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Jun. 7th, 2007 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickYesterday I went to see the Tut thing in Philadelphia. I went with my cousin Heather and her baby, Tess.
Philadelphia is about three hours from where we live, so it's a big trip for a small child. Heck, it's a big trip for a big child and I wasn't the one who had all my Cheez-Its eaten by an inconsiderate relative. Anyway, Tess was surprisingly good in the car on the way out. Her car travel is, I think, improving by leaps and bounds. Heather and I sang several rounds of She'll Be Comin' Round The Mountain and also numerous iterations of B-I-NGO, B-I-NGO, B-I-NGO And Bingo Was His Name-O (Tess likes clapping).
Since Tess is a very busy toddler, we figured that if we made it to Philadelphia with everyone still alive, we'd stop off at the Philadelphia Zoo to work off some energy before we headed to the Tut thing. That was a plan with some real merit.
On the whole, the zoo was pretty good. I was sort of saddened to discover that once you're past about five or six, you can see how some of the animals wear paths in their enclosures because they're bored, psychotic, and/or unhappy. *sigh* Tess particularly liked the polar bears, the giraffes, and the chickens (in the children's zoo area).
As an attraction, the Philadelphia Zoo has accessible, convenient parking that costs ten bucks. Also, we had no trouble with locating the parking and/or the zoo. Everything was very clearly signed. The zoo also had a nice layout that effectively used the space available to them, good maps, and very walkable, stroller-friendly pathways. They also had water fountains with free water. (Bonus!)
We didn't do the indoor exhibits because we were trying to wear out a toddler. The small mammals and the reptiles and stuff, we didn't see those. I'm also not much on primates, so we didn't spend time on those either.
After the zoo, we went to the Tut exhibit. We found free parking, go us! We got there on time despite leaving the zoo at quarter to three for three o'clock Tut tickets. (We thought they were 3:30 until we got to the car and looked at them.)
You don't actually get to see The Mummy at the Tut exhibit. You get to see parts of the loot that used to belong to the mummy. The loot is pretty damn impressive, though. The Tut thing is particularly nifty if you have some interest in jewelry and/or worked gold. If you like little statues, the Tut thing will also appeal to you.
They put the informational signs on three sides of the glass cases which I really liked -- more room for people to read the stuff -- and almost every thing was far enough from the wall that you could wander around and look at the back of it. (I most always want to see the back sides of things, particularly sculpture things.) I liked the layout and the quotes and pictures from the original expedition were lovely.
We (Heather and I, not Tess) liked the Tut thing and bought expensive t-shirts to show our support. Tess probably thought the Tut thing was a lot of darkened rooms and an endless sea of knees. Despite our efforts at the zoo, she didn't go to sleep in the stroller. She didn't want to go to sleep on Heather, either. She didn't want to ride in the sling. She wanted to walk around. At least she didn't scream nonstop like the baby one room ahead of us did. Tess fussed but she wasn't a constant problem. I was the constant problem, running over people's feet with the stroller. Bad user.
Museum notes:
1. I liked the way that they made getting into the museum easy for stroller-equipped humans. However, getting out was not quite so clearly marked. They might want to improve the exit signage for the not-very-navigational visitors.
2. It would be a tremendous savings if, instead of having live human beings standing at the no-food-allowed exits from the food court, they had a couple of damn signs saying "No food or drink past this point". I'd have liked a sign better, personally.
If I keep doing big-city outings with my cousin Heather and her baby, we're going to need t-shirts that say (front)"We are not lesbians." (back)"She's my cousin." Neither of us is big on makeup and we bicker the bickering of long association and we wear comfortable shoes. It'd be a pretty honest mistake, really.
We got out of the museum, spent some time looking for the road that we were already on, failed to put Heather through the windshield of her own car (drat!), and wound up stuck in traffic for an hour, the hour that Tess napped in the car. Oops.
Despite a VERY tired toddler, though, we made it home without any baby meltdown. We are, however, missing a small pink sandal. The return of same would be greatly appreciated, if anyone finds it. (My personal bet for where the sandal got to is the turnpike rest stop we stopped at.)
Philadelphia is about three hours from where we live, so it's a big trip for a small child. Heck, it's a big trip for a big child and I wasn't the one who had all my Cheez-Its eaten by an inconsiderate relative. Anyway, Tess was surprisingly good in the car on the way out. Her car travel is, I think, improving by leaps and bounds. Heather and I sang several rounds of She'll Be Comin' Round The Mountain and also numerous iterations of B-I-NGO, B-I-NGO, B-I-NGO And Bingo Was His Name-O (Tess likes clapping).
Since Tess is a very busy toddler, we figured that if we made it to Philadelphia with everyone still alive, we'd stop off at the Philadelphia Zoo to work off some energy before we headed to the Tut thing. That was a plan with some real merit.
On the whole, the zoo was pretty good. I was sort of saddened to discover that once you're past about five or six, you can see how some of the animals wear paths in their enclosures because they're bored, psychotic, and/or unhappy. *sigh* Tess particularly liked the polar bears, the giraffes, and the chickens (in the children's zoo area).
