm is via shuttle bus. Its a short trip through the battlefield to his farm. We got to tour his house and then walk the grounds. I didn't know much about Eisenhower so it was a great way to learn more about him like how he loved his cattle and how he loved to paint.
Eisenhower Home

We finally arrived to our abode for the weekend and met up with Don and Amber. I had rented through Airbnb and we stayed in a 2,000 sq ft apartment in a 10,000 sq ft home in the Mt Airy neighborhood. It was definitely a unique house and I thought it was pretty awesome but everyone else just indulged me because they weren't digging it. We ended up spending the majority of our time on the porch anyway.
The mansion
Saturday we spent our time downtown in the heart of the Philly historic district. We saw the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Congress Hall, Ben Franklins grave, Elfreths alley and more on our walking tour. Lunch was philly cheesesteaks at Jims which was delicious! Then we walked over to America's smallest National Park Site-Thaddeus Kosciuzko's home. He was integral in the American Revolution and it was nice to learn about a forgotten hero. After visiting, I can now cross off all of Pennsylvania's NPS sites!
Liberty Bell
Congress Hall
We were pretty close to the waterfront so we wandered down to check out some of the tall ships that were in town. It had been drizzling off and on all day so we made our way back to the car and it started pouring. We checked out IKEA since the rest of my family hadn't been before and then headed back to the mansion for the night.

Sunday was the baptism and it was so beautiful. The last time both sides of the family were together was at Kyle and Devin's wedding so it was great to see the southern kin.



We had some spare time in the afternoon so I took mom and dad to Eastern State Penitentiary which was just as cool as I remember.
Eastern state
Monday we departed the city and stopped at Valley Forge on the way home. After another quick stop for some soft pretzels it was back to New York. It had been way too long since we had vacationed together as a family and it was a great weekend getaway.
Valley Forge