Fart Proudly

Today, we said goodbye to Washington, DC and boarded a bus to Philadelphia. The bus wasn't too bad except for the fact that someone locked themselves in the bathroom for the entire time. Ok, I cannot prove or disprove this but the bathroom was never available to me. I bet you can't guess what the first thing I checked for when I got to Philly was? If you said snapstickers, you would be correct. SNAPSTICKERS! Love 'em! I'm going to be really sad when I go back to tiny towns in the middle of nowhere that don't have anything for me to add onto my ugly snaps!

Speaking of not having anything to add in Snapchat, it's Canada Day!!! Mandy and I love Snapstickers because we never had any in Canada and today is all about celebrating Canada, or something (I'm not totally sure what Canada Day is about but Mandy and I are definitely honorary Canadians at this point).

I have been to Philadelphia a few times (probably not enough considering that I lived an hour away for the majority of the past five years) but it's Melissa's first time here so we had to do the big stuff. And by big stuff, I don't mean big stuff. I read that Mount Rushmore was anticlimactic and that was entirely wrong for the record, but the Liberty Bell is a lot like Plymouth Rock in that you get there and go, "that's it?" I mean, it's a pretty decent sized bell with a rich history but it probably isn't worth waiting in line for 40 minutes.

After the Bell, we hung out at the visitor's center for a bit because we had time to kill and I really needed to charge my phone. The visitor center had the most brilliant thing I have ever seen in the history of cellular devices; they had a charging station of little lockers and you typed in your phone number and picked an image and the locker opened up and you were able to plug your phone in and lock it up and your number/picture were the key to getting your phone back. These things should be everywhere! We both put our phones in to charge up and went to the gift shop in search of postcards. Not only did I find a sweet postcard in the gift shop but I also got an awesome t-shirt that says what might have been the defining catchphrase of the winter/spring tour. FREEDOM! I actually saw this same shirt in DC but didn't get it but here, it was buy anything and get the shirt for half off. Well, that anything could included a postcard (I asked a worker and she basically rolled her eyes and told me "the shirts really only cost $10 so it doesn't matter" and I was like YASSS, thank you for your honesty). I'll have to model the shirt at some point in the next few days. I also found what might have been the best book title ever. It is the title of this blog post, which means this might be the best blog title ever. The book was called Fart Proudly. It's a collection of Ben Franklin's lesser known works. He never actually said "fart proudly" in any of his writing -- that came from the editor -- but Ben Franklin was a Grade A sass master and that is definitely something he would have said if he could have.

Just in case you didn't believe me!

I didn't buy the book, just the postcard and shirt, but with purchases in hand, we went over to Independence Hall (because nothing says America like the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution and capitalism). I have also been to Independence Hall before but I will say that it always astounds me how many dumb questions people are capable of asking on a tour. Not just that, but they ask the same dumb questions more than once! Like wowie...

One our walk back to our hostel, we stopped at the Ben Franklin Museum and Franklin Court. I seriously love Ben Franklin. He is my favorite founding father. He is literally the greatest person ever. His museum was very sassy tribute to his legacy and combined audio-visual technology with historical artifacts. Franklin Court features a "ghost structure" because the house was torn down 20 years after he died and they've basically replicated its structure with a steel skeleton. There is also a row of business that Franklin built, including a printing shop and the B. Free Franklin Post Office, which is still an active post office. It is apparently the only US Post Office to not fly the American flag because the American flag did not exist when Benjamin Franklin was appointed the Postmaster General in 1775 (thank you, Google). It is also the only Colonial-themed US Post Office. I love the post office and as if I needed another reason to idolize Franklin. In the postcard that I wrote myself today (and that I plan to send out of the B. Free Franklin Post Office tomorrow), I said that while Charlottesville might be Jefferson's but Philly belongs to Franklin.

Later, I went looking for a Bank of America ATM but I just ended up finding the first bank in America because, Philadelphia is a very historic city for those of you who haven't been paying attention. I wandered for a little while before returning to the hostel for a quiet night. Tomorrow, Ryan is coming to Philadelphia to see me and I am so excited to see him and we're going to have happy fun times together!