Thanks Overstock.com!

I wanted to thank Overstock.com for "doing the right thing"! I purchased a 3 piece play tent set about a month ago and didn't even realize that only 2 pieces were sent. I JUST got a call from overstock apologizing that the 3rd piece (the teepee) never arrived. They told me they would refund my cost ($20) or send me another tube and tent. I opted for the free additional pieces! Great job guys- you now have a loyal customer!

FYI: Here is the tent set (minus teepee)

Sesame Place

Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street? Or rather, Sesame Place! Well, that all depends upon where you are starting out from! What I can tell you is WE LOVE SESAME PLACE. We've been there before, but I won't review any place we've been in the past... it has to be "real time".

My son has been to Sesame each summer for the last three summers, and we took our 2 year old for the first time this year. Although my son (just turned 6) was hoping for some bigger rides, he had a blast. The "best" ride for him was the Grover roller coaster. There is plenty to do for kids of their (2 1/2 and 6) age. They loved the character lunch and took pictures with them all. Sesame does a great job making the characters available to the kids and keeping it organized. Although you hope for a beautiful day, there is a good mix of water rides, dry rides, and indoor activities. The park has always been clean and well run, although a friend of ours had a different experience when she took her kids. Let me know what your experience has been!

Advise if you plan on going:

-Check Sesame's site for package deals. They tend to be a good prices.
-Look for coupon codes online- there are tons of them!
=If you go for 2 days, the park is small enough to do everything a couple of times and go for a meal or 2 outside of the park! There are plenty of places right by the park.
-The parade is great, just plan to get to the route about half an hour early. Every one advises watching the parade where the blue pavement meets the black pavement. Just watch out for bully parents that will actually block out your kids!
-If you have young kids and are in the North East, Sesame Place is a must!


Where did we stay?

We've been to 2 other hotel's when going to Sesame in the past, but this time we went to the Courtyard by Marriot in Langhorne, PA.


Here's the skinny

Included breakfast- decent
Room- clean
Free Wifi
Free shuttle service to and from Sesame... MOST hotels in this area offer this service! If you plan on staying in the area, make sure there is a shuttle- beats parking in the lot and dealing w/ traffic.
Pool- clean and empty when we went!

Would I recommend this hotel? Yes. Beats out the other 2 we've stayed at.

Phialdelphia Dinner at Pizzicato

We were walking down Market Street during the afternoon and took notice of Pizzicato during it's busy lunch hour. The restaurant is a block or so from Ben Franklin's house, which was an interesting 10 minute stop on our travels. I checked out the menu and a waiter saw us with the two kids. He was very polite, asked how our day was, if we were visiting from out of town (it was a work day and we were obviously not the work lunch crowd). I said, we'll be back for dinner. We returned a few hours later and took a table inside. It was a warm sunny day and my wife wanted a cooler area to sit, after a long day of exploring the city.

The restaurant waiter asked if we would like something not on the menu for the kids, such as chicken fingers and fries or plain pasta. My son had the pizza Margherita and my daughter had penne with marinara sauce. My wife had there lasagna and I had a pizza with grilled chicken, spinach, fresh mozzarella, red onion and proscuitto. We were very happy with the meal and would go there again. The prices were fair ($10 for a personal pizza) and the service (I think our waiters name was Ross) was fantastic.

Things we didn't get to do in Philadelphia that we wanted to do!

Mutter Museum, Ghost Tour, and Eastern State Penitentiary.
Any thoughts on these??

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.

Penn's Landing and the Independence Seaport Museum

After grabbing some icecream at Franklin's Fountain, we strolled down Market Street and across to Penn's Landing ( a waterfront area on the banks of the Delaware River) in the afternoon. This is an off time for Penn's Landing, as apparently there are concerts and such in the evening. If you are looking for a lively atmosphere you can check out the gophilla.com website for dates and times of activities. There is a ferry there that will take you across to New Jersey and the Independence Seaport Museum. We got to the Museum at 3:30 and I asked the desk clerk what the museum had to offer (I had never heard of it before). She said there are 2 floors are exhibits and a boat and submarine you can explore docked out back. I noted that the place was empty and she offered to have my son go free (my daughter was already in the under three= free category) since the Museum was closing at 5. I paid for me and my wife and we headed out to the boats. Turns out the kids loved it.

Here's a run down of the two ships from the ISM website:

The Olympia (C-6) is the oldest steel warship afloat in the world. Launched in San Francisco, CA, in 1892, she is similar to many early steel warships built in Philadelphia for the US Navy.
On May 1, 1898, Olympia devastated a Spanish fleet at Manila Bay in the Philippines,beginning the Spanish-American War. Olympia helped catapult the United States into the role of superpower and won fame for her most famous officer, Commodore George Dewey. It was from Olympia's bridge that Dewey delivered his famous order, "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley." Olympia also served her country during World War I.

and

Dive into history aboard Independence Seaport Museum's battle-tested World War II Submarine Becuna! Launched in 1944, the Becuna (SS-319) completed five wartime patrols in the Pacific Ocean. Becuna is similar to many submarines built in Philadelphia for the U.S. Navy.
Becuna is a BALAO-class submarine built in New London, CT. During World War II, "Becky" prowled the Pacific Ocean for Japanese ships, and is credited with sinking 3.5 Japanese merchant ships.

Becuna's Cold War missions often found her in the Atlantic, trailing Soviet submarines with eavesdropping equipment aboard. She served in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic during the Korean and Vietnam Wars and ended her long and distinguished career as a training submarine in Connecticut. Becuna was decommissioned in 1969 and has been part of Independence Seaport Museum's Historic Ship Zone since 1996.


The regular exhibits include predominantly models of ships. There were a couple of fun, interactive exhibits, but we breezed through the interior museum in about 20 minutes. That was more than enough for the age of our kids. The ships (Olympia and Becuna) were the highlight of the stop! My son loved it. He still talks about the size of the sub and the small passageways, and the big guns today (a week after our trip).

Sonny's Famous Steaks - Philadelphia

Let me start by saying in the past I've been to Geno's Steaks, Pat's King of Steaks, and Jim's Steaks cheese steak joints. I rank (least favorite to best) them in the order I wrote them. Where does Sonny's Famous Steaks stack up? Probably right in front of Pat's, but not as good as Jim's. All in all, another cheese steak place... Jim's still stands above the other's!