The five day road trip
to Philly is over. Some bits were great
– others not so much. Here's the not-so-great list:
Border Crossing
#1: We had a looooong wait time at the US border on Friday morning!
How long? Two and a half hours! (And how is it that we always pick the slowest slow
line? I so wanted to get out of the car and walk around, but there were very
clear warnings that this is a big no-no. I guess I’m not the first twitchy person who wanted to stretch her legs. I wonder what they would have done if I had
bolted?)
Border Crossing
#2: We even waited one hour at the Canadian border on Tuesday evening. Surely everything
should have been rolling along? Wrong line again.
Air conditioning
malfunction: The wait at the border iced
up our air conditioning so that we briefly rode along buffeted by hot winds until the problem resolved itself.
We recalled those pre-AC cross-country road trips with the kids when we would all stagger red-faced and scraggly into road side service
centres for 20 minutes respite. Auto AC is a miracle.
Getting lost: This happened so regularly that it is hardly
worth elaborating. Thank goodness for
Samantha, the voice of our GPS. Most of the time
we disagree with her choices for us, but when we are really lost, we don’t
question her.
Closed galleries: Monday is often museum and art gallery down time, so why did we think it would be different in Philadelphia? The Barnes was closed, although we did admire the fabulous new building. We went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Saturday and would have returned on Monday if it had been open . The Franklin Institute with its Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit? Closed. The Rodin Museum? Closed. We considered wider options -- The African American Museum in Philadelphia, The National Museum of American Jewish History, or the Philadelphia History Museum. But no, no, and no. The National Constitution Center was open, and we might have stood in line to see the Liberty Bell, but by then we were feeling hot, grumpy and defeated.
Instead, we walked around, saw the heritage buildings in Ben Franklin’s old neighbourhood, admired many outdoor sculptures including Rocky, went into the good old Free Public Library of Philadelphia, had lunch at a sidewalk cafe and eventually walked back to the train station. It was All Good, but not exactly what we had planned.
Perhaps a return visit, a midweek visit, is indicated?
Closed galleries: Monday is often museum and art gallery down time, so why did we think it would be different in Philadelphia? The Barnes was closed, although we did admire the fabulous new building. We went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Saturday and would have returned on Monday if it had been open . The Franklin Institute with its Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit? Closed. The Rodin Museum? Closed. We considered wider options -- The African American Museum in Philadelphia, The National Museum of American Jewish History, or the Philadelphia History Museum. But no, no, and no. The National Constitution Center was open, and we might have stood in line to see the Liberty Bell, but by then we were feeling hot, grumpy and defeated.
Instead, we walked around, saw the heritage buildings in Ben Franklin’s old neighbourhood, admired many outdoor sculptures including Rocky, went into the good old Free Public Library of Philadelphia, had lunch at a sidewalk cafe and eventually walked back to the train station. It was All Good, but not exactly what we had planned.
 |
| No Rodin....just Rocky Balboa. |
So nice to have you back again, Nancy. I do like my daily fix.
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