we found a heart in philly

So, I am playing catch up right now. We went to Philadelphia in June (yes, I know), let me tell you about it.

During Valentine's Weekend (yes, back in February), Pup 1.o saw a special about the human heart exhibit at the Franklin Institute on the Sunday Morning Show. His response to the bit was, "I would like to see the heart at the Franklin Institute." Well of course, why wouldn't one want to see a humongous heart at the Franklin Institute. This of course meant we had to figure out what the Franklin Institute was and where it was--which, had we thought about it, we would have been able to figure it out fairly easily. In any case, after researching it, we decided a little wish fulfillment was in order and we wandered down to Philadelphia for a short weekend of fun.We saw the heart exhibit. We walked through it. Many times. Many, many times.

We explored other thing as well. But mostly we learned a lot and had fun.
We also found (I actually found it when I attended a conference in Philly last year, but whatever) a Korean restuarant called Miga.

Which was conveniently located across the street from a Max Brenner, which of course is awesome.
It was a fun little jaunt down the coast.

More pictures in flickr.

annapolis & philly, woot!

Some of you are probably wondering where the California pictures (and post are), they are coming. Honestly. But one (you) should find it humurous that my idea of a flurry has become akin to the speed of a trickle. In any case, since I seem to be a month behind on my posts, let's talk June. At the beginning of June (yes, that's last month for those keeping score) Papa Seal had a seminar to attend on a very scintillating topic concerning something related to some form of engineering--or possibly navigation in Annapolis, MD. The Pup and I let him go it alone for the first part of the week as we had things to do (um work and school). On the last day of his seminar, the Pup and I took the train down to Baltimore to meet up with the fatherly unit. It was the pups first train trip and he had a great time. All I am going to say is, six hours on a train with a 2 year old is a very long time (my lack of pictures is evidence of the fun he had, sigh).

Papa met us in Baltimore and we headed back to Annapolis, we ate dinner and then went to sleep to recharge for a flurry (a real one, this time) of activity the next day which involved the following:

a trip to the United States Naval Academy (um, go goats!?)

where Papa thought it would be fun to visit a "secured area" so the Pup could be entertained (those are my boys, risk takers);

and then we hopped in the car and drove to Philadelphia, home of liberty. Before doing anything historically related, I (obviously) had to get my fiber fix in. We went to the trendy and boutique-y yarn shop, loop;

and then found our way to Rosie's Yarn Cellar where the Seal Pup (aka Little Sir" was spotted by store staff. I consider it an honor that they let him play with the Koigu mill ends, which involved making a snake of Koigu (that would be luxury merino, people) on the floor.
Of course there was also a trip to the new Philly fabric store, Spool (a very sweet shop, I bought stuff);
And then there was dinner. We went to a place called the Melting Pot. It's a fondue place, apparently it's a romantic place...when you don't take a 2 year old (just saying). I think it's also just an unusual place to take kids, but our philosophy is, if you don't plan to serve kids, don't offer the option of high chair seating (not that we use it anymore, but there you are).
After a good night's sleep (and sleeping in)We found our way to the Liberty Bell at the Independence National Historic Park (this would be the real reason we ventured to Philly in the first place). Where we realized that the Pup's excitement about historica landmarks will only last so long when we saw the rows of bored teenage boys waiting for the rest of their families to view history. Oh, well.
More picture from the trip in flickr, as per our usual way of doing things. California pictures coming soon. Really.