Spring Break Tourism

I’m finally getting around to posting pictures of the touristy things we did while Tim and Rachele were here. I’m kicking myself for not snapping a shot of the no parking sign, but it’s probably for the best. I’m sure no good could come from having that evidence in my possession. I guess I just need to move on.

Tuesday April 3

Franklin Institute in Philadelphia (You know – the day of the infamous parking ticket – but I’m moving on. Really.) Unfortunately there was no picture taking allowed in the King Tut exhibit. I’ll try to describe it to you. A lot of extremely old stuff in big glass cases. Just think of The Mummy and The Mummy Returns and you’ll get the idea, though we didn’t see anything quite so gruesome as a decomposing body. Which reminds me, there were things belonging to Amhenotep II and Amhenotep III, both believed to be the grandfather and great-grandfather of Tut. This excited me because my vast knowledge of Egyptian history has been gained to me through the Mummy movies.

Me: (With much awe and wonder) Oh look! I wonder if this is the same Amhenotep from the movie!

Todd: (Not so awed) Maybe.

Me: No. Now that I think about it, it couldn’t be. He wasn’t a second or a third and he was only a priest, not a Pharaoh. So he couldn’t be the same one. Maybe he was the father of Amhenotep II.

Todd: (Probably a little patronizing, but I hadn’t caught on yet) Mm-hm. Could be.

Me: Except, that’s probably not right. He was a priest so he couldn’t be married. At least I don’t think so. And in the movie he wasn’t married, but carrying on an affair with the Pharaoh’s mistress. So if he were the father of Amhenotep II, then the Amhenotep II probably wouldn’t have become a Pharaoh.

Todd: And we all know the “Mummy” movies are historical fact.

Me: Hmph! (At this point I realized the ludicrous nature of my one-way discussion, but was unwilling to admit it.)

Surprisingly we still felt like eating after seeing the parking ticket. (Really! I AM getting past this!) So we took Tim and Rachele to Sonny’s. And for those attentive readers out there, yes, the date stamp on the picture is wrong. I forgot to get a picture of the restaurant that day so I went through my picture archives and found this one from a year before. But I don’t consider it cheating because that’s really where we went to eat.

Sonny’s has the most fantabulous cheese steaks! And it’s more of a local place as opposed to a tourist trap so they’re never too busy, though they have a steady stream of patrons.

We stopped at Costco on the way home, but I didn’t get a picture of that, either. And I don’t believe I have a picture in my archives so you’ll just have to use your imagination.

Wednesday April 4

The boys stayed home while the three girls went to KOP (that’s local talk for the King of Prussia Mall). Rachele was on the hunt for a maternity swimsuit and Katie thought she was looking for an Easter/Concert dress. I indulged her a little bit and I have to admit, it scared me.

First of all, why is she drawn to the hooker section? She’d pick out a dress that looked like something from Pretty Woman – and I’m not talking about the nice clothes – and I’d say, “That’s lovely, but Auntie Rachele says no.” I figured Rachele was only here for a short time and didn’t have to live with Katie’s wrath. Somehow, however, Katie knew I was lying.

And second, can huffing, flouncing and rolling one’s eyes back into one’s head be dangerous over time? Maybe she got it all out of her system and the teenage years – THAT WE HAVEN’T EVEN GOTTEN TO YET – will sail by smoothly.

Alright. I need to continue on. I’m feeling the urge to huff, flounce and roll my eyes and that can’t be good.

While we were gone Tim decided to go on a walkabout. He walked 4 miles, taking a circuitous route to the beer store where he purchased two cases of beer and walked a good mile back holding one under each arm. Talk about endurance exercise. I would have stopped to get him some if he wanted it that bad.

Thursday April 5

We went to see the plain folk, starting with the Intercourse Cannery in Intercourse, Pennsylvania. In the snow. I wish they’d change the name of the town because I still can’t say it with a straight face. I suppose I could wish I’d grow up instead, but I think a name change is more probable.

After that we went to the Old Candle Barn. Neat place with lots of candles (who could have guessed) and primitive knick knacks. Downstairs they make the candles and you can go watch. We girls thought that sounded like fun, but when we got down there they weren’t doing a darn thing. Lazy Amish people!

Across the parking lot – where they had FREE parking (moving on) – was Kitchen Kettle Village, Tourist Trap Extraordinaire. But since it was snowing there wasn’t a big crowd.

Here’s a picture of an Amish bus.

After that we drove to an outlet mall to look for good tennies. No blogworthy photos from that little adventure.

By this time we acknowledged the need to feed the diabetic and the pregnant woman. So we drove down the street to Fuddrucker’s, not only one of the best hamburger joints, but a fun and shocking thing to say. Again, I’ve never professed to be terribly mature.The last stop was at Sonic – definitely blogworthy! Sonic is as prolific in Arkansas as Starbucks is in New York City. They’re on practically every corner. Our family alone supported two in our town. So you can imagine our utter dismay when we moved to an area with no Sonic. One day in a moment of culinary despair, I went online and found out there IS a Sonic in the state of Pennsylvania. In Lancaster County. So we can’t go to Lancaster without stopping at Sonic. It didn’t matter we were completely stuffed from our dinner at Fuddruckers. It would have been wrong to drive by since we were in the area.

