Adventure Aquarium

In between two very full days at Sesame Place, we spent a day indoors at the Adventure Aquarium.It was a neat place... once the summer camp kids left. I sure hope Tyler was respectful of the non-camp kids yesterday on his field trip... yes, we did have a talk about it in the morning.

They either had one huge tank that you could see from all over the place or there were a lot of big tanks with all sorts of different creatures.

The boys enjoyed the real creatures and the fakes.

They even enjoyed the fake scenery. Don't you love the flash off the background?

I thought this tunnel was really cool. We were surrounded by sharks!

Check this guy out who was right above us in the tunnel.

They even had a couple of Hippos. We had a chance to see them in the water...

And out... they are rather disgusting animals.

Tyler enjoyed this sign in the Hippo exhibit.

Huge tanks!

Fake or real, they didn't seem to care.

Along with the water slides, this was Tyler's favorite thing that we did on vacation. He touched a sting ray! Actually, he touched lots and lots of sting rays! We had a hard time getting him to leave.

He also enjoyed touching the sharks. These guys are bottom feeders with no teeth. I am still impressed he did this. There were a few times that he almost ended up in the tank!

Ry Ry would put his hand in the water when there was nothing around him and take it out when something swam by... he is a smart boy!

Overall, we really enjoyed ourselves in the aquarium.

Museum Day

We decided to spend our last day of vacation checking out a couple of museums. We started at the Please Touch Museum.





The building itself was beautiful inside and out.

The boys really enjoyed it. Ryan found another turtle and since it wasn't out in the sun, he could get on.

Check out this torch... it was huge!

Statue of Liberty Tyler.

Statue of Liberty Ryan!

The museum was very interactive just like our local children's museum, but it wasn't quite as large. Yes, we are spoiled.

This exhibit was neat because you could change the parts around on the cars. Everything was held on by magnets. Big smile Ryan!

I have a feeling this is a scene we will see again in the future... Ryan working on a car while Tyler supervises.

Tyler looks pretty comfortable in the drivers seat of the city bus.

I need to figure out where to put one of these in our house... a hamster wheel for boys!

It doesn't take much to make Ryan happy...

This was a neat exhibit. Tyler found just the right sized ball to float.

Random elephant!

They even had a mini grocery store. The boys loved it! I have to say that it wasn't as detailed and organized as the one at our favorite museum...

Big smile.

The lower level of the museum had other parts of a city for the kids to explore. In addition to the grocery store, there was a McDonald's, a bunch of businesses and a construction site...

It was really well done. We discovered that Ryan isn't very steady with a wheelbarrow. He'd better study in school!

There was a music room in a jungle theme. Check out the pipe organ.

We ended our visit with a ride on the carousel. It was huge! 3 rows of horses!

In the afternoon we visited the Franklin Institute Science Museum.

There was a whole room dedicated to the heart. Here is something rather gross...

I want to know who thinks of these things. Ok kids, lets go walk through a heart! Yuck.

Oh, and you have to crawl through the arteries too!

Finally it was time to move on to the airplane room.

Here is Tyler in the wind room attempting to fly.

He didn't learn much as you can see in this next photo. He's flying a virtual bi-plane and as you can see in the upper right hand corner... he's going to crash or be a fantastic stunt pilot in future airshows!

This cracks me up. This exhibit was showing how air will keep a bottle up in the air, but Ryan

had other ideas...We went to the sports room, but all the boys were really interested in were the race cars. I know... shocking.

Think Ryan will make a good beach boy?

This room was impressive. It was huge with Ben Franklin in the middle.

We also had an opportunity to see a show about fireworks which ended up being really interesting and had enough fire to keep the boys engaged.

The last room we were in was the Train room. They had an actual engine that was built in 1927 as a company show piece as it was their 60,000. Unfortunately it was too big and destroyed track due to the weight all over the US. So, it was sold to the museum for $1 in 1933 and that is where it has been ever since.

They allowed you to get aboard and go for a 1 mph ride for a few feet. Yes, it actually moved! They boys were excited for their turn.

