We spent Thanksgiving week in the Philadelphia area. During that week we toured the Franklin Institute twice. We went early in the week when there were no crowds and so the kids had the opportunity to play with everything minus the lines.
We then visited Saturday after Thanksgiving and the day after their newest exhibition, Jurassic World opened. Every child on the east coast was in the museum that day, but they did an excellent job ensuring the crowds were spaced nice evenly and the only thing that may overwhelm a child would be the monstrous lifelike T-Rex.
In total, I’d highly recommend the exhibit. Our kids were two weeks away from turning five and were much more awed than afraid. To start, you wait in a large darkened room intended to simulate a ferry heading for the mysterious island of Isla Nublar, where they a video explains, due to familiar science breakthroughs, dinosaurs again walk the earth.
Shortly after the doors open the journey begins. Once I saw the stegosaurus mother with cub (not sure if that’s the right word) we were impressed. These were not the robotic animatronics we’ve been accustomed to that used the same technology as the animated Santa on a lawn. With these, the skin looked great, the expressions real and the movement was smooth.
In each room, they not only had a dinosaur to ogle but plenty of displays demonstrating what life was like on earth the first time they roamed. There was even an opportunity to touch dino poop. A highlight for the kids.
While, the stegosaurus was didn’t walk, there was a frighteningly realistic T-Rex who marched to a parked jeep containing the sounds of fearful goats.
While, I believe T-Rex was designed to be the highlight of the exhibition and it was, there was also human puppeted raptor and a room kids can design their own dinos using touch-screen computers that were immediately emailed to you.
The scariest display was actually the one with the dinosaurs mostly hidden from view. It comes at the end and it’s one were you walk through a tunnel in a hollowed out log. What you can’t see are a group of dinosaurs in battle with the park’s keepers.It doesn’t sound like it goes well for the humans. There are small holes kids can peer through to see the dinosaurs. It was the only thing either of our kids noped.
We feared the gift shop.The kids freshly from the emotional high of the wondering if dinosaurs walked amongst them, came down with a case of the gimmies. Eventually, cooler heads prevailed and we made it though.
It’s worthwhile to check out the entire museum. It’s been our favorite since we were kids ourselves. It takes multiple trips to see it all and there is currently a robot exhibit that was equally fascinating.
Two blocks from Franklin Institute is the Museum of Natural History. We visited last year and they have plenty more for your budding paleontologists to browse. It’s worth hitting both on a weekend if you can.
We embarked on what would be the kids “favorite Halloween ever”; celebrating a birthday and experiencing Leesburg’s wonderful Halloween events. Our kids are not shy and also not the type to talk to strangers, but on Halloween the thought of a big bowl of candy sitting behind every door motivated them to hit every door. Because it’s not a heavily foot trafficked area, each house made sure everyone got a handful. It’s fun to see them come out of their shell in such a big way, as well as bond with their now 4 year-old-cousin.
Back at my brothers we checked out the unbelievable score. I haven’t seen a bag filled like that since the 80s and before Halloween had hours or there were lame ideas like Trunk or Treat. This getting away from Halloween being a community-based holiday is a new pet peeve How else can we tell who are the jerks of the neighborhood. You know the ones. Both their cars are in the driveway and they have their porch light on 364 days a year. Also we know the neighborhoods most generous. I still remember the lady who gave out full sized candy bars when I was a kid. She never had to worry about her leaf pile being demolished or toilet paper on mischief night. She paid for protection with sugar.
My wife and I often call the gym a reset button. No matter what stress has it’s grip on you, the weights don’t care. You return home ready to start fresh. However, there’s only so many times you can hit that reset. Sometimes you need to power down and unplug. The only way to do that is with a take-off-from-work, overpack-the-car vacation.
We’ve done numerous long weekends, but we finally embarked on our first vacation as a family, a rental house with family on a lake in Maine. Despite visits from the police and a trip to the health clinics, it was both fun and relaxing. Sharing costs and having a full-size kitchen cut down costs. We enjoyed a private beach, rowed the canoe and spent a lot of time by the fire both of the grill and pit variety. Milo, our intrepid border collie, a waterbug enjoyed herding waves as much as he could.
calmly. No answer. We called not-so-calmly and still no answer. There were ten people in the house at the time and we checked every room, calling out with increasing panic. We searched the water and asked the neighbors for help. For twenty minutes, we yelled his name a hundred times. Billboards on the drive up said call authorities immediately if your child is lost, so my wife did.
I was going to say Maine is a great place to let your child explore their independence, but in light of the above event I’ll only go as far to say Maine is a great place to let your child explore. Here’s a tip. If you happen upon a caterpillar that looks like a porcupine don’t touch it and don’t let your kids touch it. If they do touch it. Don’t google it. If you do google it don’t tell them what it says.
Maine is a tradition in Karen’s family, started by folks who are unfortunately no longer with us. Judging from our own children’s excitement and curiosity it will likely outlive us as well. While there will be plenty of times we vacation alone, making the time to keep traditions important too. My family spent much of our youth going to the Jersey Shore and civil war sites. The problem with Jersey, most of what I enjoyed about it is no longer there. It’s been turned to a condo. What’s nice about places such as Sebago Lake, it changes slower than traditions.