There are still a couple more days to go, but this post has turned out to be rather lengthy. Come back tomorrow for the rest of the post. I know you can’t wait!

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7 Comments

Jenster, love the play by play of your week. If I had to pay a $300 parking ticket I don’t think I’d be moving on so easily. That’s an expense you normally don’t compute into vacation expenses.And then I came to this And second, can huffing, flouncing and rolling one’s eyes back into one’s head be dangerous over time? I smiled, rolled my eyes and huffed — just a little bit. I have boys, they are 17 and 20 now. We still have much eye rolling and huffing. No flouncing, but lots, LOTS of huffing. It’s so reassuring to know we have children who tolerate us and our ignorant ways isn’t it? I often comment to my 17 year old that I don’t know how I make a decision without him since he KNOWS EVERYTHING.This was very entertaining.

Great recap, you have such an eye to detail. I couldn’t remember a single thing to save my life, lol. I’m the first to admit I never been to a Sonic in my life. I want to go but there isn’t any in the NY/NJ area. I did find out that a Sonic has opened up in Williamsburg, VA. Hubby and I are determined to find it when we go back in the summer. He loves Sonic and has been there quite a few times when he used to be on business trips when he worked for PetsMart. The place that I want to experience even worse than Sonic is In-n-Out Burger. I’ve lost count of the posts I’ve read online about the burgers from this place. And yes, hubby has eaten here too.

First of all, I *LOVE* Sonic. Haven’t been there in years though. The Tut Exhibit was wonderful! Glad you enjoyed it – is Todd trying to say that The Mummy movies are historically inaccurate? Pshaw! 🙂 Details, details. My 11, almost 12 year old niece is also drawn to garments that are not age appropriate, do not fit well or are way too expensive. Hookers would not be caught dead or otherwise in some of the stuff she has tried to get me to buy here. I actually laughed the last thing she asked for – it was that bad! Girls!Sounds like a wonderful Spring Break!

Jenster, I LOVE your blog! You tell such a great story! I can always count on you for a giggle.:-) I know what you mean about the clothes. My daughter is only 7, and it’s difficult at best, but usually next to impossible to find something that 1) covers her thighs COMPLETELY; 2) doesn’t have the word DIVA on it (she needs no encouragement in that area); or 3) doesn’t have those awful Bratz dolls on it, who look like tramps. What happened to clothes that kept our little girls little girls??? Nowhere to be found. Intercourse, PA? In AMISH country? Seems a tad ironic, don’t you think? 😉 snicker…I so wish we lived near each other, because my family also keeps Sonic & Fuddrucker’s highly profitable. My daughter attended a half-day kindergarten, and every Friday was FUDDRUCKER FRIDAY (insert booming voice) after school. We still do FUDDRUCKER FRIDAY when we can. It is a funny name & fun to say. 🙂 Almost like you’re trying to get away with saying something bad but not quite…! 🙂

Rosie – My used to say she was so amazed at how smart her mother got when she (my mom) got into her 20’s. LOLAim – I’m telling ya. Hit the Sonic as soon as you get to Williamsburg! It’s an experience up there with fluffernutter sandwiches. Cheddar peppers and a double cherry coke!!! HEAVEN! Funny you should mention In-N-Out burgers. April mentioned that on her blog and I miss them. They are AWESOME! I even miss my In-N-Out Burgers t-shirt. :o(Jodi – Can you say “Intercourse, PA” without getting all giggly like a school girl?Jen – I think that is what Todd was trying to say. He’s wrong, of course. As for the clothing thing, I dunno. I walk by the cute little matching outfits I used to buy for her when she was little and say, “Why can’t you wear stuff like that anymore?” Then we get into the whole flouncing, huffing and eye rolling thing.Katybug – I don’t get it. You don’t see Hannah Montana or Raven wearing such trampy things! And yeah! It is ironic! As for the Fuddrucker thing, it’s like when Taylor was little and he said “Nammit is a bad word and people shouldn’t say nammit and if I hear someone say nammit I’m going to tell them, ‘don’t you know nammit is a bad word and you shouldn’t say nammit?” LOL He got that word in about 50 times in one sentence. Finally we had to put a stop to it. But we still say nammit sometimes. LOL

You know it’s crazy that we live so far from each other and yet, I’ve experienced some of this!Tut exhibit when I was 7 at the Toronto ROM.Fuddruckers is a place I’ve been to once because Bob had had a burger there before and wanted me to experience the beauty. I remember it was huge!We have candle barns but I won’t go in them – one of our family gift rules is NO MORE CANDLES!!We have Amish in St. Jacobs (much easier to pronounce without giggling) and have seen the bus ;)We have a restaurant up here called Mother Tuckers. The good news is I can say this and get away with not being obnoxious. MOTHER TUCKER!! ;)We don’t have Sonic but cherry coke!? Do they do it with the syrup the old fashioned way? There was a diner I went to when I was 12 that served cherry and vanilla coke and I have never tasted anything like it again. I once tried Coke’s version and cherry coke and sputtered!Oh, and did you have some sort of problem with parking ;)CindyS