The weather was pleasantly surprising. We exited our hotel with cool breeze within the air (really reminded us of California) and a cloudy sky. I was contented from last night's sleep because I got a good seven hours of restfulness. The comfy bed made heaven close yet Chiamaka, who was sleeping adjacent to me, said there were bed bugs. I was horrified when she showed me her scar. Well well, I don't think I'll be getting a good sleep tonight.
We met at the lobby at 10:15AM to follow Mr. Hillyer off to breakfast. The Philadelphia morning didn't have much of a Independence Day spirit, which was unanticipated. We walked several blocks before settling to a breakfast place next to the parade street. I ordered scrumptious Belgian waffles with a side of smoked bacon.
I was feeling diary so I ended up ordering a cup of warm milk while others went for hot chocolate and iced tea. The breakfast place was decent but they could have sprinkled powdered sugar onto the waffles instead of giving us a cup and having us do the work. I'm not much of a pro so everytime I "sprinkled" sugar onto the waffles, it ended up sitting on top of the waffles like a mountain. I coughed after trying to eat it. Not the best Belgian waffle experience.
Upon exiting the restaurant, the parade commenced without delay. The weather started getting a little jiffy but regardless of the rain, people running the parade was happily continuing. We interacted with several of the groups and we received delighted responses.
After watching an hour of the parade, we decided to go visit the national monuments instilled within the city, one being Benjamin Franklin's house. The remnants of Franklin's house were bricks and cement. Mr. Hillyer explained that after the demolition of the house, we built back the basic framework of the house to get an estimate of how grand his house must have looked in the past. We then toured the First US National Bank and various statues displayed throughout the city.
At 2PM, we started to get really hungry so Mr. Hillyer took us to one of the best cheesesteak place around town. I ordered the Buffalo chicken steak. It was the best steak I've had. We headed back to the hotel around 4PM and I decided to do a little exercise before heading off to the concert at 8PM. I was excited to hear some of the local bands play. All the artists were decent despite the fact that this was a free open concert. Mr. Hillyer said the fireworks usually blossomed around 10AM but this year's Independence Day fell on a weekend, so they postponed it until 11:30PM. While waiting for the fireworks to start, I started yawning and my right contacts fell out. Worst part of the night. No matter how hard I tried to put it back in, it just wouldn't work. Why, why, why. So while others are watching the awesome fireworks in HD, I'm having trouble with 144p vision. We were all hungry after the fireworks so just before heading back to the hotel, we stopped by Axis Pizza to grab a slice of late dinner. I was already falling asleep while munching on my Hawaiian pizza so I quickly stuffed the rest into my mouth and stared off into space while waiting for others to finish.
Tonight would have been perfect if not for my half-blindness but hey, Happy Birthday America!
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