We're on the road to Wrestlemania! This was a long awaited trip for us! We got up bright and early at 3am to start our drive. Since we made good time, we went ahead and decided to get tickets for night one as well. We were in the second row from the top. We had a wonderful view of the entrance ramp, but the ring was slightly blocked from a post. With us being so high up, the wind seemed to hit us from every direction. It was absolutely freezing! We got to see Triple H start the night off! We also saw The Rock and Roman Reigns vs Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins, a tag team ladder match, Lil Wayne, and Becky Lynch vs Rhea Ripley. Afterwards, it took us an hour just to get out of the parking lot. We didn't get to the hotel (across the river in New Jersey) until 1am! It was a long day.
Our seats were a handful of rows lower, and the wind wasn't as terrible. We couldn't see the entrance ramp this night, but we had a fabulous view of the ring! The night started off with Stephanie McMahon coming out to talk to the crowd. We also got to see Cody Rhodes vs Roman Reigns, Jey Uso vs Jimmy Uso, Iyo Sky vs Bayley, Snoop Dogg, John Cena, and Undertaker chokeslamming The Rock! We got back to the hotel late again, but we were on cloud nine!
Monday began our first day of seeing the city. I had done some research for self-guided walking tours and picked places we wanted to see. We saw the Liberty Bell, President Mansion (before The White House was built), Congress Hall, toured Independence Hall, Philosophical Hall, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington Square Park, the first hospital in America, James Madison's house, the US Mint, Benjamin Franklin's tomb, Signer's Walk, Declaration House (reproduction of the original house), Library Hall, 1st and 2nd Banks of the United States, Todd House, Merchant Exchange, US Custom House, City Tavern, Museum of the American Revolution, Christ Church, and Elfreth's Alley. While waiting for our tour begin for Independence Hall, we were able to watch the solar eclipse!
On Tuesday, we finished up our tour of Philly. We went to Franklin Court and the Benjamin Franklin Museum (where his house original stood), the B. Free Franklin Post Office, Carpenter's Hall, Betsy Ross House, Philly cheesesteaks from Geno's, Franklin Institute, and the Rocky statue. After we were done, we drove on towards our next stop.
Wednesday we did a self-driving audio tour of Valley Forge using the National Park Service app. Evan's 6x great grandpa served and died here. The app did a wonderful job of explaining each site and how to get to the next location. One of the buildings on site is the original home that George Washington stayed at while he was there. After our tour, we drove to Hershey to see the chocolate factory. We bought some souvenirs and milkshakes and got to take a factory tour in a 'boat'. It was a little cheesy, but that's what I love! We went ahead and drove ahead to the next spot and got a hotel room in downtown Gettysburg. We did some shopping downtown before everything closed for the night.
Thursday morning we started our day with a self-driving audio tour of Gettysburg battlefield. My 5x great grandpa served in the Confederacy. I had details from where he was during the battle. One of the stops on the tour was where the Union was looking out over the hill at the incoming Confederates, which my grandpa was part of. It was a surreal and humbling moment. The battlefield was much larger than I had expected. It was crazy to think of how close they were to the town and what the townspeople had to endure. After our tour, we continued towards the Flight 93 Memorial. We went to the observation deck to look out over the site. We walked towards Memorial Plaza to see the Wall of Names and the Impact Site. We also went to the Tower of Voices. This is a 93 foot tall windchime with 40 individual sounding windchimes, one for each of the victims. It was windy that day, so we were able to hear the "voices" of everyone. This tower is such a unique tribute. After our visit, we went ahead and continued driving home to have a couple of days before it was back to reality!
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