Trip to Philadelphia 2008

Ah, Philly! Home of Liberty and Cheese steaks. I treasure both of these items. Liberty because the freedom to choose is the most precious gift you can receive and cheese steaks because they are simple and beautiful at the same time.

Last week we spent 3 days in eastern Pennsylvania with Safire, Juice and the kids. For the blow by blow account, check out Safire’s blog here. She is a much more entertaining writer anyway. For myself, I want to write about the aforementioned blessing and pleasure. Blessing first.

My son told me to spend some time in Independence Hall away from the crowd and just soak in the feeling there. I must admit that there was a unique spirit about the place, similar to a church but different and more than most of the other non-LDS churches I have been to. When I go to church, there is a reaching of the soul towards something warm, comforting and strengthening that is always rewarded. At Independence Hall, I looked for that feeling and found it there as well. Perhaps it was the lingering touch of the hand of God that I felt, or perhaps it was a place where the veil is thin and those spirits who worked and prayed and argued there were still near. Or perhaps both. I could, if I closed my eyes see them there debating our futures and I wondered if they felt the import of the moment. Certainly they were passionate about it, most revolutionaries are, but I wondered if they ever stopped to ponder. Maybe George Washington did or Thomas Jefferson.

Liberty, the ability to choose your way in life, is God’s greatest gift. If we make choices, we learn, we gain experience, we mature, we become more than what we were through those choices. It’s the way we grow. It’s why we are here on this earth. Those men gave us the right to choose, they planned on it and had faith that we would choose correctly given the opportunity. Generally we have. Lately, though, liberty has been taken for granted and perverted into victimization. We have all become victims because we choose not to choose. It’s always someone else’s fault, no choice of ours is ever bad. I guess if you think about it, no choice is ever bad if we learn from the choice. But to blame it on someone else is to deny the greatest blessing of Liberty.

Whew! What a rant! I should save that for a talk when I am a General Authority. (which is like Outkast becoming the next Republican ticket, possible but not likely. Though they could be better than McCain-Palin, who knows?) You can say you read it here first.

On to cheese steaks!

I didn’t make it to any of the big ones, like Jim’s or Tony Luke’s but we did get one at the Cocoa Grill in Hershey, PA. It was quite good, though different. A cheese steak is the following: Soft, white hoagy or submarine bun, very thinly sliced steak grilled on a flat top griddle, grilled onions and provolone cheese. you will sometimes see a pepper steak which has grilled bell peppers in it, but that’s not Philly. Maybe it’s a NY or Chicago thing, I have seen them there. Like I said earlier, simple but goood. The one we had at Cocoa’s had savory marinara sauce on it. Interesting and quite tasty, but not what I was looking for. We have a good cheese steak place here in ol’ SLC on 9th South, but it’s not the same. Gotta have one in Philly. I have had steaks in KC, pulled pork BBQ in Memphis and a hot dog in Chicago (at Wrigley Field!) so I must have a cheese steak IN Philly. Sigh, maybe next year.

Post script:
Had Hershey’s chocolate in Hershey, PA. Tastes the same. The ride (except for the cows) was fun and the store was cool. They only chose cows because it’s tough to anthropomorphize cacao beans and most people don’t know where chocolate comes from. Milk however is a different story. It comes from the carton.