Atlantic City and Philadelphia

 Atlantic City!! The perfect place to gamble and drink for free!!

Josh's parents had a free room in Atlantic City and let us use it. Thank you Kathy and Kevin!! It was a beautiful room. It over looked the ocean and the boardwalk.

When we arrive I went straight for the slot machines, ready to win millions. I won eight dollars and Josh made me cash out...

We went for a walk down the boardwalk along the ocean. It was practically empty!

 We walked to this awesome little Irish Pub with copper ceilings and true chubby old Irish men bellied up to the bar. We drank a little Irish Whiskey and headed back to gamble some more.

The best part about Atlantic City was the free drinks while you gambled. You can actually order them from the machine!!

 Kevin, Josh, and I spent a while hitting the slots. We all broke even. Which is better than losing...

After Josh's dad headed back home Josh and I found this nice Italian restaurant. We drank wine and ate bread. The food was delicious!! Chicken Oscar and lobster ravioli in vodka sauce.

I could have stayed in Atlantic City for a few weeks except I probably would have gambled away all my money.

 We got up early the next morning and headed down to Philadelphia. Our first stop was for Philly cheese steaks, of course. There was really only one place we could go for a great cheese steak... Pat's.

There is a famous cheese steak war going on between two very famous cheese steak stands. If you have watched the food network or even if you just live on the east coast you would know, and have a favorite. It's between Pat's and Geno's. They are located across the street from each other and there is always a line, I am told. We of course tried both.

 Geno's was good. They forgot our onions but the steak was good.

 Pat's though had the better bread! It was delicious and the perfect way to start our day in Philadelphia!

 We headed down town to see the Liberty Bell next. We had perfect timing! No line and hardly anyone in the building. As we were leaving we walked past the entrance and there was a line almost all the way around the building.

Her is Josh standing next to The Liberty Bell!!! You can even see the crack! Not his but the bells.

 We also went to Independence Hall. There were horse drawn carriages every where!

If you come to Philadelphia you should definitely take the Horse drawn carriage though. It looked fun and they gave a tour of the whole area. There was so much history to see.

 Josh and I picked up some Birch Beer and walked around to all the historical cites. Josh was amazed at the cobblestone roads!

 After the historical part of Philadelphia, we headed to a famous museum, The Mütter Museum at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. It a museum of medical oddities.
It was a fantastic afternoon of esoteric and incredible sights. There was a plaster cast of Chang and Eng, the original Siamese twins. AND their actual attached livers!! And drawers filled with the Chevalier Jackson Collection of objects swallowed and removed.

There are shelves of skulls of people who had committed suicide and who were murders. There were dried skeletons!

 There were jars of conjoined twins and babies with birth defects! It was sad but also fascinating.

 One of my favorite things was a ball of bones from a lady who had several miscarriages earlier in life and when she passed away they did an autopsy and found two of the skeletons tangled together.

 We tried to make it to the Rocky statue but traffic was awful and I couldn't get across six lanes of traffic fast enough.

So next time Rocky statue! But definitely go to the Mutter Museum next time you go to Philadelphia and hit Pat's for a cheese steak "wiz wit." which is a cheese steak with cheese sauce and grilled onions, you have to say it right so you don't hold the line up.