I mentioned that the boys had been earning badges from the local library through a free program to inspire kids to do challenges and activities. They each earned four badges, and it was a lot of fun for all of us. I’m not sure I’ve mentioned before how much I enjoy the library programs from the Bucks County library system, but their branches are incredibly kid-friendly and the play areas are more extensive than what I see in most of the San Francisco bay area. My sister in law Irina suggested it’s because there are more outdoor activities year-around in California, so there’s less of a need for a library on rainy or frigid days, and she may be right. The culture here in California generally seems to be more catered to adults and mature kids than young ones.

The Bensalem library definitely ramped up things for the summer, and Aaron particularly enjoyed a presentation from the Center for Aquatic Sciences where he got to pet a horseshoe crab.

In the evenings we also got really into some Lego builds. Aaron even helped out a little, but would mostly work on his creative Duplo creations while Adam and I focused on building a train, a firehouse, and a fire helicopter. I think we’re going to end up with a little Lego City there.

Seeing family is also obviously a big part of why we were there over the summer, so it was nice to head downtown one evening to have dinner with MJ’s cousin Lauren and her husband. I had met her husband once before, but only MJ could attend their wedding due to a bunch of unexpected circumstances last year. So it was our first time seeing them as a married couple. We met at Emmy Squared Pizza where I got the “Angel” pizza consisting of Truffleist mushroom cream, ricotta, mushrooms, and it was spectacular! I’m still dreaming of this pizza. And it was also great as leftovers. I think our only complaint would be that something went a little wrong with our order and we waited almost an hour for the adult food to come out, which made the boys a bit antsy as the evening wound down and they had finished their meal. It was nice to have the extra time to catch up though, and Adam got his wish of getting to see the sun set on the Philadelphia skyline so we could enjoy the beautiful nighttime lights of the city. He’s definitely my kid, I love those nighttime city skylines too.

In other family news, our regular visits with Irina and little Sam were a highlight of our trip. Sam and Aaron are roughly the same age, so it was nice for Aaron to have a summer buddy. One evening we were able to go over to their house to have pizza and catch up, and Aaron was absolutely enamored with her dog Maya, and both the boys enjoyed spending time with Olive the cat.

Animal-wise, our neighbors were rabbit-sitting, so one evening we went over there to catch up and get the latest neighborhood gossip while the boys got to play with the rabbit. Predictably, all of this has lead to a string of requests to get a pet. I really would love to, but we have a lot on our plate right now, and our extended visits to Philly definitely make having a pet tricky. We’ll see, I haven’t been pet-free in decades, and while the loss of Caligula still stings, the pull of getting another cat is getting stronger.

During our visit I also was able to sneak out one afternoon to meet with Kris, a former colleague from my Tyco days. We’ve loosely kept in touch via Facebook, but we hadn’t seen each other in over a decade. Some of my posts throughout the summer clued her in to the fact that we weren’t too far away from each other. It was a great to reconnect, and we’ve penciled in doing something more involved with the boys next time we’re in town.

The final Friday before we left we made our way back to the Churchville Nature Center for a moth-themed presentation and camp fire. It ran quite late, and I think the boys were on the young side to appreciate a lot of the introductory lecture, but they got to walk around outside at night, see some bugs, hear a screech owl, and finally roast a couple marshmallows over a camp fire. I did a lot of camping as a kid, but it’s hasn’t been something we’ve done yet, so it occurred to me that the boys hadn’t really experienced a camp fire before. What an oversight! There’s a campground not too far from here, maybe next summer we’ll spend more time in California and do a weekend adventure in a tent.

Our last day in town we did some final clothes shopping (tax-free in Pennsylvania!) and then turned picking up the rental car that we’d be taking to the airport the next day into one final adventure with a train ride to the rental car center at the airport. The plan had been for MJ and Adam to go down alone while Aaron and I went on our own adventures around town, but apparently there’s nothing more fun than taking a train, so we all went.

Some of my low-key stress around packing and preparing to leave bubbled up during our train ride, but I did my best to be present and enjoy the journey with everyone. I mostly succeeded until Avis was over an hour late with our rental and we had to sit at the rental car center trying to keep the boys entertained. I should have brought more snacks. Then the stress carried into Sunday as we closed up the house and began our journey home. I hope this gets easier as the kids get older, but I also need to keep working on strategies to manage this family travel stress, I hate that the conclusion of our visit is so tainted by such an elevated stress level when there were so many great moments throughout the summer.

Our first stop was finally visiting the Please Touch Museum. It’s a Philly classic in terms of children’s museums. We also discovered when making the plan to head down that it’s now located in Fairmount Park, having moved in 2008 from the location on 21st Street near the Franklin Institute, where I remember it being. The building it’s housed in now is Memorial Hall, the last major building left from the 1876 Centennial Exposition. The move seems to be a good one for museum goers, since there’s tons of free parking, and it was also great for us because it was right near Girard Ave and we also wanted to see the vintage trolleys that had recently returned to service.

Aaron had an absolute blast at the museum. At three years old, basically everything was perfect for him, and I’m sure he could have spent days there if we let him. Adam was a bit more reserved, but once he became comfortable he was able to enjoy some of the exhibits.

