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Dear Baby,
If there is one thing your father and I want you to know about us, it’s that we have a fierce love of travel, exploring and finding adventures. You probably already know this since we’ve been going non-stop this year, but we wanted to show you how easy it is to see the world. It’s all about seizing opportunities when you find them and learning to roll with the punches.

Sure, we love to plan robust vacations with driving directions, plane tickets and advanced reservations, but sometimes the best trips are the ones you go into knowing nothing about. Allow us to explain. Say (hypothetically, of course), your cross country flight has become so delayed you missed all connections out of that city. You might choose to freak out…or you might see it as a blessing in disguise.

Perhaps Philadelphia had been on your bucket list anyways… then you’d realize that a 24-hour layover = a free vacation. Little one, make sure you always travel with your netbook so you can immediately visit tripadvisor.com to scope out the top ten attractions before you get there. I’m sure you’ll have much more complex tools than our little Dell computer by the time you travel solo, but man, those things come in handy when you need it.

Before you know it, you’re booked in a four-star hotel all cozy under the covers excited for what the next day will bring. If you keep an optimistic attitude and always make lemonade out of your lemons, you may find yourself here:

The Liberty Bell has been a symbol of our great country for centuries, and to see it up close was pretty amazing. Your daddy had been here before, but he was still a little guy back then too.

I’m not sure if you got a close enough look at the beauty of the bell or the details of the ‘crack’ down the middle…

…But don’t worry, we’ll bring you back here someday when you’re old enough to learn about it’s history. You’ll read about it in your textbooks and you will be able to tell your classmates you had been there before! We look forward to seeing you learn about these things in school and get excited about seeing them in real life. We already dream about what field trips we’ll take you on someday, based on your interests too!

Before we left the bell, we stopped in the gift shop to look around. We didn’t get you anything this time, but we had a blast trying to figure out what you might have picked out if you were old enough. Would you have gone for the Colonial Wardrobe paper dolls? The George Washington posters? The bag of ‘pick your own gem stones’? We seriously giggle out loud when we think about this stuff. Nerds.

Then we wandered around the old government district of the city. Hard to imagine our country’s greatest men walked through those doors. Ben Franklin, George Washington… all the men who signed the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution. (Don’t worry, I was bored with that stuff in school once too, but someday you’ll learn to appreciate the significance of it and how lucky you are to live here).

We go around the world to see capitols, old buildings and the such, but we’ve got so much great stuff in our backyard too.

This is the old courtroom where laws were made and justice was served. The painting in the back was an original.

This is the exact room where the Constitution of the United States was signed. The chair in the center is also an original!

(Here’s a painting of what happened in that room!

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This is the room that Congress met in. It looked almost exactly like this back then too.

And the senate met upstairs in this room. Word on the street is that Congress and Senate didn’t get along even back then. =)

After our morning history lesson, it was time for lunch. Of course we had to get Philly Cheesesteaks!! We waited in line for about 15 minutes and your daddy got the traditional one: with Cheese Whiz and Onions (which we found out you have to order like “Wiz Wit”.) I chickened out and got Pizza Fries. I know, I know. Don’t judge me, baby.

Then we walked for a few miles to the other side of town for a few last minute stops.  (All that walking to balance out the Cheese Whiz. It’s all about doing things in moderation.) We loved how French this building looked. I think that’s the current city hall.

You would have LOVED the oversized game pieces they had on display out front. We can already picture you running in and out of them.

Finally, in the bitter cold, we reached our final stop of the day. Love Park.

What do you think, baby? Your parents are super good-looking right? Bahaha!
PS: Thanks for the fleece, Mom! I seriously would have froze in Philly if I didn’t have that!

Is this where the Monopoly board gets the “Pennsylvania Railroad” from? So cool if it is! Do all those squares on the board actually exist somewhere? If so, it’s now my life goal to visit all of them!

We made it back to the airport and enjoyed our first class seats on the way back. You’re not even born yet and you’re riding in first. You are already the luckiest baby in the world.

Welcome back to LA, little one. It’s way warmer here than it was on the east coast, but I hope you had as much fun as we did!