A Day at the Franklin Institute
Posted on March 1, 2009
Last weekend we took a trip to the Philadelphia area to visit my mother and sister. We spent Saturday at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. We had a lot of fun, and would highly recommend this museum to anyone. Here are some of the pics from the day.
Grant and Griffin in front of the giant Ben Franklin statue.
Detail of the rotunda that ol' Ben sits under.
Griffin and Mike try to get the water wheel turning. Griffin loved getting lifted off the ground.
Griffin tries to guide a ball through a maze.
Mom takes a ride on the Sky Bike.
Then we headed to the machines and engineering area, which Grant loved, of course.
Grant loves anything mechanical.
At the controls of a big crane-like thing.
This is a giant heart. It looks innocent enough, but it is responsible for my first-ever bout of claustrophobia. I really, honestly almost freaked out in this thing. It seems so simple – walk in, up some stairs, around and around just like you are blood pumping through the chambers of the heart. EXCEPT. The stairways are really narrow. And the ceilings are kinda low, so you have to hunch over if you’re over 5’5″. And it’s kinda warm in there. And they have this INFERNAL HEARTBEAT NOISE thumping loudly all around you. And – and this is the part that nearly put me over the edge – the path that you follow is much longer inside than you would think from looking at the outside. Really. There is a lot of twisting and turning going on in there. So while the other factors are starting to get to you, you are secure in the knowledge that this torment is almost over. And then you take another turn and go up some more stairs. And then you are sure that it is almost over. And then you make another turn and you start to wonder if it will ever end, and thoughts of being trapped in this hot, cramped, thumping fiberglass contraption for the rest of what is left of your life start going through your mind, and then…. it’s finally over. Really, it wasn’t pleasant.
After Griffin got himself lost for a few minutes (he snuck back inside the damn heart), we moved on to the transportation section of the museum. Grant and Griffin (and Vance) got to check out the inside of this plane.
And hooray for my new ultra-wide-angle lens! I'm totally loving this thing.
And there was a big train! Choo-choo!
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