Philadelphia and House-Filk

I get up around 9am, and have breakfast with Mark and Rene. I then take the number 34 trolley into the city.

I can take the trolley further into town, but I decide to get off at the 30th Street main station, as the Franklin Museum of Science is only a short walk away. I discover that the museum appears to be predominately aimed at kids, which surprises me, as there is another museum expressely for children (called “The Please Touch Me Museum”) in the same area. Still, it has some interesting exhibits, particularly the train room, with various steam locomotives.

My ticket includes a session in the Planetarium, but I am too late to make the 11am show, and don’t want to stay until the next show at 1:15pm. I check and find that my ticket will allow readmission, so I decide to come back later, if time allows.

I walk down J F Kennedy Boulevard, into town. Tickets for Independance Hall are sold out today, so I look around the Independance Hall Visitors Centre instead, then I queue to stare at the Liberty Bell for a few moments.

Liberty Bell

I make my way back to the Franklin Museum, stopping at various shops on the way, including a lunch break for the famous Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich..

I arrive in time for the Planatarium show, which is a bit of an anticlimax. For a start, they are using a perfectly good 360 degree dome planetarum for a multimedia show that would have been more suited to a conventional cinema, with very little showing of star-scapes, and lots of flashy split screens. Secondly, the show is spoilt by the constant crying of two babies on opposite sides of the hall whenever the room went black. I had no real problem with the little girl sitting behind me, asking questions of her dad – at least the questions were about the show. But I think taking babies into a show like this is kind of thoughtless, both for the baby and other people, and not leaving when the baby cries is even more so.

I walk to 30th Street again, and return to Mark and Rene’s place for the housefilk. There are familiar faces – Ben, Merav, Jon, Eyal from the con; my “stalkers” Paul and Hilary, who appear to be following me around, being at the con and the previous house filk in Boston; and some folk I haven’t met before – Leah, and Ben’s girlfriend Rachel. Not forgetting Mark and Jeremy, of course, Rene and her cousin, and a colleague of Mark’s, from work. The evening was a success, and fun was had by all.

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