We only spent about half a day in this city and most of the sightseeing was done on a prearranged city tour. The first stop was The Philadelphia Bourse. It was founded in 1891 and functioned as a center for commodities exchange up until the 60’s.

Further along was Elfreth’s Alley, one of the oldest residential streets in the country.

And then the Betsy Ross House, where Betsy Ross may have lived when she made the first American flag.

Here’s a bust of William Penn, the founder of Philadelphia.

We also passed by the cemetery where Benjamin Franklin is buried at.

Next, the historic Chinatown.

And now, the Masonic Library and Museum. Built in 1873, but it looks a lot older than that.

Directly across the street is the Philadelphia City Hall. It reminded me a little bit of the Hamburg Rathaus. It took 30 years to build and was only finished in 1901. It looks a lot older than that given its style of construction.

Further along was the Eastern State Penitentiary, a former prison where notorious criminals such as Al Capone once stayed at.

And then the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The staircase in the front is known as the Rocky Steps, the staircase that Rocky was shown to be training at in the movie.

Passed by a lot of historic looking neighbourhoods on our way back to the beginning of the tour.

Here is a picture of clouds as we were driving away from Philadelphia after the tour.

After the city tour, our sightseeing in the states was essentially over. We spent the entirety of the next day shopping at Woodbury Outlets and driving back to Montreal.

More photos here

First stop, Lincoln Memorial.

“In this temple as in the harts of the people for whom he saved the union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln” is enshrined forever”. Powerful words. His two most famous speeches are also written on the inside walls in his remembrance. “This nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people by the people for the people shall not perish from the Earth.”

Directly in front of the monument, is the reflecting pool.  Too bad there was construction at the time, otherwise it’d looks way nicer.

On the south side of the memorial, there is the Korean War Memorial.

This phrase beside it is probably one of the most well said quotes.

Freedom is definitely not free.

On the north side of Lincoln Memorial, there is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The names etched into the memorial are everyone who was killed or missing in action.

This is where politics happens. The Capitol, where Obama pwns his political opponents and passes bills through congress.

Next stop, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Definitely lots of interesting things here!

To show off the history of aviation, naturally there is a model of the Wright Brother’s plane.

Eventually, we built fixed wing aircraft.

Fast forward a few decades, and there is a lunar lander.

In the present day, we are now blowing people up from afar using Predator drones…

Too bad there wasn’t enough time to visit other museums in the Smithsonian. Would have liked to see the natural history exhibits too. But at least I got to briefly see the Smithsonian Castle.

We then took a nice and relaxing boat tour on the Potomac River.

Of course there’s also the Washington Monument.

Then there is the White House, where the boss aka Barack Obama lives. There’s even three guys on the roof to see if there’s anything out of the ordinary.

Then while leaving the city, the tour bus driver had the great idea of driving into the Pentagon parking lot.

And here is a nice picture of sun rays passing through clouds that I managed to capture while we were on the road to the next destination.

We spent the night in Atlantic City, where those interested got the chance to visit the casinos and “try” to win money. I on the other hand, was pretty tired. I pretty much went to sleep right away when we got to the hotel. Needed some good rest for the trip to Philadelphia the next day.

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Schwartz’s

I was told that this place is really well known for its smoked meat sandwiches.  Good thing we got the chance to try it because that sandwich was indeed very delicious (I find it very difficult to describe how good something tastes…).  For those interested, it’s located at 3895 St-Laurent.

Olympic Stadium

The next destination was the Olympic Stadium that was the main venue for the 1976 Summer Olympics.  It has quite a unique building style with its tower on an incline.

At the top, people can see across Montreal.  People can see the different structures nearby that were all once used as Olympic venues.  Nice view!

Here’s also a nice video of the view while going down the lift.

Driving by McGill University

On the way back, my uncle took us by the McGill University campus.  Didn’t really get to see much of the school except for what I saw from inside the car.

Family Reunion

Not exactly a touristy thing to do, but we had a rather large dinner with as many of our family members as we could.  We had 18 family members – not exactly a regular occurrence for us.  We could have had more, but we were missing my dad’s eldest brother’s entire family (7 people), two other cousins, and an aunt. And this was just my dad’s side of the family.

This was the best opportunity that we had in order for everyone to see each other in person and catch up after years of not seeing each other.  One of the nicest things about the family is that people very much respect these family gatherings and are eager to go to them.  I’m sure there are lots of people who don’t really share the same enthusiasm of seeing their relatives.

This dinner was also a birthday celebration for four people in the family that had a July birthday.  I want to post pictures, but I’m not able to since I’m not sure if the others would be okay with it.   But anyway, here’s a picture of a finished cake.

The next morning, we would leave Montreal for our tour to New York City, Washington DC, and Philadelphia.

More photos here