As expected, the transit-related exhibits were the most popular for both of them.

Aaron also enjoyed the play kitchen where he could “cook” things retrieved from the little grocery store in the area next to the cooking area. And after lunch Aaron got to enjoy a water area that I basically had to pry him away from once we were ready to move on.

The carousel at the museum was also a delight, Aaron and I rode on it a few times so he could switch animals.

We wrapped up at the museum in the late afternoon, and then drove a bit closer to Girard Ave so we could conclude our day by taking a ride on the Rt 15 trolley. Just like San Francisco, Philadelphia runs a vintage streetcar line, but this one had been shut down since 2020 and underwent a series of refurbishments and repairs. They just returned in June of this year! I’ve visited it before, years ago, but the boys never had the opportunity to ride on it and we wanted to remedy that.

Aaron adorably brought his trolley plushie along for the ride.

I think they enjoyed it, but they also had their eyes on buses and kept asking to take one of them too. So we took the trolley to the Broad Street stop, and took a look at the transit app to see our bus options. We lucked out, and a bus was subbing on the same line and would take us right back to where we parked! So we took Rt 15 back, this time on a bus.

The bus ride concluded our visit to the city, and both boys fell asleep in the car as we drove back home, so we clearly tired them out. A quick stop for dinner on the way home wrapped the day. It’ll probably be our last time down to Philadelphia proper this visit, so I’m glad we were able to experience a full, fun day.

I’ll start off by saying we were a little disappointed by a couple things: The Giant Heart that you walk through was closed for a massive renovation of the body exhibit and the Electricity exhibit was closed for the body renovation too… because the electricity exhibit is being retired in favor of an expanded body exhibit. We’ve done the heart and we’ll be back in the future, but the retirement of the electricity section of the museum is particularly gutting. I’ve been fascinated with electrical science and engineering as long as I can remember, and exhibits like the one at TFI were inspirational as a youth. It’s really sad to see it go away, especially at The [Benjamin] Franklin Institute, named after a founding father who is possibly most famous for his experiments with electricity. Ultimately, I hope the next generation of electrical engineers finds another way to gain inspiration, and this isn’t some sort of trend among science museums. The train exhibit was also closed, but we knew about that going in, it’s coming back in November.

But on to our visit! We may have gotten in for free, but then we did the paid add-on to see the Art of the Brick exhibit. It was worth it. Various pieces of Lego art were displayed around the gallery, including recreations of classical art, people and animals and dinosaurs, and a couple Philadelphia-specific builds, including The Liberty Bell and the statue of Benjamin Franklin that’s in the lobby of the institute itself.

The conclusion had a large area where the boys could free play with Lego.

The boys loved the displays, but also had a blast building Lego cars that they could then race down a little ramp they had set up. The exit was through the gift shop, where a final Lego set followed us home.

We grabbed some lunch at the on-site cafe before making our way around the rest of the museum. We went to a live show about combustion, which I was really proud of the boys for being so engaged with. We also went to our first planetarium show. We’d held off going because we hadn’t really brought the boys into dark places where they had to be quiet, and I knew it would be a challenge for both of them. It was. Aaron and I almost had to leave because as much as he loves space, he also loves talking and asking questions, and really struggled with staying quiet when he wanted to ask 100 questions about stars. Still, he managed to quiet down and we made it through. We’ll do more in the future!

Walking to the planetarium

The hands-on nature of the museum was a hit with the boys just like last time, and of course MJ and I enjoyed it too, I’m really glad we went.

The planetarium was also a nice segue into using our telescope on Sunday. The boys always want to use MJ’s old telescope, but it’s been really hot all summer, and with the sun setting so late, we haven’t wanted to keep them up late enough to really appreciate it. But one night the moon was looking particularly lovely and it wasn’t so hot, so I was able to get it set up for a peek. Adam was finally able to see the moon through it, and so did my phone! It needs to be cleaned, and astrophotography with a 30+ year old telescope and a smart phone is not optimal, but I was still impressed with how it came out.

On Saturday we did a make-up swim lesson in the morning and then went to a BBQ at a relative’s house in the late afternoon. It was family we hadn’t yet seen on this visit, so it was nice to finally get the opportunity. They have kids too, so there were lots of interesting new things to play with while the adults enjoyed catching up. At the end Aaron even got to play on their trampoline.

Sunday we went to Sesame Place with Irina and Sammy. It’s only 15 minutes from our place here, so it’s been on our radar for a long time, but I wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s next to a mall and I always thought it was an inexpensive Philadelphia-local little park. Turns out, it’s bigger and more impressive than I expected, but also quite expensive. It was bought by Sea World a few years back, and I’ve heard the prices have gone up as a result, and a lot of changes (good and bad) were made.

The first thing we noticed is that they were short-staffed, which is ridiculous on a Sunday in the middle of summer with what they charge for admission. We got on “Big Bird’s Bus Tour” after stashing our stuff in an expensive locker. From there we tried a water ride but failed because that turned out to have an hour+ wait because they only had a single life guard managing the bottom of the ride so only one slide was open. Several other water slides were closed entirely. The “Little Bird’s Bay” splash area was open, so we had fun getting soaked there and cooling off a bit before going to lunch.

