Our family headed out on Sunday morning to spend a day in Philly at the Please Touch Museum followed by two days at Sesame Place. In an unusual move, we were so prepared that we got on the road early - at 8:15 - and were very excited to have the whole day to spend in the city. We drove through a terrible downpour but still made great time until we were 20 minutes outside of the city and ... stopped. Not moving anywhere.
For TWO HOURS.
From what I could gather from a phone Google search, severe flooding led to road closings. Eventually, we were let off an on-ramp, and after an emergency potty stop, got new directions and back on the road. Suburban Philly traffic does not move much faster, and it took us another hour to get into the city, and guess what! Please Touch was closed due to flooding. Plan B: head over to the Franklin Institute where we had the pleasure of spending $52 to see the museum for 90 minutes. We hit about four exhibits (sports, giant heart, physics and kid science) and though I was really stressed upon arrival, we enjoyed the short time there. The mirror house was everyone's favorite.
After the museum, we took a break for big pretzels and went to visit the fountain. The only thing preventing all five kids from diving in was the promise that the next two days would be spent at a water park where they could get as wet as they liked. After a stop at Geno's, we were off to our wonderful hotel where the kids got a late night swim in before bedtime.
On Monday morning, we got our fill of free breakfast and headed out to the park at around 10:30 am. Crowded and hot!!! Our first stop was the new Count's Splash Castle, which is some twisted form of water torture and a lost child just waiting to happen. I tried to wait in line with Dora for the water slides - twice! but could not stand being pelted continuously with water during the wait. Seriously, I felt like I was in a car wash. Got out of there quickly and went to find something more serene ... Teeny Tiny Tidal Wave, ahhhh, that's more like it.
We headed back to the car mid day for lunch. It's a great time to take a break from the crowds, spread out and re-do sunscreen. Happily, by the time we returned, the crowds had thinned out and no longer blazing hot. Time to hit the lazy river.
And we watched the parade.
Two days is a perfect amount of time to spend at the park, because you don't feel pressured to do everything in a day. Our second day was much more leisurely, kids went on all their favorites which included a big rope climb.
We'll be back again soon!
