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Jurassic World : The Exhibition

December 4, 2016 by Chris 1 Comment

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.

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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.

A video posted by j christopher (@forever_lucky) on Nov 26, 2016 at 4:52pm PST

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.

 

 

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Traveling with Twins: The Academy of Natural Sciences

June 12, 2015 by Chris 1 Comment

 

p1240546 When I hit 30, I stopped paying attention to age. After hitting the age of car rental freedom, there were no milestones to hit. I celebrated my birthdays to be sure, but just forgot the number.  Then one day while hanging out at the hospital just after the birth of  our kids my father-in-law mentioned very casually, my age at the time.  Thirty-seven.

He continued to talk, but my ears shut down. The number 37 loomed large.  There were physiological and economic implications to being a new dad at 37.  We overhauled the budget to allow for two part-time parents with full-time responsibilities to stay at home with our kids. This June dumped a new milestone – a 40th birthday.

I remember my dad’s 40th.  I thought he was so old then. We’re a new breed of 40, right?  His generation is now a new breed of 60 and 70-year-olds.

I’ve never been one to over celebrate surviving another year, I wanted to keep this one especially low key.  I eschewed offers of a day in a trendy beer garden in Philly for an afternoon of my favorite underrated museums with my boys.

The Academy of Natural Sciences – Philadelphia, PA

The great thing about The Academy of Natural Sciences is like natural sciences itself, the museum takes a long time to change.  It was founded more than 200 years ago and it’s still not overcrowded. It’s been 25-30 years since I was there and unlike some of the more popular museums on the parkway it’s not overcrowded on the weekends.

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Some of the highlights for my wife and I and the kids include a butterfly room, it’s dinosaur exhibit and the brilliant dioramas that have been on display for nearly a hundred years.  These detailed spaces, portray taxidermy animals as they existed in nature.  They are both fascinating and haunting. It harkens to an odd time where many of the foremost scholars in wildlife where part scientist and part hunter.  Where else could it be possible to see taxidermy panda bears.  Thankfully someone figured out this is not a good long-term conservation strategy.

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They have volunteers roaming the halls displaying all sorts of live animals from giant beetles to hedgehogs with as much info about them as your kids can handle.  We spent much of the time in their

I’ve been to similar museums in DC, London and New York and the one on Philly is by far the smallest, but only in scale and not as much in content.  It’s not a massive undertaking and you can hit this and another museum in a single day.  The cafe is has a decent roster of healthy meals and snacks, including salads, yogurt as well as normal fare such as pizza and burgers.

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Just across the street from the hotel is Logan Circle.  No European style parkway would be complete without such a magnificent space.  In Philly, on a hot day it’s just about the neatest back drop you can have for an impromptu pool party.

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At this point, we were tired, hungry and ready to go back to grandmom’s for key lime pie and juice or beer. We had wanted to check out Sister Cities Park just across the street but ran out of time and energy.

This video captured all the emotion of feeling 20 on my 40th.

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About Us

All our Boys

Karen Rodgers is a mother of twin boys, wife, and speech language pathologist for the Champlain Valley School District in Vermont and New England Speech & Feeding. She knows her way around a weight room and here on the GoodFitFam blog Karen and her husband Chris will share their wisdom, experience and contagious passion for kids, fun and fitness.

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Arm Blast

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Increase Your Optimism, Gratefulness & Technique for 2018

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