Getting lunch was a disaster. It took a half hour for Adam and I to get a couple mini pizzas we ordered from the wildly chaotic lunch shop we went to, and then the bagged apple slices we got with his meal were super gross and slimy and I had to exchange them for something else. By the time we rejoined MJ, Aaron, Irina, and Sammy, they had finished half their meal and had a story of their own to tell about their poor experience. Even worse, they don’t allow outside food, so your only option is to leave the park and drive somewhere, or eat at these mediocre, expensive, on-site eateries. Boo. Irina then had to leave for Sammy’s nap, having only enjoyed a couple rides, though they did get to go on the carousel on the way out.

After lunch MJ, Adam, Aaron, and I ventured on. We decided to skip the huge Count’s Court water area in favor of some dry rides, figuring we’d come back toward the end for that. We did three rides over in Elmo’s World, I took the boys on “Peek-a-Bug,” all four of us did “Flyin’ Fish” and Aaron and I enjoyed going on “Blast Off” which is ride that goes up and drops you, but he LOVED it! Then everything was shut down. Storm clouds were rolling in and a thunderstorm threat made operations unsafe.

At this point, Adam was mad at me for skipping Count’s Court, since he really, really wanted to do more water stuff. As hundreds of people left the park, we had to think about what to do. It wasn’t raining yet, and chance of precipitation was 50-70%, so chances are it would rain and the rides wouldn’t resume. We decided to stay for the 3PM parade. The parade is definitely a highlight of the experience there! The kids seemed to enjoy it, and so did I.

After the parade we made one final lap, but with everything still closed we decided to leave. The gift shop is a real treat, I might even go back because it’s outside the park and open to the public. We got to the car with perfect timing as the rain suddenly began, and it was quite the storm, the entire drive home it was pouring.

In spite of the disappointments, I think we all managed to have fun and we learned a lot for the next time we visit. A friend of mine (who was actually there on Sunday and we missed because I didn’t see his text!) swears by getting a cabana as a home base for the day, and the season passes that include quicker access to rides. We’ll think about that next year. The water stuff is tricky unless we both go in with the kids, especially at Count’s Court because the boys are still a bit little to be without a parent right next to them in 3 ft water, and they flee in different directions when they get excited about water. Next summer should be better for that, and we’ll just both plan on going on the water stuff. For lunch we may even consider going off-site, since it likely would take just as long as trying to get it on-site and we’d get better food.

This meant I had some time to catch up on some reading and writing, even using my typewriters a bit! I was able to take long showers, leisurely get ready for my day, and enjoy hot coffee, all of which tends to take a backseat most days as I’m rushing around with work and kid stuff. I was on primary duty for all errands and picking up food, since MJ was still recovering from COVID, so it wasn’t all carefree time, but those were made easier by not having to rush around to squeeze them in before/after work. I also cleared out some of the garage of stuff we wanted to donate, going back all the way to 2016, including an ancient laser printer after learning that Staples does electronic recycling.

Taking this time for myself and projects was incredibly valuable. I’m reminded yet again that when I slow down and take a little time for myself, I become a much better partner, mother, friend, everything. I’m more patient and thoughtful and everything becomes easier, even the really hard stuff.

But all that was just half my day! The rest of my day was spent enjoying quality time with the boys.

On Monday morning we went to a local playground, and then to a nearby library that we’d never been to after we saw their sign advertising story time at 10:30AM. There, Gaby took Aaron to the story time with all the other kids while Adam and I explored the library, played a game, and found a couple video games to check out.

Tuesday we went over to the nearby Churchville Nature Center where we got a membership. I’d been trying to find something for us to do that was the right mix of local (not just generic kid stuff), not too far away, and that the boys would love. A nature center checked all the boxes, and this was a great one. We began indoors at several exhibits they have in their main building, including several live snakes and tortoises, along with a bunch of stuffed animals that were local and from across North America.

From there we went outside, where it was hot (it’s been hot all summer) but nice and shaded in their nature path.

Finally the gem of our visit: the butterflies! This is the one paid area of the center, and it was totally worth it. They help the butterflies through their breeding cycle by protecting them from the elements and keeping their chrysalises safe in enclosed little tents until they emerge.

On Wednesday we made our way out to our local library for play and story time, and then an outdoor chalk and bubbles event. Aaron enjoyed the story time with the other kids while Gaby and Adam explored the rest of the library. Once it was time to go outdoors, Aaron was the grand master artist just like he is in our driveway at home as he drew all over the entrance sidewalk to the library.

Most kids went Adam’s route and played with bubbles, which was a lot of fun, even in the hot weather.

On Thursday I got a sunburn. It wasn’t intentional, I just wasn’t diligent about reapplying sunscreen while playing in a pool for four hours. Said pool was at our friend’s place in New Jersey, and I’d been trying to get over to see them all summer, but they also have two little kids and getting good schedule alignment was difficult. We finally made it though! It was wonderful to catch up with my friends, but the boys also loved the pool. They’ve been doing swimming lessons this summer, but they hadn’t really had free-play time in a pool. As expected, they loved it, and my friends were prepared for having a couple new-to-swimming kiddos in the pool by blocking off the deep end.

