Road Trip: Philadelphia

 We stopped in Philadelphia for dinner. We tried Sonny's for cheesesteaks and they were delicious. I love the architecture in Philadelphia and wish we could have spent more time there.

philadelphia: please touch museum

A Children's Museum during Spring Break AND right after a huge Living Social deal for half off admission AND without Ben to wrangle Oliver is pretty much my living nightmare. But the kids LOVE the Please Touch Museum (it really is one of the best we've been to) and it seemed like a good option for a chillier day. We went in the afternoon but it was still crazy crowded. The girls didn't seem to mind and ran from activity to activity. Oliver was a little overwhelmed by the crowds (and didn't appreciate getting shoved by the bigger kids) but he had fun too. He has the attention span of a fly so I mostly just followed him around while trying to keep track of the girls. 

Can you spot Elsa and Amelia in Alice's Wonderland?

The girls spent a LONG time shopping in the grocery store.

The crowds thinned out a bit later in the day so we took advantage of the short line for the carousel. Oliver miraculously fell asleep and our admission had included 4 carousel tickets so the girls got to ride a few times while Oliver and I rested. I must have looked exhausted because someone stopped to ask me if I was okay.

feeding ducks in philadelphia

A few years ago we accompanied Ben on a work trip to Philadelphia. The hotel had a huge atrium with water and ducks and the girls got to feed the ducks. They have talked about the duck hotel ever since. Last week, just a few days before Spring Break, Ben found out he had to go to Philadelphia for a few days this week. So he booked the duck hotel and we joined him again. The girls were thrilled to not only be staying in a hotel (which is the coolest thing ever for kids) but to also get to feed the ducks again. They also loved the hotel breakfast where they could get cereal and donuts AND made-to-order pancakes and french toast.

While Ben was working, I took the kids to the Philadelphia Zoo one day. The weather turned out to be great and there weren't too many people there. We took our time wandering through the zoo and enjoying lots of animals that our zoo doesn't have (penguins, polar bears, giraffes, and flamingos to name a few).

Four hours at the zoo chasing Oliver in my condition completely wore me out. So I was happy to reunite with Ben and let the kids wear him out in the hotel pool.

Oliver was so excited to go swimming that he climbed on the table to do a dance.

An evening in Philly.

After spending the morning at Longwood Gardens, we were feeling adventurous and decided to head to Philadelphia since we were so close. I really like Philadelphia and we haven't explored it nearly enough. We were excited to see some of the Christmasy things going on.

Our first order of business was devouring a Philly cheesesteak. We've been to Tony Luke's before but hadn't experienced such a long wait. Luckily all three kids were sound asleep in the car (which rarely happens) so I hung out in the car while Ben waited for our meaty sandwiches.

The kids were really excited about all of the tall buildings, something we lack in D.C.

Our next stop was the Comcast Center to see the Comcast Holiday Spectacular—a short Christmas movie they project throughout the day on a huge screen (the largest four-mm LED video display in the world, apparently).

We walked over to Love Park for some photos.

We passed by a really fun art installation of giant game pieces. The kids could have climbed on these all night.

Our last stop was Macy's. They have a fun light show inside that's been around since the 1950s. The building is really beautiful (Macy's is inside the Wanamaker building...home of the historic Wanamaker Organ). The Wanamaker Organ plays musical accompaniment while thousands of lights create holiday images and scenes in the four-story-high atrium.

(Macy's window display.)

They also have this elaborate Dickens Village in Macy's where you can walk through and see all the scenes from "A Christmas Carol" which they have recreated using animatronic figures. The girls thought a lot of it was kind of creepy.

Our time in Philly was brief but festive. I already have a list of places to visit next time we return.