the city of brotherly love

We spent the last three days in Philadelphia! I attended Compton's PESL training and am now certified in accent modification! I start working with my first client on Wednesday! It was a two day workshop, so we decided for Brian to come with me and to spend a long weekend in Philly since we had never visited before. We took way too many pictures... I narrowed them down significantly, but it's still a lot!

The conference was near the airport, so we stayed there Friday and Saturday night, but took the train into the city on Saturday after the workshop for dinner and exploring.

 We walked down Market St. and had dinner on this little roof top patio at the Revolution House. Great food and a really cool atmosphere.

From the patio we had a view of the bridge to the river. 

 After dinner we headed over the bridge to the river. The weather was perfect. 

 And then back to Market St. for fancy ice cream desserts at The Franklin Fountain!

We walked through the city until dark.. 

Independence Hall

 Sunday after the conference was over, we checked out of the airport hotel and into the Marriott downtown. This is what we saw when we walked out of our hotel. 

 We ate dinner outside at Serafina so we could people watch.

 We ended up in another park. So many people with dogs! If only Toby could have come with us...

Then we walked more through the city, but noticed that storm clouds were developing in the distance... Brian wanted to head back towards the hotel, but I didn't want to waste a night out! We kept walking in search for a little cafe for coffee and dessert. 

 And we found it just in time. Caribou Cafe, a delightful Parisian bistro created the perfect atmosphere to watch the storm. It was open to the outdoors with a covering over the patio seating. All of these tables were full until the rain started pouring. We quickly gathered our stuff and moved to a table closer to inside where we could stay dry, but still enjoy the sound of the rain. 

We chatted with locals while enjoying chocolate mousse and creme brulee. It felt like we were in a movie.. definitely my favorite part of the trip!

 Our flight on Monday wasn't until 7:30 that evening, so we had the whole day to sight see. After breakfast, we headed to Love Park!  

 And then over to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell! 

 The room where the Declaration of Independence was signed.

 Then we headed over to South St. for Philly cheese steaks at Jim's Steaks.

And then we had a long walk back over towards the hotel to the museums.. in the cold, windy rain. It was borderline miserable even though we look happy in this picture.. It started raining pretty hard and it was really windy. All the cabs were full!

 We finally made it to the Franklin Institute.

We passed "The Thinker" on our walk to the Art Museum. 

 The Art Museum is closed on Mondays (sad!), but we still wanted to go and see the outside of the building. There were several Rocky impersonators running up and down the stairs, throwing their arms up at the top. It was fascinating to watch!

 And then it was time to head to the airport and say goodbye to Philadelphia. What a fun city!