I’m still tremendously disappointed that we couldn’t visit our family in Florida this summer, but this week with the boys has been one for the record books. Taking it slow, enjoying local adventures and time with friends. Growing up is not all about the big adventures, and neither is life. I only wish we could do more of this.

There was no way we could go.

I was gutted.

I haven’t seen several of the relatives we were planning on visiting in years, and most of them have never met Adam and Aaron. We spent weeks planning out who to see and when, where to stay, and making the puzzle pieces come together for a whirlwind week of visits and chill fun. Even the thought of trying to shift those plans, much of which had been made with a holiday weekend in mind, was overwhelming, especially on top of being sick. We canceled all our plans and sent apologies.

By Tuesday afternoon Aaron had a cough too, and Adam quickly followed suit. MJ somehow got a couple days of grace period, but by Thursday he was down too. This is our third time with COVID, and it is notable that this is the first time the kids actually got sick from it. By Friday our house was a cacophony of sniffles, coughs, and short tempers. Thankfully, it moved through our house swiftly and we’re all OK. No one had fevers for more than a day and aside from a lingering cough, the boys were better within a couple days. On Sunday morning I tested negative and was ready to rejoin society. MJ is the last one on the mend, but thankfully we already had taken the time off from work, so he’s had the opportunity to rest.

I feel bad about how the weekend went though. Since the boys recovered quickly they were clearly bored. What should have been the first real vacation we’ve taken as a family turned into being stuck home with a pair of tired, grumpy parents.

Still, I was feeling well enough on Thursday evening to take out the sparklers we bought earlier in the week and play outside in the heat with the boys to celebrate the 4th of July. Little sparklers are the only fire-thing my family ever did for the holiday, we were never the firecracker (or more) crowd, and so it was nice to share this with the boys. They were both a bit scared (it’s fire!) but Aaron eventually was brave enough to hold one, and Adam started coming up with ideas for setting up patterns in the grass where we could place them, but he kept his distance. As the sun began to set, we also started seeing fireflies on the tree line. We don’t have the opportunity to see fireflies much in California, so it was a magical moment for them, not having realized that the fireflies they’d seen in books and on TV were real things.

Friday I was well enough to take them outside and play in the water sprinklers on our lawn outside. I’m not sure I’ve mentioned how hot and dry this summer has been. The temperature has been soaring into the high 90s almost every day, making our outdoor excursions quite short. Still, the boys enjoyed the sprinkler fun and, for once, respected my request to not get me totally soaked. They did seem to understand “Mom doesn’t feel well, please don’t get me wet.”

Saturday night I was improved enough to grab a mask when we heard the ice cream truck and ruin dinner by getting the boys an ice cream in the early evening, hah! They actually did eat dinner though, and it was worth it anyway for the joy that a melting ice cream brought them on an otherwise disappointing weekend.

The big takeaway from this latest infection for me is the shift in how people feel about COVID infections. In spite of continued reports of the risks of Long COVID and vulnerable populations, it’s basically being treated like any other common infection now. I had people surprised that we had canceled our trip. One mentioned they just treat it like the flu. Apparently they’d get on a plane for a beach vacation with the flu? I knew that culturally we are a bit intense when it comes to working through being sick, but I wish we had come out of the other side of this pandemic more cautious and thoughtful. That was incredibly naive. We came out the same, with another disease to add to the pile of things we spread everywhere. I guess the only thing I’m grateful for is that in most places wearing a mask in public has become normalized. I now wear them when I just have a cold but have to go out somewhere. Colds aren’t fun either, I don’t want to share that!

On the family side, I always knew that living in California our opportunities to visit family would be more limited, but I certainly didn’t anticipate a global pandemic at such a critical time in the life of our family. Our line had always been, “yeah, we live far away, but we love traveling and we can afford to visit!” Suddenly the monetary cost is only one piece of the puzzle. As a result, having this vacation home in Philadelphia has turned out to be more important than we ever expected, the ability to have regular visits with MJ’s side of the family and develop a closeness with cousins is so important to us, and not something we could have done with week long visits from a hotel. As for visiting my family, that will always be more difficult, but we do hope to at least re-schedule this visit in a few months, or early next year at the latest.

Probably the only on-going challenge with this visit has been staying on top of chores and organization of stuff. Since this is a vacation home, we don’t have a lot spaces for storage, with the assumption that we wouldn’t be keeping much stuff here. Kids changed all that in ways we didn’t expect, and we actually have to stash quite a bit of stuff between visits, and it all ends up being rather chaotic. The other day Adam and I went over to Target and picked up a little square book case to store our growing collection of books, and have a place to keep our library books. They helped me assemble it!

The library books were checked out on Adam’s shiny new library card. We didn’t get him one last year when I got mine because he wasn’t mature enough, but this year he was really excited about getting a card, so MJ and Matti took the boys and our au pair out to the library one day while I was working to get him a card of his own. He came home with a huge pile of books, and a big smile on his face. It’s nice to see the boys have so far inherited my love of books. Now we just need to read them all before it’s time to return them this week.