As an attraction, the Philadelphia Zoo has accessible, convenient parking that costs ten bucks. Also, we had no trouble with locating the parking and/or the zoo. Everything was very clearly signed. The zoo also had a nice layout that effectively used the space available to them, good maps, and very walkable, stroller-friendly pathways. They also had water fountains with free water. (Bonus!)
We didn't do the indoor exhibits because we were trying to wear out a toddler. The small mammals and the reptiles and stuff, we didn't see those. I'm also not much on primates, so we didn't spend time on those either.
After the zoo, we went to the Tut exhibit. We found free parking, go us! We got there on time despite leaving the zoo at quarter to three for three o'clock Tut tickets. (We thought they were 3:30 until we got to the car and looked at them.)
You don't actually get to see The Mummy at the Tut exhibit. You get to see parts of the loot that used to belong to the mummy. The loot is pretty damn impressive, though. The Tut thing is particularly nifty if you have some interest in jewelry and/or worked gold. If you like little statues, the Tut thing will also appeal to you.
They put the informational signs on three sides of the glass cases which I really liked -- more room for people to read the stuff -- and almost every thing was far enough from the wall that you could wander around and look at the back of it. (I most always want to see the back sides of things, particularly sculpture things.) I liked the layout and the quotes and pictures from the original expedition were lovely.
We (Heather and I, not Tess) liked the Tut thing and bought expensive t-shirts to show our support. Tess probably thought the Tut thing was a lot of darkened rooms and an endless sea of knees. Despite our efforts at the zoo, she didn't go to sleep in the stroller. She didn't want to go to sleep on Heather, either. She didn't want to ride in the sling. She wanted to walk around. At least she didn't scream nonstop like the baby one room ahead of us did. Tess fussed but she wasn't a constant problem. I was the constant problem, running over people's feet with the stroller. Bad user.
Museum notes:
1. I liked the way that they made getting into the museum easy for stroller-equipped humans. However, getting out was not quite so clearly marked. They might want to improve the exit signage for the not-very-navigational visitors.
2. It would be a tremendous savings if, instead of having live human beings standing at the no-food-allowed exits from the food court, they had a couple of damn signs saying "No food or drink past this point". I'd have liked a sign better, personally.
If I keep doing big-city outings with my cousin Heather and her baby, we're going to need t-shirts that say (front)"We are not lesbians." (back)"She's my cousin." Neither of us is big on makeup and we bicker the bickering of long association and we wear comfortable shoes. It'd be a pretty honest mistake, really.
We got out of the museum, spent some time looking for the road that we were already on, failed to put Heather through the windshield of her own car (drat!), and wound up stuck in traffic for an hour, the hour that Tess napped in the car. Oops.
Despite a VERY tired toddler, though, we made it home without any baby meltdown. We are, however, missing a small pink sandal. The return of same would be greatly appreciated, if anyone finds it. (My personal bet for where the sandal got to is the turnpike rest stop we stopped at.)
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no subject
Date: 2007-06-08 02:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-08 10:48 am (UTC)The current system of guard-without-sign makes all persons with food/drink AUTOMATICALLY WRONG and in need of correction. If they had a guard AND a sign, people could self-correct if they read and obey signs. They'd have a chance to do the right thing on their own. The guard would only have to correct the people who ignored or didn't notice the sign. Also, if I for some reason didn't see the sign and got corrected by the guard, I'd be less pissy about the whole thing because, in not seeing the sign, I'd have done something wrong, to wit failure to observe and obey applicable signs. I do not LIKE being corrected for something where I have no idea and no opportunity to find out what right is. I am not psychic. I am als terrible at guess the correct behavior, particularly when it's not constant across all options. If the whole museum was No Food or Drink except the food court, then it'd be an easy call to say all exits from the food court were No Food or Drink, wouldn't it? But SOME of the museum was food-n-drink friendly and some wasn't... and they made you guess which was which... and then had guards who corrected you when you guessed wrong. This pissed me off.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-08 01:59 pm (UTC)ah. yes, you are, of course, correct. the franklin institute is an odd and not entirely rationally designed place (which seems strange for a science museum, imo).
of course, sometimes lack of signage is intentional. i useta workin a picture framing shoppe on walnut street in philly. on walnut street, there were signs up that said "NO PARKING 4PM-7PM." intent was to open walnut street from 2 lanes to 3 lanes during rush hour. at 3:59 the meter maids would gather at the corners and at 4:00 exactly every car on the street got a ticket. any cars still on the street at 4:10 got towed. it takes the philadelphia parking authority tow trucks exactly 60 seconds from arrival to extract a car and begin dragging it down the street.
there was a 6 month period when the "NO PARKING 4PM-7PM" signs were disappeared, though the behavior of the parking authority did not change. calls and letters to the parking authority went unanswered. city revenues increased dramatically, until the day they towed the car of a prominent news anchorwoman who was in our shoppe. was in the 11oclock news that night, and the signs reappeared the next morning.
in the case of the franklin institute, it was probably just a budget oversight...
no subject
Date: 2007-06-08 02:22 pm (UTC)hm...showed up in the wrong place. one of these days i'll learn not to clicky on anything before finishing the first cup o coffee.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-08 06:20 pm (UTC)