Field Trip: Philadelphia

Since the temple in Washington DC is closed long term, we went to Philadelphia temple and did some sight-seeing while we were there. We went to the Academy of Natural Sciences. 

 They had a lot of great hands-on activities. Giant clam shell for touching and brother M petting a legless lizard.

 They had an exhibit called "Outdoors In" full of animals in aquariums and terrariums.

 They had some very lifelike dioramas.

They had a big dinosaur fossil digging area. 

 The most amazing part of the museum was this tiny dusty store room type place.  Inside you could watch workers opening plaster casts used to ship a dinosaur skeleton from Montana. It is still half buried in dirt. They have to dig the pieces out carefully and then assess it.  Here is an article about it: Fossils Arrive in Philly

The kids favorite thing was this "Moving with the Dinosaurs" animation area.  

 We also enjoyed this sign:

 They had animated dinosaurs outside the museum that scared them a bit at first and then they had fun with it.

 Then we headed into the famous Reading Terminal Market. It was huge!

 Tons of confectionary delights. 

 They had a creperie that looked pretty authentic. And this fun bakery with made to order canollis.

 There was one herbalist shop that I spent some time in.

 We tried several of the testers. I was curious about the smell of patchouli lotion since I am growing some for that purpose.  It is supposed to be good for eczema.

 Some notes on the map of places to eat next time.