All for a little green booklet

Yesterday, my dad, mom, and I trekked 5.5 hours across the state of Pennsylvania to get my visa in Philadelphia. Even though Philadelphia is in our state it was our first trip ever to the city. We left at 5:30 in the morning and arrived in Philly around noon. My visa appointment wasn't until 3:30, so we explored the city. Our first stop was Independence Hall. It was actually a lot smaller than I had imagined it to be...especially in comparison to the giant buildings that rose up behind it. But, regardless of its size it was still very beautiful.

As we walked around the Old City in search of a good-looking cheese steak restaurant, we oberved some other neat buildings. The US Postal Service Museum and the Ben Franklin Post Office are located on Market Street and are situated where Ben Franklin used to live. We also saw the US Mint where the little "P" on our coins is stamped and the Old City Hall which housed the US Supreme Court from 1791-1800.

After almost an hour of walking, we finally stumbled upon a Philly cheese steak joint that met our approval. Sonny's Famous Steaks is located in a little corner of the Old City and serves up authentic Philly cheese steaks and fries. My dad ordered the classic: a cheese steak with beef, Cheez Whiz, and fried onions. My mom got one with beef, Cheez Whiz, and a few onions and I went with the beef and provolone cheese steak. All and all, they were pretty tasty, but we concluded that we are partial to our homemade cheese steaks :-) As a side note, we asked a guard at the US Constitution Museum later in the afternoon where the best place in town to get a cheese steak was and he said Sonny's! Wow...we had good noses.

After lunch we explored the Old City a little bit more. We saw the Liberty Bell, which was really quite amazing. It is housed in its own little museum that contains various snippets of information about it. I really enjoyed the fact that Independence Hall rises up behind it outside of the glass building. Then we ventured around the back of Independence Hall where there is a nice shaded plaza. We took a moment to rest on the sturdy wooden park benches and observe the crowd. We saw several actors in colonial attire walking around the plaza.

Finally, it was time to head over to the Bourse Building (located right next to Independence Hall) where the Mexican Consulate is located. We arrived at 3:15, and unfortunately there was a retired couple from Harrisburg ahead of me in line to get their visas. I was second in line, and a woman from Philadelphia came in about 5 minutes after me. It took the retired couple over an hour and half to complete the process! Then the Philadelphia woman tried to cut in front of me...I couldn't believe it! Luckily, I did the Pittsburgh sneak and told her that I was next in line and had to get back to Pittsburgh by tonight. It only took me 25 minutes to get the visa; I just had to fingerprint and sign the little green booklet and then we headed home. It was certainly an adventure that I couldn't have done without my mom and dad. Muchas gracias!

Click here for more pictures from the trip!