Philadelphia - Lyle at the National Museum of American Jewish History

We had our set itinerary of things to do in Philadelphia, but we did not expect to find this:

There were sections of the sidewalk with little crocodile feet everywhere.

Traveling with a kindergarten teacher may let you know that these are the feet of Lyle Lyle Crocodile. It may also make it necessary to find out why they are there. Fortunately the internet makes this easy. There was an exhibit of the art of Bernard Waber at the National Museum of American Jewish History.

http://www.nmajh.org/pastexhibitions.aspx

We were spending more time in Philadelphia than any other stop, but it was because there was so much to do. Could we make time for this additional stop? It seemed more possible when at the main check-in point for our bus tour, we found more footprints and banners.

 The museum was right in the area that we were going to be at at least twice a day. Still, we had a lot to see.

We ended up going in just to ask, and they were near closing time, but the staff was very friendly and helpful.

Many museums have the gift shop located before the entrance, so that you can go in and spend money without paying the admission. That was not the case here, where you do have to pass the admission desk and security before you can get to the store. However, given the lateness of the hour, and their kindness, they let us through to the gift shop, which allowed us to at least see the merchandise and pick up information, because they were also helpful in advising how to find out if the exhibit would be coming near us, or possibly to request a visit here if it wasn't. (Portland has both a children's museum and a Jewish museum - either would be a natural fit.)

We did not see the exhibit, but having talked to various staff I feel like there is a great level of customer orientation. In addition, the lure of the crocodile prints and the signage and everything that they did to ensure that visitors with no idea about the museum or the exhibit would not be capable of missing that the exhibit was happening also makes me think that they are good at what they do.

If I make it to Philadelphia again, that will be a stop.

http://www.nmajh.org/

Philadelphia - City Hall

http://www.visitphilly.com/history/philadelphia/city-hall/

We really lucked out with our hotel in Philadelphia. The staff of the Philadelphia Marriott Residence Inn was excellent and they had the best complimentary breakfast buffet we have ever attended.

Location was also helpful. Although our cab driver had a little bit of trouble finding it at first, once we were there we found that we were really close to many of the attractions, and we were just kitty-corner from City Hall, which was really convenient for navigation.

City Hall is easy to spot from many places. For a long time there was an informal agreement in place that nothing could be taller than William Penn's hat. That helps City Hall stand out. For those times when you can't spot it, pretty much everyone knows which direction it is in.

On our first day we wanted to keep things pretty easy, so we grabbed some lunch and took it into courtyard to eat. There were some tables and shade there.

There is also a lot to look at just around the building. It was built in the Second Empire style which has a strong baroque influence, which is especially noticeable walking around the outside.

Inside there is sculpture everywhere you look. There are 250 sculptures total, all designed by Alexander Milne Calder.

(I wondered if that was the mobile artist, but this is his grandfather. However, grandfather, father, and son, all have art featured prominently around Philadelphia.)

Our path to and from each day's adventure tended to lead through City Hall, so it was a big part of our time in Philadelphia, and seemed like a good place to start.

Ground transportation in non-Philadelphia Pennsylvania

There were a few reasons that we chose the hotel we did for Langhorne, but two big ones were that it was close to the park and also had a park shuttle.

We did appreciate the fact that they got into the local spirit by decorating the lobby with Sesame Street characters as well, and that is how we get our pictures for the day.

I want to focus a little more on the transportation aspects, and this becomes an issue for other areas in Pennsylvania. In Langhorne, Easton, and Hershey, at check in were were always asked for information on our car, not whether or not we had a car. The car was just assumed, which did not happen in Philadelphia or Minneapolis.

This made more sense as we began to observe how much these places were not designed for pedestrians.

Since Langhorne was our first destination, we noticed it first there. As we got into town we started looking around to get our bearings, and I saw that the only foot route between our hotel and the park was either via the highway overpass, which did not have great shoulders and sidewalks, or under the overpass along the train tracks, which somehow seemed even more dangerous.

There is a mall and a bus system, and apparently people will often park at the mall and bus to the park, but even if you are local you will probably not walk to the park.

We arrived late one night, and there was nowhere easy to get to, so we used the hotel sundries store, which meant basically cups of soup or oatmeal. Based on that, learning that there was not a free breakfast buffet was even more disappointing. Eating in the park was okay, and then the next night we ordered in, which was not great.

I'll get more into the other towns when we get to them, but as a general rule, shuttles are important, and cars are important. If the hotel has a shuttle but you don't have a car, plan ahead for meals and other needs.

They just aren't planning on you walking.

Sesame Place - Food and Souvenirs

The food was pretty standard for theme parks at Sesame Place. There were cookies at Cookie's Cafe that weren't at other places, but you could see that the Cookie Monster cupcakes at Cookie's Cafe and the Rubber Duckie cupcakes at Captain Ernie's Bistro were essentially the same things. Children's meals could come on cute Elmo or Cookie Monster plates.

Prices were about standard. One thing I noticed is that the annual membership prices seemed very reasonable. If you live nearby, season passes to a water park could very well be a reasonable investment. That being said, parking is quite expensive (I believe it was $38 for the day, with a discount to $17 for handicapped parking), and Langhorne is not walkable, which I will write about more next week.

Souvenirs are more expensive, but the have some adorable ones.

Just walking into the store there si all this cute, bright, colorful plush everywhere.

There is a good variety of popular characters, and they rotate in less popular characters on a regular basis. While we were there the classic character was Herry Monster.

There is an online store, and the site refers to mail-order also, but this may not show everything. Julie became aware of a Two-Headed Monster Plush through the Sesame Place Facebook page, where the order occurred via an e-mail contact. If there is someone you are hoping for and don't see, it doesn't hurt to ask.

http://shop.sesameplace.com/

https://www.facebook.com/SesamePlace/

There were non plush items as well, most of which did not interest me, except for some T-shirts.

You may also notice that the Sesame Place site features different store names now, and some things are missing. This is their seasonal retooling. It looks like the water attractions are shut down, which makes sense. I was not expecting the addition of stocking stuffers, but that's cool:

http://sesameplace.com/en/langhorne/shop/oscars-stocking-stuffers/

Obviously, my sisters focus more on plush, and looking at this little guy sticking out of the bag, I can't blame them.

Have a sunny day!

(They don't have to say that, but it's one of their options. The better, more into it employees tend to use that one. It is not like Disneyland where you have uniformity of cheerfulness.)