Better late than never

Original Post written on September 26, 2011

It was beautiful late summer / early fall day.  Grammy called just after 8:00 AM with excellent news.  She and Poppy both had the day off!  It hardly ever happens that way, so we quickly formulated a plan to visit the Academy of Natural Sciences.  It had been a while since the Salad had visited and our love of all things Dinosaur grows stronger each day. 

I knew it was going to be a great day when we found a metered parking space right outside the front door of the museum. Score!

We spent the majority of our time in the children's section of the museum.  We were the only visitors at the time, so we got a lot of individual attention.  We got to pet the giant rabbit as many times as we wanted, the volunteer helped the Salad do a scavenger hunt, they brought the special baby centipedes out from the back for us to meet, we held the GIANT Madagascar hissing cockroach.  When I say "we" here I mean the Salad.  I choose not to hold the bugs.  I didn't let them see me squirm when they held them either.  Not even when S pointed out the teeny tiny mites on the back of the cockroach. 

When lunch time rolled around, A asked if we could eat outside.  One of the best things about the museum is it's location.  Right off Logan Circle, facing the Art Museum, the Franklin Institute, the Free Library of Philadelphia, the historic Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, next door to Moore College of Art and Design.  I couldn't ask for better scenery to teach the Salad a little about the City of Brotherly Love while we munched sandwiches and grapes by Swann Memorial Fountain.

We dipped our hands in the cool water and fed bits of PB&J to pigeons.  We threw pennies and made wishes.

The nicest thing about having Grammy and Poppy along was that there were extra hands to hold when the Salad asked if they could walk around the whole fountain on the ledge, so I didn't have to worry about one of them tumbling into the water.  Well, I didn't worry too much.

As a side note, crossing the Benjamin Franklin Parkway here is absolutely treacherous.  You wait for the light to flash to the people walking signal and then IMMEDIATELY it gives you 15 seconds to get across the street.  It doesn't care of you have 3 small children mesmerized by the fountain, or the smoke rising from the cathedral, or the lunch truck full of potato chips!

Focus, Salad!  Focus!