Toppall's Travels - Part 2

WEDNESDAY:

The sun was shining on Wednesday morning and it was going to be a great day!  Unfortunately,we were starting the day off with 4 very sleep-deprived people.  OMG!  Never again.  We learned our lesson and from now one, it is a suite all the way.  It can be a one bedroom suite, just as long as it offers a door and a pull-out sofa bed.  And oh yeah, enough space for a rollaway bed.  The kids definitely each need their own bed.  And Jeff and I learned the hard way that sleeping with each kid is not an option.  As Jeff put it, he got kicked in the chin twice and that's just the places he can mention out loud.  At one point (it was 12:52am), I looked over and Saw Jeff actually lift Sam up in the air and rotate her body completely around to get her straight again.  Not fun.  Not fun at all.  And Ian complained to me that he didn't have enough room in the bed I was sharing with him.  Not sure how that was possible as I was hugging the edge the whole time hoping to not fall off.  But I guess when you sleep like this, you do require lots of space.

A girl with her iPad and a cool view of Philadelphia.

We pulled ourselves together, made a very important decision to get a rollaway bed in the room for Sam.  Let Ian have his own bed and for Jeff & I to share one that night, in the hopes we can finally get some sleep.

On to The Please Touch Museum.  OH MY GAWD!!  I absolutely love this place.  If I could move in and make this my home, I would in a heartbeat.  It was fantastic.  It was big, airy, clean, and shiny.  There were tons for the kids to see, do and play with.  One of the most fantastic things about this place was no matter where you were, what room you were in, there was something for each age group we had with us (a young 2 year old, 3 1/2 year olds, and 6 1/2 year olds) to be entertained and fascinated by.  We could easily spend the better part of an hour in each wing and no one got bored. 

This museum is so incredibly well designed.  It's spectacular and fun and innovative.  I think the parents liked it just as much as the kids.  I know I did.

After more than 4 fun-filled hours at The Please Touch Museum, we called it a day and headed out. We decided that Ian and I would go visit the Franklin Institute and Jeff and Sam would head back to the hotel for some downtime. 

To my delight, Jen and Ethan joined us.  This was the only place we didn't get tickets in advance (wasn't entirely sure which day we'd go or who would go) and had to stand in line for an hour.  And then we decided to do a planetarium show right away and stood in that line for an additional 25 minutes.  Crazy!!  The boys did wonderfully despite not having seen anything besides a line for the first 1.5 hours.   The planetarium show we picked was called "The Wildest Weather".  We thought it was going to be a cool display about hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis and such.  However, in reality, it was about the weather conditions found on different planets.  In retrospect, this was something we could've easily skipped. 

Once we made it around the rest of the Franklin Institute we found a very cool museum, perfect for the boys to explore, interact and learn from.  Each room revealed another lesson about science, whether it be the body, electricity, chemistry, trains, sports or more, it was incredibly well done. 

We did the infamous walk through the human heart.  I couldn't believe that it didn't come with a big disclaimer that you can't be wider than the width of a super model to fit through the chambers of the heart.  Wow, it was very narrow.  Fortunately I made it through ok, but I can imagine that many people wider than me have gotten stuck and wasn't able to easily get out.  It's a one-way direction through the heart, so if you are at all claustrophobic or a little on the obese side you are in big trouble! 

We tried to take our time through the museum, but it was so big and there was so much to see.  Once we finally made it to the top floor, we had about 30 minutes left before leaving to meet the family for dinner.  Serendipitously we ended up walking in to a live show/demonstration called "This is Chemistry".  This was going to eat up the next 25 minutes, but we figured why not and let's go for it.  We made a decision to stay another 15 minutes after the show let out and leave later than planned. 

"This is Chemistry" was AWESOME!!  The woman who did the demonstrations was lively, funny, and engaging.  She did a great job explaining elements, atoms and what happens when you mix different gasses and liquids together.   She asked for volunteers and got the kids in the act.  She pointed to Ian and said, "You in the gray shirt".  Ian, with his hand held high in the air, looked down first to see what he was wearing before jumping out of his seat and heading to the stage.  It was very funny.


Ian on the stage for the "This is Chemistry" show

With about 15 minutes left, we quickly explored the rest of the top floor and discovered a seriously cool area with all kinds of sports simulators.  The boys could've easily spent a few hours here.  Unfortunately, it was just enough time for them to do one or two machines and then we had to go.

The Franklin Institute is definitely something we will make a return visit.  And when we do come back, we will get there when it opens and stay for as long as the kids want to.  It was a good thing we didn't take the little ones as there wasn't as much for them to do. 

I was really hoping that dinner would be at the Reading Terminal.  I love that place!   However, we met up with everyone at 5:30pm and quickly realized that all the market vendors were closing down.  Apparently Reading Terminal is more of a lunch type place.  We will plan accordingly next visit.  We ended up eating at Chili's, just down the block.  They were able to seat the 9 of us at one table, with no wait.  Bonus! 

Stay tuned for Toppall's Travel's - Part 3.  Our last day traveling and seeing the sights.  Was our new sleep configuration a success?  And more importantly, are we all still talking to each other?    These questions and more answered in the next installment.