Barbecue, Chocolate, and Philadelphia

Dan and I made it to our last stop this summer before we go back to school at the end of August. Philadelphia! We got here a week ago and have been able to see some of the sites so far. We drove to Alabama from Georgia so we could fly out of Birmingham. Before Alabama, we hadn't found any restaurant that we absolutely love. Usually we ask the hotel manager or the Daycare directors what the best place to eat is in each city. To be honest, I like my mom's home cooking way better than any place we have been. But, in Birmingham we went to the best barbecue! Barbecue is Dan's favorite, and he gobbled down like 6 ribs in 10 minutes. So if any of you are ever in Birmingham Alabama, you have to go to Dreamland's Barbecue. Their slogan is "There ain't nothin like em nowhere!"
So our first day in Philadelphia we went to see the famous liberty bell and independence hall. The Liberty Bell is a lot smaller than we imagined. We have yet to find the Rocky steps, but when we do, I will post some pictures. We spent quite a bit of our time this week lost in the ghetto of Philadelphia. And when I say ghetto, I mean the whole city! There is garbage, run down old apartments, and bums EVERYWHERE you go. After I got done with one review, the man in charge of the daycare came out side to watch me walk to my car at three in the afternoon! The streets are really confusing here as well. East coast drivers really are crazy. And you can't get out of the car and ask for directions, or you might get shot! At the end of this week, Dan and I convinced our boss to let us buy a GPS. It has been really nice!
Yesterday Dan and I drove to Hershey Pennsylvania to see the place where all of the chocolate is made! We took a tour to see how Hershey makes all of their chocolate, and went to the Hershey museum. It was a cute little town with street names like Cocoa and Chocolate Avenue.
Next weekend we are going to go to Washington D.C. and see the sites. It is crazy how fast this summer has gone by!

Georgia

So this week Dan and I are in Georgia. We really like it here. It is not as hot as Louisiana, and not quite so ghetto. These pictures are of some of the old plantation homes that we have seen while we've been in the south. The pictures don't do them justice. They are really pretty and big for being so old!
In Atlanta, we went on a tour of the CNN studio. We saw the newroom and watched them record the live news. We also walked around the Olympic park. Our favorite thing was visiting Stone mountain. It is just this huge stone mountain in the middle of this flat, green landscape. There are some civil war generals carved into the side of the mountain. Supposedly the same people who carved Mount Rushmore did this too. We didn't hike to the top because we were too lazy! When it got dark there was a really cool laser show and fireworks display. We also went to my really good friend Lissy Murphy's homecoming talk in Atlanta last Sunday. It was really fun to see her again. Dan even got to play some frisbee with her brother, so he was happy! We are headed to Philadelphia on Saturday. We'll be there for the rest of the summer until we head back to good old Provo!

Here are more pictures from New Orleans

New Orleans

So this week Dan and I traveled down to New Orleans to start reviews here next week. We stopped for one night in Baton Rouge and went to the temple. It was really pretty! I only got one blurry picture because it was raining pretty hard when we got there. It is a really small temple, but really nice. It was built the same time as the Billings temple, so a lot of the interior decorations were the same as the Billings temple.
On our way to New Orleans, the interstate we drove on was pretty much a bridge built over a swamp. I can't believe how much water is around here!
We spent the fourth of July wandering around the French quarter in New Orleans. It was quite interesting! All the streets are super narrow and the buildings are right next to each other. They are super old buildings built by the French, so they all have that kind of French look. It was really crowded--Dan said it really reminded him of Europe. There was all sorts of people selling paintings and doing magic tricks on the side of the road. We even saw some gangster teenagers doing tap dances using tennis shoes that had the metal taps attached to the bottom! There was a really pretty Catholic Cathedral that we got a few pictures of. We are hoping to go on a tour of it when it is open. We also walked down the famous Bourbon street. Let me just say that it reminded me of Sodom and Gomorrah! Everything on that street was just wicked! I would see something and say "Dan, don't look to the left!" We avoided that street after that! There was lots of weird stores that sold all types of Mardi Gras apparel. The picture of Dan with the alligator head is a real alligator head! We ate dinner at the famous Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville cafe. It was really good! We went back to the hotel before dark because we have heard that you don't want to be out at dark in New Orleans. Then we watched Harry Potter on TV and watched fireworks out of our window!