Franklin Institute and the Academy of Natural Sciences - Philadelphia

I hadn't been to the Franklin Institute since I was in elementary school and went there on a class trip. I had never been to the Academy of Natural Sciences before.

Let's start with the Franklin Institute:

You can get a great idea about the place by checking out it's website... but it's basically a bigger, better version of the New York Hall of Science. The Franklin Institute has MORE stuff to do, MORE demonstrations, MORE supervision, a MUCH BETTER DINING AREA (larger, cleaner, and better food) but lacks the really cool outdoor playground the NY Hall of Science has. If you have kids and are in the area, this is a MUST DO!

Unfortunately, we had a small problem while we were there. An alarm began to ring as we started eating our lunch. No one moved at first, and then we noticed staff members emptying out the register. There were NO announcements made, but a couple of visitors started to exit the dinning area and leave their belongings. A woman sitting next to use walked up to a staff member that was counting money and asked, "Is that a fire alarm?" He responded, "Yes." My wife asked, "Is this a drill? Should we be leaving?" He responded, "They don't tell us if it's a drill." She responded, "Should we be leaving?" He said, "Yes." So we all began to walk out, leaving our food. Other people began to follow us. My kids were nervous and scared, but we told them it was a drill. Just as we got to the door the alarm stopped and we saw people walking back in. No one said it was safe to enter, or made mention of the alarm. Seems that the FI needs to work on their emergency plans! If anyone from the FI would care to leave a comment about this, it would be appreciated.


Now the Academy of Natural Sciences:
It's basically a smaller version of the Museum of Natural History. A few dinosaur fossils, a butterfly area (pales in comparison to the garden at the Bronx Zoo), and some really DATED dioramas of Africa, Asia, and North America. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to see the "outside in" exhibit, which the kids probably would have liked. Not my favorite of Natural History Museums, but even if the kids learned 1 thing, and had some fun, it was worth it. The highlight of the museum was the dinosaur digging area. Usually museums give goggles and a brush to move sand covering "fossils", but at the ANS they give a chisel. My son thought it was cool. My daughter, strangely, liked the 1 mummy the museum has on display.