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Birthday Week '05 - Part I
This was one of those rare birthdays that lasted more of a week than a day. Here's roughly how the week broke down:
Cait went the extra mile for my birthday this year, surprising me with a weekend in Philly. Circumstance and some scheduling drama tipped me off to the surprise early on, but there were hidden layers of surprise that weren't realized until later...
But I'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
This was the view from our hotel room:
Saturday morning, we slept in a bit and then made our way to the Franklin Institute. On our way in, we saw all these banners touting it as College Day. Remembering that we each still had a student ID (neither valid, but we figured they wouldn't even check), we sauntered up to the table, signed in, and got into the museum for free. We also got $5 tickets to an IMAX movie. Unfortunately, we chose to see James Cameron's Aliens of the Deep. It amounted to 56 minutes of him masturbatorily playing scientist while the whole cast marveled at the titular "aliens" that reside on the deep ocean floor. Rather than explaining what any of the creatures were or how they lived, or basically providing anything of scientific merit, everyone took turns breathily exclaiming "they're breathtaking!" and "look at that, that's amazing!" and "that's phenomenal!" I took a nap for the last half of it. Thanks for that $5 nap, James. Stick to your running cameo on Entourage.
Ben Franklin himself guards the museum entrance against those posing as students on College Day. We just barely slipped by.
This is Foucault's Pendulum, which swings perpetually back and forth knocking over a ring of free-standing pegs as an example of the earth's orbital motion.
We busied ourselves in a nerdily way with many of the exhibits:
I love all the reflections in this one:
A big reason I love visiting Philly this time of year is that EVERYONE sports Eagles gear. I snapped this one secretly, but the kid served as a harbinger for things coming later in the weekend...
While there, we saw a planetarium show explaining the constellations. Snaps in the pitch-black room were hard to come by, but I managed a few. This was an accidental one I find kinda funny:
Some circles showing planet orbits:
This one looks like the cover of a Godspeed album to me:
We busied ourselves in the gift shop before we left too. I'm surprised they were ambivalent to us taking pictures... In my experience places like that frown on cameras. But no one stopped us, so...
Yes, they make Edgar Allen Poe action figures:
Another harbinger of things to come...
This was the IMAX technician in his glass house:
After the Institute, we made our way to various sites around the city. These are perspective shots of William Penn and the fountain in Love Park:
Another requisite stop, Mitchell & Ness, the central location for throwback jerseys and memorabilia in the city. If you're looking for that 1970 Phillies team jacket for $500, this is the place to go! For you, Zack:
And here's the best concert venue in the city, as far as I'm concerned, The Khyber. It has the added relevance of being the place where Cait and I met. Awwwwww.
Later that night, on our way back from dinner, we passed through Love Park again, and these people refused to move from the front of the statue. Fine, stay there hugging. You'll get snapped and posted with no royalty payment.
Thus endeth Saturday...
***************
Sunday was our early morning. We got up and revisited the hotel pool, but didn't swim. The outdoor running track gave us an interesting view of the city:
...AND gave us a place to work some karate and dancing into the morning.
The plan for the day, again an intended surprise ruined by scheduling circumstances weeks before we left, was to head over to the Camden Aquarium to satisfy my insatiable need to spend time looking at sharks. I didn't know what I was getting myself into...
This is Philly, from the Camden waterfront:
[Click to continue to PART II or PART III.]
*****N*T*G*****
Never hesitate to comment!
Cait went the extra mile for my birthday this year, surprising me with a weekend in Philly. Circumstance and some scheduling drama tipped me off to the surprise early on, but there were hidden layers of surprise that weren't realized until later...
But I'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
This was the view from our hotel room:
Saturday morning, we slept in a bit and then made our way to the Franklin Institute. On our way in, we saw all these banners touting it as College Day. Remembering that we each still had a student ID (neither valid, but we figured they wouldn't even check), we sauntered up to the table, signed in, and got into the museum for free. We also got $5 tickets to an IMAX movie. Unfortunately, we chose to see James Cameron's Aliens of the Deep. It amounted to 56 minutes of him masturbatorily playing scientist while the whole cast marveled at the titular "aliens" that reside on the deep ocean floor. Rather than explaining what any of the creatures were or how they lived, or basically providing anything of scientific merit, everyone took turns breathily exclaiming "they're breathtaking!" and "look at that, that's amazing!" and "that's phenomenal!" I took a nap for the last half of it. Thanks for that $5 nap, James. Stick to your running cameo on Entourage.
Ben Franklin himself guards the museum entrance against those posing as students on College Day. We just barely slipped by.
This is Foucault's Pendulum, which swings perpetually back and forth knocking over a ring of free-standing pegs as an example of the earth's orbital motion.
We busied ourselves in a nerdily way with many of the exhibits:
I love all the reflections in this one:
A big reason I love visiting Philly this time of year is that EVERYONE sports Eagles gear. I snapped this one secretly, but the kid served as a harbinger for things coming later in the weekend...
While there, we saw a planetarium show explaining the constellations. Snaps in the pitch-black room were hard to come by, but I managed a few. This was an accidental one I find kinda funny:
Some circles showing planet orbits:
This one looks like the cover of a Godspeed album to me:
We busied ourselves in the gift shop before we left too. I'm surprised they were ambivalent to us taking pictures... In my experience places like that frown on cameras. But no one stopped us, so...
Yes, they make Edgar Allen Poe action figures:
Another harbinger of things to come...
This was the IMAX technician in his glass house:
After the Institute, we made our way to various sites around the city. These are perspective shots of William Penn and the fountain in Love Park:
Another requisite stop, Mitchell & Ness, the central location for throwback jerseys and memorabilia in the city. If you're looking for that 1970 Phillies team jacket for $500, this is the place to go! For you, Zack:
And here's the best concert venue in the city, as far as I'm concerned, The Khyber. It has the added relevance of being the place where Cait and I met. Awwwwww.
Later that night, on our way back from dinner, we passed through Love Park again, and these people refused to move from the front of the statue. Fine, stay there hugging. You'll get snapped and posted with no royalty payment.
Thus endeth Saturday...
***************
Sunday was our early morning. We got up and revisited the hotel pool, but didn't swim. The outdoor running track gave us an interesting view of the city:
...AND gave us a place to work some karate and dancing into the morning.
The plan for the day, again an intended surprise ruined by scheduling circumstances weeks before we left, was to head over to the Camden Aquarium to satisfy my insatiable need to spend time looking at sharks. I didn't know what I was getting myself into...
This is Philly, from the Camden waterfront:
[Click to continue to PART II or PART III.]
*****N*T*G*****
Never hesitate to comment!
posted by JMP at 7:02 PM
1 Comments:
Haha, well played.
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