We also decided this summer was the right time to start swimming lessons. We’d been meaning to do it in California, but a lot of classes I’d heard of are either expensive or have waiting lists, and we just hadn’t made it a priority. When MJ’s step-sister Irina told us about having enrolled her 3 year old in British Swim School classes at a local gym, I looked into it. It turned out to be not too expensive for the two of them and a good instructor to student ratio, the timing was right, and it gave us something to do over the summer once a week. They’ve had two classes so far and have acclimated to the water better than I expected, no one has cried yet! It also turns out there’s a franchise location near our home in California, so while they can’t directly transfer progress, the can put together a little report at the conclusion of our visit so the transition can be easier.

On June 22nd we had more summer time fun by going to a Phillies game. The boys had never been to Citizen’s Bank park, and we have growing confidence that they can tolerate an event in a loud stadium. It worked out well, aside from going on one of the hottest days of the year. The temperature peaked around 97 degrees during the game, and the only thing that saved us was that we secured seats in the shade. We went with Matti and her husband and brother, along with Irina and little Sammy, which gave us some great company for the game. The boys definitely enjoyed having other people there, but most of all I think they liked the ice cream, even though it melted at record pace in the hot weather. The boys were also quite melty by the end of the game, so it was a good thing it was a quick game, and the Phillies won!

That same weekend we also took the opportunity to start the process of getting a couple heirloom chairs re-upholstered. We went to a local place and spent a little time going through fabric books, which we brought home for the weekend to check them out in different lighting. The chairs probably won’t be done on this trip, since the fabric needs to come in and then the work to actually get them completed, but it was nice to get them in the queue for next time, so they’ll be ready when we return.

The next week began with Adam coming down with an unexpected cough and fever for several days, keeping us quite close to home during the work week. I took Aaron out to the library one morning, and picked up a science experiment book to keep Adam entertained while home-ridden. It worked! When he was feeling well enough to be peeled off the couch, he always had another experiment to do. The library is also doing a “Summer Quest” program, which lets kids earn badges for tasks completed, like building things and doing experiments! Adam has one badge under his belt so far, which I hope we can pick up this week.

We’ve also been making progress on our Lego building, with the train completed and a new fire station set we picked up from Kohl’s with a gift card the boys received for Hanukkah last year.

Thankfully no one else got sick, and by Friday his fever had broken and we were free to visit people over the weekend again. Still, we stayed close to home for the weekend, visiting family and doing some errands. It’s tempting to have a big adventure every weekend because it’s summertime and we’re near family, but we also decided to fly to Florida this Friday, so it was really helpful to have a quiet weekend where I could catch up with cleaning and chores before our little tropical adventure.

We’ll be visiting family while in Florida, including MJ’s cousin and one of the youngest members of our family, and seeing my grandfather and several aunts, uncles and cousins of mine. The logistics of the trip will be a bit complicated, but aside from day to day “see $person on $day” we decided not to pack our schedules. We will have a lot of flexibility each day, so we can afford to enjoy some pools and take our time, and I’m hoping that will keep the stress levels manageable as we switch hotels and do a bit more driving than we’re used to.

I know it’s going to fly by. Indeed, a week has already gone. But it was a bit of a settling in week, and our au pair took the traveling opportunity to take a vacation and MJ spent the week in NYC for work, so I was here solo with the boys. I took Monday off from work to get the house step up, grab groceries, complete a bunch of tasks, and get our babysitter for the week settled in. We secured our babysitter through a service and it worked out really well, but even with the help it was a challenging week. Plus, I simply missed MJ and was grateful when he got back on Friday night.

All things considered, the boys did really well, but they were suddenly shifted into a very different place and schedule, so we had some tough moments and sleep wasn’t quite where it needed to be. On Monday I made up little cards with activities on them so the boys knew what options they had, from Play-Doh to playing outside in the sprinkler, and we really lucked out with hot, dry weather making all the options available to them. Still, they were stuck close to home. To help with this, one evening after work I took them out to Target (which they enjoy!), and another evening was spent the library and playground. The library was fun for me too, I decided not to bring physical books with me on this visit even though I have a couple in progress, and instead just requested the books for pickup at my local library here. It worked beautifully!

Since we put the boys together in a room recently, I also had to set that up. We arranged delivery of Aaron’s bed, but it didn’t arrive until Tuesday so I brought up the crib mattress to their room and Aaron slept on the floor for a couple nights. Not optimal, but we all survived and I was able to assemble his new bed on Tuesday evening and get the room all set up. The only remaining problem is how bright it is in the morning even with blackout curtains. The curtains simply don’t provide enough coverage, and they’re waking up much too early. We’ve ordered some more comprehensive window coverings and will install those soon.

There were also some bugs. A hole in our sliding screen door out to the deck let in wasps that made a small nest between the screen door and the glass door. This is not a new problem, so we had some wasp spray already and I soaked the nest and was rid of it by Wednesday. There were also tiny ants near that door, and when we picked up the ant traps at Target it was immediately clear that we aren’t the only ones with that problem, they were nearly out of stock! Yuck. It’ll take some time to finish eradicating the ants, but we’re making progress.

