The first place we went to was the so-called "Rocky Steps". In the famous boxing movie, Rocky, there is a montage of training scenes pinnacling in a running scene where Rocky himself (fueled by raw eggs at dawn) sprints up a flight of stairs (which is the front steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art) with the accompaniment of the famous Rocky soundtrack. Me being me reenacted this (although not nearly as motivating or dramatic), and so did a lot of visitors present at the time.
USA's first bank,
and of course, Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed. 
I'll add something else on this post that tells an account of what lengths I can take to keep my self-promises, although it may sound a bit ludicrous. I had sworn to myself, particularly after seeing "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle", that I must try those very own White Castle burgers in America. Stupidly, I had assumed that there were branches along the East Coast. I was very wrong that night in Roslyn. My destinations that remained were D.C and Miami, and these cities did not have it (neither did California of course). The nearest White Castle branch was back in New York City. With my options diminishing with each second, at 1am or so that morning, after a long discussion with Moh and Jose full of hilarity, I decided to do it. Mohit and Jose had flights the next day, but I had flexible bus tickets to work with, that I could exploit. At 4am, I took the local train back to Philly, then waited till dawn to take a dodgy but very cheap Chinese bus to NYC. With all my luggage I lumbered over to the Manhattan White Castle which did not exist -the website was outdated! So what do I do? Ask locals for the location of the nearest White Castle at...Harlem! Finally, I got there, and after all the effort to just get some burgers, it really seemed as enjoyable as the priceless eating scene that John Cho and Kal Penn flawlessly portrayed at the end of the movie. If only Mohit was there with me that morning, it would have been ridiculously funny. Trust me, these tiny burgers served in tiny pockets were worth it!
After this, we walked to the west of Philadelphia to see the University of Pennsylvania, another one of the Ivy Leagues (also competing with UCSD as one of the nation's strongest bioengineering schools). UPenn in my opinion had the most beautiful campus buildings I had ever seen.
The day was very muggy, and so we were craving fruit smoothie real bad throughout the walk back to downtown Philly. With this refreshing drink straight from the streets, we also had the one and only Philadelphia Cheese Steak...where else but here! This is basically an American Hot Dog, minus the sausage and add the beef. Beautiful stuff.
Philadelphia, like Boston, contains many national historic sites and of these, we saw USA's first hospital (Pennsylvania Hospital),
USA's first bank,and of course, Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed. The three of us were incredibly sleep-deprived, and decided to take a nap in Washington Square in the middle of this physical trek through American history. The nap was gooood, but all of us were confused after getting up - "Where the heck in the world are we??" It was a very funny moment.
I'll add something else on this post that tells an account of what lengths I can take to keep my self-promises, although it may sound a bit ludicrous. I had sworn to myself, particularly after seeing "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle", that I must try those very own White Castle burgers in America. Stupidly, I had assumed that there were branches along the East Coast. I was very wrong that night in Roslyn. My destinations that remained were D.C and Miami, and these cities did not have it (neither did California of course). The nearest White Castle branch was back in New York City. With my options diminishing with each second, at 1am or so that morning, after a long discussion with Moh and Jose full of hilarity, I decided to do it. Mohit and Jose had flights the next day, but I had flexible bus tickets to work with, that I could exploit. At 4am, I took the local train back to Philly, then waited till dawn to take a dodgy but very cheap Chinese bus to NYC. With all my luggage I lumbered over to the Manhattan White Castle which did not exist -the website was outdated! So what do I do? Ask locals for the location of the nearest White Castle at...Harlem! Finally, I got there, and after all the effort to just get some burgers, it really seemed as enjoyable as the priceless eating scene that John Cho and Kal Penn flawlessly portrayed at the end of the movie. If only Mohit was there with me that morning, it would have been ridiculously funny. Trust me, these tiny burgers served in tiny pockets were worth it!
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