This weekend, we went to Philadelphia to see the sights. The plan was to spend the entire weekend in the Philadelphia area to visit the Franklin Institute on Saturday and the Philadelphia Zoo on Sunday. We would also fit in a visit with friends Leena and Sanjay visiting from Florida, and stay over Saturday night at my ssiter’s place. We left Saturday mid-morning to get down to Philadelphia. We met my sister and her family at the Franklin Institute, and then hit the various halls.
At 12:30, we decided to catch the next show at the Fels Planetarium. The show that day was The Sky Tonight. My sister and her family would get lunch instead at the dining hall. We’re all big fans of planetarium shows — give me a Whoopi Goldberg narration about galaxies and stars any time. I’ve never been to a bad planetarium show.
This classic planetarium presentation introduces the stars and planets seen in the night sky, and the concept of the earth’s rotation. The show changes with the seasons so that you can try to locate constellations from your own backyard after seeing the show.
Let me tell you, we did not enjoy this show. We walked in, found seats, and the show started a few mins later. A bald fellow with a long beard stood in the back and lectured everyone on facts about various planets and stars visible in the night sky. The visuals were poor, and fellow narrating was reminiscent of one of those smart fellows who knows he’s smart, and wants to tell you all things he knows about stars and planets. It was boring. The only person that I could tell enjoying the show was Joshua!
Eventually, the show was over in 45 mins, and then we rode the elevator down to the main floor to eat at the Franklin Foodworks. $32 later, I gotta say the food wasn’t that bad. The burgers tasted like real burgers, and the hot dogs were big. My sister and family decided to go home, since my niece was getting tired. We took a group photo in front of the Benjamin Franklin statue, and then they left. The Ipes continued on to check out the rest of the 2nd floor. BTW, I took the kids on one of those $5/ticket flight simulator rides, and it was pretty lame. I’m talking 1990’s-era CGI, and pointless flying around.
We had some time to kill, so we walked out of the museum, and spent some time chilling out at the Swann fountain. We eventually made our way out of Philly and to someone’s house to see friends Leena, Sanjay, their kids, and their family. We hung out for a few hours there, then drove back to South Jersey to my sister’s house for dinner, to hang out, and eventually get some sleep.
It was a good day.
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