With our new found love of Lego, I had promised Adam we could get a battery-operated Lego train set once we got to Philly. He’s been watching videos on YouTube about this train and some others, so was pretty excited, and on Saturday we got to work on it, and swiftly got the engine done so we could actually run it on the track, hooray! We still have the other two passenger cars to build.

The rest of Saturday was spent close to home as MJ did a bunch of house tasks and then we spent the late afternoon and evening visiting with family. For dinner, we went out with MJ’s step sister and her son, and Aaron had some delightful cousin time. Afterwards, we went out for ice cream, which the boys managed to cover themselves in. Oof. It’s a good thing we still pack a change of clothes when we go out to eat.

Sunday we met up with them again to go downtown! The boys finally got to go on a SEPTA Regional Rail train, which they’ve been asking to do forever.

From Suburban station, we walked over to the Academy of Natural Sciences to see dinosaurs!

Last time we went was back in December and I think Aaron was a little surprised and scared at just how big dinosaurs were. Now a full 5 months later, he seems to have made peace with it and had a wonderful time. He also really loved being there with his cousin, who he’d insist would join him at various animal displays.

After the museum, the boys were delighted to take bus (SEPTA slinky bus!) over to Reading Terminal Market, which the boys had never been to and I hadn’t been to for years. I forgot how overwhelming it is there, but we managed to find food that we were all happy with and even found a table where all 6 of us fit. At the end we picked up some treats! We caught a 2PM train back home.

This week our au pair is back with us and we’re settling in to what we developed as our regular summertime routine. I’m working loosely 9AM-5PM east coast time and building out all our activities around that. Over the weekend we booked a weekend at the New Jersey shore, and bought tickets to a Phillies game that we’ll be attending with some family and friends later this month. Investing in a vacation home here was always a bit of a gamble, but I’m grateful we’re able to finally spend a bunch of time here, using it precisely for what we always intended. It should be a great summer.

Thankfully we were clear by week two, and finally got to see people! Irina and little Sammy came over several evenings, and in spite of some squabbles between our pair of three year olds, it was really nice to just have chill family time at home.

I also decided I wanted to organize the toys a bit better, so one evening Adam helped me assemble a small, metal shelving unit.

Along with a new basket we picked up at Ross for their stuffed animals, the play area of the living room is looking a bit less chaotic now.

We got to hit all our favorite restaurants in the area and visit with our friends Danita and David before they left on their move to Portugal. Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate, and we had a bunch of rainy days, and it ended up being quite chilly out. Still, they are my little California boys and they long for the outdoors, so when it wasn’t raining we put on jackets and rode bikes.

The solar eclipse was on Monday, and so was our flight home. It was only partial for Philadelphia, so I didn’t feel that bad about being in the airport when it happened, and it was still a cool experience. It got a little dark outside, and I think it made our flight delayed a little, but that gave Aaron and Adam a little time to check out the cockpit of our plane.

I was only home for a couple of chaotic days before my next trip. I wish I could have planned it better, since Aaron started preschool the same morning I left, so I was scrambling to get everything ready for him. It worked out OK though, and we all made it to our respective places on Thursday. Unfortunately we were also hit with some unfortunate news right before I left, so MJ will need to book some travel very soon, which we’re hoping won’t overlap with my own travels this week.

First, they tend to mostly attract locals, so you meet folks you won’t see at other conferences and allow you to get an idea for what’s popular and how they’re using technology in their region. Secondly, they tend to be inexpensive, most are under $100. This is in vast contrast to some of the larger events put on by major tech players, where a ticket can easily run into the thousands. Plus, even if you can’t afford that, all the events I’ve gone to also have generously granted free passes to folks from various demographics, ensuring that the attendees are a diverse crowd. They also often happen on weekends (CPOSC is on a Saturday), which means folks who can’t get off from work to attend events can participate.

I also feel like these conferences get me closer to what most folks are doing with open source software at their organizations now. They aren’t all showing off the newest things, but they are showing off things that are incredibly popular and broadly used, and that gives a more genuine snapshot of where the industry is, rather than where it may be going. But I think the most important thing for me though is discovering pockets of innovation that I wouldn’t have otherwise encountered. From the individuals developing new ideas to the small companies that sponsor these events having innovative business models, these events are always remarkable for learning fascinating new things that may be overlooked elsewhere.

AI has been a big topic at a lot of events, and it was interesting to see how it unfolded at CPOSC. One talk centered around the idea of creating a digital self using the AI technology of today, including voice synthesis services and LLM prompts that are fed a lot of personal data. It was an interesting talk, but definitely keeps us in uncanny valley. The next talk that included an AI focus was a panel made up of a family unit, a pair of married professors whose work is both in computing, and a son who works in the tech industry but doesn’t code. The son demonstrated using ChatGPT to create code from a library for a device he was testing, and with English he was able to explain what he wanted the code to do, and have it spit out the code to do it. The resulting discussion was around how we teach software development. How much of the fundamentals of coding do we teach now? Should we also be teaching LLM prompt engineering? It was an interesting discussion that compared this transition to the one to higher level languages beyond Assembly (a parallel I’ve made myself as well) and doubling down on the fact that we will need some folks whose job is software engineering, even if some of the coding can now be done by AI.

