Summer Trip to Pennsyltucky

Last weekend, we took a kid-centric summer vacation road trip with lots of hands-on activities, rides, fun, and wholesome family togetherness out the wazoo. Imagine our surprise at driving to such a sweet and innocent vacation, when the street around the corner from our hotel was lined with nudy bars and adult book stores. Ahh... that's America for you.

Our first stop was at Sesame Place in lovely Langhorne, PA. This was pretty fun... Lucy loved the rides and the shows, even though she was wary (ok, terrified) of the costumed characters. Scott and I loved getting into the water to escape the 95+ degree heat.

Waiting to get into Sesame Place... hot, hot, and hot. And its only 10am.

Our spirits pick up at the merry-go-round. We rode it at least 5 times.

.

The flying fish ride that went a little too scarily high for

Mommy, but Lucy loved. This pic was taken BEFORE

we almost plummeted to our deaths.

Something Sesame did right: misters around the park.

Lucy's favorite thing: climbing the big blue mountain.

And sliding back down.

The biggest moon bounce I have ever seen.

Lucy basically just ran around wildly and then flopped down on her back.

Heh heh heh.. Daddy's turn to plummet to his death. The hot air

balloon ride. Again, Lucy seems unphased at the impending doom.

Day #2! WATER! Soooooo nice to cool off!

Lucy giving me a foot wash. Ironic since she's the one with the stinky feet!

Lazy river with Mommy. Mommy likes this. Ahhh...

This is the closest she got to Elmo the whole trip.

She did let me approach Big Bird at our Character Dinner (hesitantly), to let Scott snap a quick pic. Although, she SERIOUSLY flipped out whenever any of the characters approached our table. Especially, Cookie Monster. She thought he was going to "get" her. She did, however, like watching them sing and dance from a safe distance of 15-20 feet away.

Ooh, feel the terror. The shows were definitely one of the best parts.

Dancing by our seats.

This place is FUN as long as no one comes near me!

Our second stop was at The Crayola Factory in lovely Easton, PA, which was A LOT longer of a drive from our hotel than we had originally anticipated. It was still really fun, although I think a slightly older kid would get even more out of the numerous art projects you can do there. We basically just dabbled here and there.

Live characters-- hell no! But a giant stationary crayon? YES, PLEASE!

Crayola's version of Play Doh. Interesting. We drew on it with

markers and made a pretty sweet mess.

There was a clear wall you could draw on.

Which, of course, led to the idea of drawing on oneself.

Above the Crayola Factory there was this coal mining/canal museum (only in PA), and Lucy really liked this sandbox full of shredded rubber.

As my Dad says, there's one buckethead in every crowd.

Ok, it WAS pretty cool.

And then we visited some friends near Philly, where Lucy had a great time playing with Violet, who she hasn't seen in over a year! The girls are SO alike that they wanted to do and be the same things while playing, which caused a little conflict. But 5 minutes later they were over it and back to having a tea party.

Conflict? Problem solved: The Piglet Movie.

Oh, and horses. Is it just a universal things that all little girls love horses?

Third and final stop: The Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia. A truly great children's museum... very much like Port Discovery in Baltimore. Mommy and Daddy were very thankful for another day of air conditioning. Lucy had a great time touching everything.

Outside the museum. Yay for free street parking!

Wrong turn.

Lucy could have stayed here all day watching these ball balance on puffs of air.

Aaand, of course, we spent copious amounts of time in the water area.

The piano from the movie Big. Pretty cool.

Family band in the jungle music room. Elvis would be proud.

Giving baby bear some milk. (You can see she's already

put Papa and Mama bear in their beds in the background.)

Yeah, um... that's not a scary-ass Mad Hatter or anything...

Taking care of a baby (which was anatomically correct!) in the play hospital.

Yet another merry-go-round inside the museum.

I think this is my favorite pic from our whole vacation. Stengers of Avonlea.

Our last stop was at Dalessandro's and Lucy was convinced that the twisty stools at the counter were another ride . Mommy and Daddy enjoyed some cheesesteak bliss.