On the train.

Overall, it was a nice museum and very interactive considering the age. We were hoping it wouldn't be a stuffy museum and it wasn't.

Lately I seem to be measuring the amount of fun we've had by the length of time it takes Ryan to fall asleep after we're done. I think we outdid ourselves on vacation because Ryan fell asleep as soon as we left the museum and stayed asleep as I got him out of the car and into the restaurant. Here he is in the booth. The poor kid slept right through dinner!

This is a quick video from the Please Touch Museum. The boys were sitting in an actual car together while Ryan changed the channel on the radio. It was too funny to watch them rocking to the music. You can see a bit of what we were seeing in the middle of this clip.

Vacation is over. Back to the real world... for a little relaxation and rest!

Sesame Place

We arrived at our hotel on Monday to start our official vacation and look who was in the lobby to greet us...

Ryan could not have been more excited and had to greet Elmo each morning.

We spent two days at Sesame Place, arriving at 10:00am each day, leaving for dinner and some down time in the hotel before returning in the evening for the parade. We finally left the park at 9:30pm each night. I'd say we maximized our time!

According to Ryan, we went to "Elmo Street" which was pronounced "Emo Steet." Love it!

You are going to have to use your imagination for most pictures. We spent our days in the water park minus the camera as the temperatures went from the high 90s to the low 100s. Crazy!

We were sure to go on each of the dry rides, but mostly in the evening. This one was the flying fish. I think Tyler is mad at me in this picture for making him wear his sunglasses.

Ryan wore a smile most of the time.

Ryan was able to go on almost all of the rides and water slides. I was really surprised. And, he actually did them!! But, he wasn't old enough for the rollercoaster so while Tyler went to check that out, we had a chance to see some of the characters.

Grover.

Abby.

Oscar the Grouch aka "gouch."

Big Bird. Tyler wasn't happy about being in this picture. I think Ryan was laughing at him.

Elmo!

When we returned to the park Tuesday night there was a brief, intense rain storm which resulted in an empty park and some great pictures.

Do you see the rope obstacle course behind the banners?? Tyler dragged Dan through the whole thing... in the heat. I'm so glad it wasn't me!

I loved the bush/plant characters all over the park.

Sesame Street.

The Count and Zoe! Tyler only agreed to be in this picture if he could be in front of the Count. Too funny.

The Elmo bush/plant was actually red! I think it was begonias.

Yes, I got a little picture crazy with an empty park. It is a good thing they love me.

The brownstone.

Check this out... we spent a ton of time in this area. There was water spraying and dumping everywhere! And, Ryan went down all 4 of the water slides coming off the sides by himself multiple times. This area, the big raft that we could all go in together, the lazy river and another big slide with a double raft were our favorites.

Tea cups.

On Tuesday, Heather and her family met us at the park. On Thursday another friend, Tara, and her son met us. It is a lot more fun with friends. Here we are with Colin on the tea cups.

Thursday evening we caught one of the shows before the parade. Ryan was fascinated.

A few more dry rides.

This next ride is the Peek-A-Bug and was a favorite for both boys. It went back and forth and around on a wide U-track. It was fun!

At the entrance of the park, each of the characters had their footprints. Tyler was able to read all the names himself!

Here's our Ryan holding tight to his Oscar the Grouch, eagerly awaiting the parade.

Seeing the parade during the day in the heat was not an option. It wasn't as bad at night. It was very well done with 23 minutes of catchy music, dancing and lots of activity. I captured some of it and have loaded it at the end.

I really hope there is air conditioning in these suits.

Oscar. A new favorite.

I have no idea who this is.

I have a better picture of the Count, but this picture makes me smile. The girl is crowd control and she took her job really, really seriously. They had dots on the ground and if you were one inch over she was on you in a second. It was rather humorous! Check out her fist... she's just waiting for the next deviant at the Sesame Street Parade!

Cookie was very elusive during our visit. We only saw him once on the street and during the parade.

Super Grover!!

We had a fabulous time, made some great memories and have two very happy boys.