It was really cool. Down by the airport in a nondescript warehouse, they house over 75 “historically significant” racing sports cars, spanning eras and brands. The exhibits take you through a number of the famous race tracks, which Adam has been learning about via YouTube, watching F1, and playing Gran Turismo 7. And then had various exhibits of cars over time.

At ever car placard Adam had questions about horsepower and top speeds, and seemed surprised that the history of cars is relatively short. He was curious about the pace at which car speeds increased. I enjoyed seeing the 1956 Maserati 300S.

While there, we learned that most of the cars actually run, and they do regular Demo Days where the cars are taken out for a drive, either inside the warehouse or out in their back lot. So cool. Unfortunately there was only one while we were here for the summer and we already had plans that day, but it’s definitely something to look forward to on another visit.

From there, we headed back toward home to pick up Aaron at his last day of camp at the Churchville Nature Center. It was very unfortunate that his summer camp at a nature center overlapped with the hottest week of the summer, so they had to keep most activities indoors. Still, they did seem to get outside some and the theme of this week was Nature Art, so the core of the camp was satisfied by taking items the found in nature and making them into art, which was completely doable indoors. This conclusion day featured a Family Art Show were we could browse everything the kids made throughout the week and take it home.

As usual when our kids disappear for hours in the day, Aaron had very little to say when he got home each day, so it was nice to see his classroom, interactions with other campers, and all his artistic results. I’m glad we all could attend, this camp is definitely on our list for next year for him.

The 4th of July itself landed on a Saturday, and it was still hot. I don’t do well in the heat, so I was apprehensive about any plans that took us outdoors. But as MJ pointed out, celebrating the 250th anniversary of The United States of America in the city where the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776 was ultimately too good of an opportunity to pass up. Then MJ learned that Union Pacific Big Boy was spending the weekend in town for the celebration. Cool!

After breakfast, I prepared the boys by putting on the
Union Pacific’s Big Boy Locomotive episode of Jay Leno’s Garage so they could have some context as to what we’d be seeing. And then it was off to the Naval Yard where Big Boy was parked, and we finally got to see “the largest and most powerful operational steam locomotive in the world” for ourselves! Parking was decently organized and then it was just a bit of a walk from our car over to the area of track where it was parked, along with several other engines and cars.

It was an outdoor affair, with free water and popsicles being given out, along with a gift shop (the line was long, we skipped it) and a couple organizations that were helping to sponsor the event giving out free hats, handkerchiefs and coins to commemorate the day.

Union Pacific had a museum passenger car that walked you through some railroad history, facts about modern railroads in the United States in general, and also Union Pacific itself. It was interesting, but also blissfully air-conditioned. Once we completed the walk through that Aaron and I began wilting due to the heat, so I stayed with him in some shade while MJ and Adam walked the rest of the way down to the end of the train and back. Aaron and I also stopped at a hydration station on our way out, we were both pretty worn out by the time we got back to the car.

The drive from the Naval Yard to downtown Philadelphia offered up some nice recharging time for Aaron and I, and we parked in a garage near Independence Mall and grabbed lunch at P. J. Clarke’s. We’d never been before, but it was a nice place and I could see us going back. Lunch consumed, it was time to venture back out into the heat to enjoy some Philadelphia-style 250th anniversary celebrations!

The first thing I’ll note was that it wasn’t as busy as I had expected, probably because the temperatures were flirting with 100F and the humidity piling on to that. Independence Hall was blocked off, and the line for the Liberty Bell seemed pretty standard for a summer weekend (long, but moving swiftly). We walked along the mall a bit and then ducked into the Independence Hall Visitor Center to get some air conditioning – and free cupcakes.