I think for me the more interesting question for me was how many doors this opens for folks who don’t know how to code, but for whom having code written for them would transform their ability to succeed. I’ve known so many people over the years who needed to learn how to code, but don’t enjoy it and wish they could have stayed on their original path in arts, sciences, or where ever. How many ideas in the sciences have we lost because the experts in their respective fields are too busy doing basic coding work to make their breakthroughs? Or worse, just gave up? Or wasted their time doing things manually, forsaking computers entirely? There is a need for fast, high quality code, but I think for most people the ability to further streamline their interactions with computers on their own terms with code developed by LLMs is an exciting prospect. I’ve spent a lot of time feeling a bit apprehensive about use of AI in technology, but I’ve definitely turned a corner to be my more hopeful self again.

My own talk at the event happened just before lunch, where I was talking about building your open source project for various architectures. It was similar to the talk I gave a few weeks before at SCALE, but with a few localized tweaks and improvements from the last time I gave it, slides are here: Will_your_open_source_project_run_on_a_mainframe_Or_on_a_smartwatch_-_CPOSC_2024.pdf.

I’ve had some good feedback, and more to respond to post-event via email. Overall, I’m thrilled to see how much interest there is in software testing these days, and that people are thinking beyond the defaults in order to bring in more advanced testing techniques and tooling.

Naturally, I also brought along my props. This time it was an IBM Power Systems tux penguin, the VisionFive 2 SBC, and the 3d-printed IBM z16 I keep at our townhouse in Philadelphia, except for special outings like this one.

The final talk I went to before the closing lightning talks was on “How to get your ideas implemented at your organization” and it gave me a lot to think about. Career development-wise I’ve been advised to get more methodical about stakeholder buy-in, especially as I pursue ideas that are not universally popular. The speaker outlined the strategies he’s come up with for being successful here, partially based on the time he spent as a Chief Innovation Officer. A huge part of this is just sitting down with people to listen to how your idea impacts them, incorporate feedback, and develop a sense of shared ownership for the idea. It gave me a lot to think about and helped solidify my own natural tendency to just reach out to people and ask. I think for me what would help the most is some training on how to be more tactful and polished when I approach people, since I can be very technical and direct by nature.

Of course, I also know people at CPOSC. I was able to meet up with several folks I know, including my long-time events-all-over pal Jason Plum of GitLab. CPOSC or the Philly Linux Users Group are where I get to catch up with most people I see there, so I always look forward to this opportunity to catch up.

I went to the after party for a bit to grab pizza and a beer while continuing chats with folks, including a few people I randomly ended up with as we walked over to the venue. I think we all have a natural tendency not to end up alone at events, so we latch on to a few people, which I absolutely do, but I also have grown comfortable with walking around alone and coming up with things to talk about with strangers. It’s a little anxiety-inducing, but it pays off in spades over time. Many long-time relationships have been forged after chance meetups in hallways.

My friend Will walked me halfway to the train station at the conclusion of my stay in Lancaster, which was a lovely time to catch up. The train ride home was uneventful, though it was a long day and I was tired, so I curled up with some podcasts for most of the journey home. We’ll see where this event lands next year and whether I’m close enough to attend, but it certainly was a delight to stop by two years in a row!

The first full week we were in town was nice for settling in. Our little California boys were clamoring to go outside, and one morning it was barely warm enough for me to take them out to a nearby playground. While playing, I noticed that there was a library nearby, so after they got done playing outside we made our way over to the library. It just happened to be at the same time as an open play with a bunch of other little kids at the library, so while Adam helped me get a library card, Aaron went with our au pair over to play with the other kids. Then Adam and I explored the rest of the library. It was at that visit that we learned that they do regular events for kids and one of the upcoming ones was a magician, which we went to on a rainy day later in the trip and Aaron really seemed to enjoy.

That week we also had our friends Danita and David over to visit and then went out with them to dinner. They’re moving away soon, so it was one of our last opportunities to catch up before their departure, and I was keen on learning more about the progress of their move. Plus, Aaron wanted to see them because Danita brought along her little dog Blackie the last time we saw them, and this time she did again! He’s slowly warming up to dogs, and meeting a little friendly one helps a lot.

We have a tradition of celebrating winter birthdays when we’re in Philly over the winter holidays. It gives us the opportunity to celebrate Aaron’s birthday at home in California before the trip, Adam’s after, and celebrate with family in Philadelphia in between – plus a few birthdays for adults that occur then! Unfortunately, winter also means cold season, so this year it fizzled out a bit. We enjoyed the company of my father-in-law and his wife, which was nice, but others couldn’t make it for cake and presents, and we had to meet up with them later in the trip.

This trip was colder than the one in November, and it was a longer trip, so I think the boys felt a little cooped up. But we tried to do a lot of meals out, and we had little at-home highlights like fire trucks driving by on December 24th for Christmas Eve, and family members dropping by later in the trip once everyone was over their colds (as much as kids ever get over colds, hah!).

We also had some adventures on the long weekends. Little Aaron has been really fascinated with dinosaurs lately, so once I told him that he could see real dinosaur fossils in museums he’s been fixated on seeing “a dinosaur museum.” I was disappointed to learn that the options were slim in the bay area. Instead, we decided to visit The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philly! Our original plan had been to take the train down since the boys had also been clamoring for a train ride, but sparse weekend schedules and a cold, rainy forecast put a damper on those plans and we ended up driving down and were fortunate to find very close metered street parking.

