Because of the government shutdown, the places maintained by the National Park Service were closed, so I did not get to revisit Benjamin Franklin’s Printing Press, which was one of the things I had been looking forward to.

But it meant that many of the smaller museums were getting more visitors than they might otherwise have, and it freed up some of our time to see some of those places.

In reverse order, we visited:

The Museum for Art in Wood which was interesting, but also now has a good bit of my money spent in its shop.

I didn’t take any pictures (it was a small space and much was behind glass) but I do recommend visiting if you’re in Philadelphia.

Especially the gift shop.

In the middle was the Independence Seaport Museum.

In addition to historical items related to sailing…

…they had a lot of model ships.

I got twitchy just looking at some of them.

And they also had two ships you could tour: Olympia and Becuna.

Becuna is a 1944 WWII era submarine, and I didn’t feel like being that confined, so we didn’t even consider a tour.

But we did go aboard Olympia, which is a nineteenth-century cruiser that went into service in 1895 and served through the first World War.

It was fascinating.

First and foremost was the relative luxury of the officers’ cabins and mess compared to hammocks and single wooden box the rest of the sailors had. But it was also steam-powered, which meant all the apparatus for running a coal engine. And the giant guns which looked to me like cannon but were labeled as rifles.

I didn’t take any pictures, despite the fact for most of the time we were the only people on the ship, mostly because I was ruminating about the ship as we wandered around. And I got a bit melancholy, thinking of all the war she had seen, and the amount of blood that had been spilled on her decks.

Yet, I recommend the tour, especially in the off-season when there aren’t many people.

The first museum we visited was my favorite: The Science History Institute.

It was delightful.

It had a little bit of everything.

I liked the other two museums but loved The Science History Institute.

One of the things we try to do as much as we can, is to leave our trips as unplanned as possible. This does a couple things: First, it keeps me from fretting about time and what we have and haven’t done etc. If we don’t have a hard timeline, then we can take as much or as little time at places as we want, and if we see something interesting, we can just stop.

One of those places we decided to randomly stop at was the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles.

I am fascinated by old vehicles.

First, I love the way many older cars look.

Secondly, I read a lot of historical mysteries and romances–some of my favorites are those that weren’t historical when they were written (like Arthur Conan Doyle & Agatha Christie).

It’s one thing to read about a doctor’s buggy…

…or a stage coach…

…or a WWI military ambulance.

It’s something else entirely to see that vehicle in person.

To imagine packing all your worldly goods and everything you’d need to build a homestead into a Conestoga wagon and taking off for parts unknown.

Or to be rushing through London streets in a Hansom cab (or even worse, to be thrown from atop a carriage in an accident).

The carriage suddenly jolted violently, knocking her to the floor, and for a split second, it felt as if the whole of it would tip on its side. But after a few terrifying heartbeats, it slammed back down to the road and came to an abrupt stop.

…

Bess’s voice came from the other side of the carriage and Winnefred’s calm disappeared in an instant. Bloody hell, the girl had been thrown from the top of the carriage.
—Nearly a Lady by Alissa Johnson

You observe that you have some splashes on the left sleeve and shoulder of your coat. Had you sat in the centre of a hansom you would probably have had no splashes, and if you had they would certainly have been symmetrical. Therefore it is clear that you sat at the side. Therefore it is equally clear that you had a companion.”
— The Adventure of the Creeping Man by Arthur Conan Doyle

So I was delighted to stumble across this transportation museum and be able to take my time looking at all the different vehicles, and maybe tie them into the stories I’ve read that featured them.

My dad always had aquariums.

When I was little, there were tropical fish, but later, after Brian and I were both grown, he got his first salt-water tank. Brian took that when we sold my parent’s house, and several of the fish my dad had bought survived Brian’s move to South Carolina.

Which is a long way of saying that aquariums make me think of my dad.

I had my own tropical fish for a while, but our house is small, and when Grandmom moved in, the fishtank (and a lot of other stuff) had to go to make space.

I never got another tank, even when we had room. They take maintenance, and I’m a little too lazy, which is why I love visiting aquariums when we travel. No work on my part, plus the kinds of creatures I enjoy watching you can’t have in a home tank anyway.

So this trip was planned around two aquariums: Mystic Aquarium, and Adventure Aquarium.

Mystic Aquarium was the first we visited, and I found I really enjoyed walking around Mystic. (And eating all the fresh seafood.)

Because I am terrible at paying attention to details, we discovered that much of Mystic Aquarium is outdoors.

And it was raining that morning.

I took very few pictures there, although I of course got some of my favorites.

I love watching jellyfish. Unfortunately, the rooms that hold them tend to be small and loud and echo-y, so that removes most of the relaxation factor.

I stripped all the sound from the videos. You’re welcome.

We went to Adventure Aquarium in the middle of our stay in Philadelphia. Travel-wise we’d probably have been better going on Friday, but aquariums can get busy and crowded, so we opted for a Wednesday.

Not sure it made much of a difference, as it was stroller day, and there were multiple school groups.

These were all kinds of creepy.

I mean, seriously creepy.

Luckily, there were some of the more calming species to watch.

Both aquariums were nice, but neither was a favorite I’d want to necessarily go out of my way to visit again.