The City of Brotherly Love...and melting heat...and ridiculous traffic!

Well, having finally arrived in fabulous Philadelphia, we decided to take Monday and head downtown and do some exploring. However, this particular day came close to tying the record for the hottest ever on June 8 (it was about 99 degrees), so we weren't exactly anxious to take a stroll through the old city.




Instead, we headed to the Franklin Institute of Science, a way cool hands on museum founded and built in honor of ole Ben himself. There were lots of cool exhibits, like a two story heart that you can walk through as if you were a blood cell making its way through the heart. A whole section on electricity, including similar experiments to those Ben did, and actual morse code telegraphs the kids could practice on. There was a whole wing devoted to flight, where we could design and try out paper airplanes as well as climb inside the cockpit of a fighter, and also try our hand at flying a simulated glider like the Wright brothers.

There was a floor dedicated to space flight, a planetarium where we watched a cool film on cosmic collisions and the forces that work in the universe (with a family meeting afterward about the difference between theory and fact, and the involvement of God in the formation of our universe). Also a full size locomotive and one passenger car that we could walk around and in. It even moved a few feet there within the exhibit!

There was much to do, see, touch and manipulate. We had a good time roaming its AIR CONDITIONED halls (I much prefer a climate controlled 73 to the natural air temp of 99).






Afterward, we stepped out onto the front steps to see the view and admire the front of the building. We had to get our picture taken in this spot! You may be saying, "Uh, nice globe and fountain. Just had to be there, huh?" What you
are missing is that this locale is integral to the plot of National Treasure, one of the girls' favorite movies! Right where we are seated is the spot where Riley sits while he sends the young school kid in to the Franklin Institute to retrieve the specific alphabet letters from Franklin's Silence DoGood letters, a key point in all of them finding the treasure!! Don't you feel silly that you didn't recognize the spot?

Let's just say that going away without a picture
in this spot was NOT an option. So Karen stood
on the steps of the Institute and we posed in
Riley's tableau.

Once we finished our time in the museum, we headed back on to the blessed Philly freeways to try and get back to our hotel. Now, I must pause here for a moment and explain the, uh, how shall I put this?...particularly unique design of Philly's interstates. The is only one highway running from the suburban area where we stayed into downtown Philadelphia. One. And this one highway is four lanes...total. That means two lanes in each direction. And Philly is not a small city, mind you. It's HUGE! With one artery running from this suburb to downtown and back. So, as you might imagine, there was always traffic, and it was usually stopped or moving at a snail's pace. So while we were 22 miles away, each trip there or back took over an hour, sometimes up to an hour and a half.

Joyous.

When we did finally make it back to the hotel, we decided to cool off with a little pool time. The place we stayed was great for us. We had an enormous room with two queen beds and a
pull out sofa, a small kitchen with full size fridge,
microwave and stove top, plus breakfast each morning and dinner each evening included! It was wonderful!

On Tues and Wed, I was at the conference most of the day. Karen and the girls hung out at the pool and hotel one day, and went to the King Of Prussia Mall the other (second in size only to Mall of America in MN; they were worn out after walking that monster).







On Thursday, I skipped the conference because that day was EMILY'S BIRTHDAY!!!! We started the day singing Happy Birthday as she blew out the candles on her birthday bagels. Emily, like her parents, really likes Panera, so we got up early and retrieved a couple of carbolicious treats for her. It was a spendiferous start to our day, which continued with another journey into Philly, this time for the historic stuff.

And for that, you'll have to wait for another day. Keep checking in! :)