More catching up: The Franklin Institute

It's no secret we're all four of us a bunch of dorks. Amy and I, however, go above and beyond the other two in our dorkiness. Hence, our recent trip to The Franklin Institute in beautiful scenic Philadelphia for the exhibit titled, "Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination". We visited sans The Little Lord because she's a buttbag.

Basically, the exhibit had lots of Star Wars scale models, costumes and props tied together with the real world science principles that inspired the films' "science" principles. There was actually some interesting bits about the evolution of robots and artificial intelligence throughout the years. The exhibit was geared towards children so there lots of hands-on Mr. Wizard/Beakman's World type gadgets to play around with.

The movie costumes were actually very neat, as were the life sized replicas of some of the characters. It was interesting to see the details close-up.

All that is good and well but the real treat of the day for me and Amy was not the lightsabers and blasters behind a glass case. Nope. The best part of the day were the living breathing Storm Troopers courtesy of the 501st Legion. They had members of their group roaming around the place and taking pictures with anyone who asked. The funniest part was that more adults grown-up nerds than kids were asking for pictures. And not just the regular stand-next-to-you picture, the younger kids were happy with those. The hardcore older fans were asking the troopers to do all sorts of things like firing poses and pretending to be prisoners.

Amy and I (mostly Amy) had a field day posing with all the Storm Troopers and stray Jawas and Tusken raiders. The only one we missed was Boba Fett. We totally stalked him but he was off to his lunch break or something and wouldn't stop for pictures. Can't really blame the guy. I imagine he and Darth Vader would be the most mobbed of their group.

The highlight of the day was when Amy totally got groped by a Storm Trooper! She asked for a hug with her picture and the guy leaned in super super close and grabbed on extra tight. When it was my turn, the guy went back to his generic shoot-the-camera pose.

We also took the time to see some of the other sections of museum like the world famous giant heart you can walk through and the working locomotive.

It was a fun few hours on a Sunday afternoon.

Here is a Flicker set of the day.

Some catching up to do: Opening Day At Knoebels

This year's opening day at Knoebels was so much fun. It was one of the better times we've had at the park.

First of all, it was a beautiful day. There was rain expected but thankfully, it held out until we left the park. This year, the trees and flowers were all in bloom. So much so that it played hell on my allergies. My eyes were all bloodshot for the better part of the day but we didn't let that hamper our fun.

We got there around lunch time so that was the first order of business even before buying the all day passes. That's one of the better advantages of opening day. All day passes are buy one get one free. It's really quite a savings. We pretty much get to hit all the rides (except the haunted house - you still have to pay for that) multiple times. Faith and the girls rode both coasters twice in fact.

Speaking of the haunted house, there's a few new additions to it this year. Anna and I ended up going a couple of times in a row. She even persuaded Amy to go through but I don't know if Amy kept her eyes open or not.

The only rides not open were the Skloosh (still too cold for the major water ride) and the new Flying Turns ride because it's still under construction. We've been waiting over a year and a half for that thing. Hopefully, it'll be finished by the time we go back later this summer.

Knoebel's also has a mining museum because the land the park resides on was once part of a mining operation. For some reason, we've never gone in it before. The joke's on us, it was one of the funnest parts of the day. Many a dumb picture of us posing next to the strange exhibits were taken.

We always end the day on the train ride that goes through the woods. And this year because of the weight we've lost, Faith and I actually fit together in one of the cars comfortably. That was a pleasant surprise.

All in all, it was one of the better times I've had at the park.

Sad News

Sometime this morning Nutmeg died. Onil checked her last night and she was moving around a little bit, and when he checked her again this morning she was dead.

She hadn't been doing well for weeks. Every week when I came home from NYC she seemed a little bit worse. The last few days she just stayed up in her bed and didn't even come down to her wheel or her food, and we had to put her food in the top along with a wet paper towel for her to drink from. So I knew she was going to be going soon, and I even had a feeling it was going to be this week. I said a special goodbye to her and told her I loved her before I left for work yesterday morning. She's in good company, anyway. It was ten years ago today that Frank Sinatra died.

Goodnight, Crazy Nut. You were an awesome little haimstie, and you will be dearly missed.