I’d only been to the museum once before, back in 2008, and I noted at the time that it was small, but also blessedly not crowded like a lot of the major dinosaur halls are. Unfortunately Aaron was immediately scared, and clung tightly to MJ through our whole dinosaur hall visit. I guess he didn’t manage to extrapolate from what he’d seen on TV just how big dinosaurs are, so you walk in to see a giant T-Rex with it’s 6 inch sharp teeth and I can see how that would be a little startling to a three year old. Adam had a delightful time in the dinosaur hall though, asking a lot of questions before making a bee line to the elevators, because he likes elevators.

The Big Dig exhibit was a hit with both of them though, kids are equipped with a large paintbrush and get to climb on and sweep their way through “fossils” covered in cork bits over a long span of play area. It was adorable and I’m grateful that they got some real playtime in. Upstairs, the Outside In exhibit also gave them an opportunity for some play, and crafting, which always keeps Adam quite enthralled, even if the activity seemed to be winding down when we arrived.

It wasn’t all family stuff though, one evening MJ and I managed to sneak out for a date night at The Continental Mid-town. It’s one of our favorite restaurants in the city, and it had been several months since MJ and I had gotten and evening out alone together. Given various factors, it’s difficult for us to do regularly, and instead we opt for opportunistic lunches together when we can carve out time. I discovered just how rare it was when I dressed up and came downstairs to an incredulous Adam asking, “Mom, WHY are you dressed like that?!”

It was a wonderful evening. I had the best company, our favorite foods were still on the menu, and we got to try several interesting cocktails. The rain picked up while we were eating, so we had a soggy walk/run back to the car, but I’d say that was the only thing putting a damper on the evening, and even that was a little fun.

During the four days I took off between Christmas and New Years, I spent one day catching up with my friend Stephen who also happened to be in town Pennsylvania visiting family. But before talking about that, I’ll pause to share that it’s unusual for me to take off this week. My family is Jewish and even prior to that my observance of Christmas was purely secular and rather solitary, so I’d often work this week, and even offer to be on-call on Christmas itself so my colleagues who celebrated the holiday could do so with family, in peace. Thanksgiving was always my family holiday! This has changed now that we’re bound to a school district calendar. Most people in the US celebrate Christmas, so the “winter” holiday naturally lands there, and it makes more sense for me to take off when everyone is at home, and in our case, cooped up at the townhouse in Philly in winter. Some of my week was spent catching up on chores, some was spent enjoying leisurely meals, a library visit, and playtime with the boys, and Thursday I spent the afternoon with a friend.

Our plan was to meet up and wander around the lovely town of New Hope, home to lots of delightful boutique shops and dining opportunities. But it rained. Thankfully there are a couple things that you can do when it’s raining, like enjoy a ride on New Hope Railroad! Purely a tourist and train enthusiast experience, the standard railway trip take you on a 45 minute ride through the woods of eastern Pennsylvania, so we were able to snag a couple first class tickets and enjoy some wine on our little journey while catching up, and listening to periodic tales about the historic railroad line and the area. We also enjoyed lunch (and beers!) right across the tracks at Triumph Brewing. It was fun to catch up, and I always enjoy a good train ride. Just don’t tell my kids I went on a train without them.

The next day was Friday and MJ had off from work, so we met up with our friends Mike and Jess and their two boys who are a little older than Adam and Aaron for a trip to Adventure Aquarium in Camden, NJ. I hadn’t seen them since before the pandemic! Like so many people, they’d never met Aaron! And their own boys have grown so much since I last saw them. So I wanted to make sure we finally made time to get together, and Aaron’s love for fish made an aquarium an obvious choice. Unfortunately I planned poorly, and upon arrival discovered that they only had tickets for 90 minutes in the future, oops! I snagged the tickets and we found a nearby sandwich shop to sit down together and have lunch before our aquarium visit. Even then, we had a little time to kill, so the boys got to enjoy the waterfront and nice views of the Philadelphia skyline.

Since there were timed tickets, it should have been obvious that they were at capacity and it would be crowded, but it didn’t quite prepare me for how crowded it would be – wow! It was PACKED! I’m sure it being a holiday week with kids off from school contributed to this too. Fortunately, things actually went really well. All four boys were generally in good moods and listened, and we had some really nice moments. Adam got to pet a ray and take a bunch of pictures, and Aaron got to enjoy seeing lots of swimming critters and I think he enjoyed having other kids to hang out with.

The final partial week we were in Philly was pretty chill. We didn’t have plans for New Years Eve, so as soon as the fireworks wound down we went to bed. We were then back to work Tuesday through Thursday, but made time to meet up with family a bunch more in the evenings and a enjoyed lovely child-free lunch with my sister in law. I finally had my beloved buffalo chicken cheesesteak (I can get decent chicken cheesesteaks in California, but not buffalo chicken). Our flight home was blessedly uneventful, and the boys are definitely getting better about traveling, and we’re getting more streamlined in our approach to traveling with kids. It was a good trip.