From there we were on our way over to The Constitution Center where we had 2PM tickets. On the way, we walked through the outdoor President’s House Site, which shows some of the original foundations of the house used by the first two presidents of the United States, along with plaques talking about the history. This is an important historical site, but also one that has attracted a lot of attention lately because of the documentation provided of another home at that location: one where people who were enslaved lived. It’s an extremely moving part of the site, especially given the juxtaposition with all the symbols of freedom and liberty that surround it. Predictably, the recent attention has been from the Trump Administration and their allies who are uncomfortable with this dark part of our history, and insisted that all references to the presence of and horrors these people were subjected to it be taken down. The legal battle has been going on for months, with the plaques being taken down and removed a couple of times now. Just days before the 4th of July they were removed again, but citizens took it upon themselves to make large print-outs of them and duct taped them to the wall. Throughout the site there were hand written and printed signs, in various languages, explaining the on-going legal battle and what Philadelphia has done to protect the site. Resist!

By the time we got to The Constitution Center, Aaron and I were quite melty again. Air-conditioning helped, but ultimately I could only really cope with a limited amount of time visiting exhibits, even with a nice interlude to sit and listen to a short lecture about the US flag. On the bright side, this does mean I didn’t have the energy to waste money at the gift shops! Man, I love gift shops.

Our journey back to the car included a final stroll through the visitor center and then out to the mall where some tents were set up, one of which had copies of the Declaration of Independence that you could sign. Proudly! The boys did too.

It’s a shame the heat cut our day shorter than planned, but we still had a good time and made some good memories. MJ was right about taking time to observe the 250th anniversary of our country downtown, it was worth being there for.

Thankfully, everything worked out fine. No accidents! She was pretty quiet too, I think she slept for most of the flight. I’ll also take a moment to mention that I had hoped to bring along a spare Sherpa cat carrier liner, but I couldn’t find the Medium size we needed anywhere. Once we arrived in Philly, I contacted PetWise and they shared that they aren’t currently available, but that they could ship me one for free until they came back on the market. Hooray! We now have a spare liner for our journey home, should we need it.

But on to our visit. I wish our first week in town had been quieter. We discovered some ants had started coming in via the second floor deck door (same thing happened last year) so immediately had to call the pest service to come out. The microwave we had fixed on our way out last time also started acting up again, so we had to call in a warranty claim, thankfully they came out the next day and there were no problems. Then on Thursday I got into a minor car accident, fortunately no one was hurt. I’ll talk about that once everything is settled, but it was all an incredibly jarring way to begin our stay here. I ended up taking the afternoon off from work on Friday so I could calm my nerves post-accident.

And then we could spend our weekend making the most of our time here.

Saturday morning we drove downtown and had pizza at a small pizzeria near the Penn Museum, where we had tickets for “Adventure Mode Activated,” a Minecraft-inspired workshop that afternoon. We ended up at Carters Pizza and Beer, where they had the Brazil World Cup game from the night before playing, and a bunch of board games! We played Sorry! while we waited for our beef pepperoni pizza to be prepared, and then enjoyed watching some of the game while we ate. It was a fun place.

After lunch I had planned to spend a little time at the museum before the workshop, but then started having second thoughts because I was worried the boys would get bored of museum-ing before the workshop began. Instead, we had 90 minutes to kill. You know… we’ve never been to Philly Typewriter!

Back in 2023, we all headed downtown to attend a type-in arranged by Philly Typewriter, and I’ve been a fan of them for some time. At the end of that event I had the pleasure of briefly speaking with the owner, Bryan Kravitz, and about his bay area connection. This time we finally got to see the shop! It started out as a regular visit, but then MJ got talking with Bryan while the boys and I poked around the shop, and once I joined the conversation he could see that I was a typewriter enthusiast, and offered us a tour of the basement!

The shop has an upstairs where some of the work is performed by the typewriter specialists in full view from the street, but downstairs is where they do some of the messier or more complicated work, and keep tools and hundreds of typewriters in various states of repair (or to be used as parts). Seeing this part of the shop was a real honor, and inspired Adam and I to clean up an Olympia I picked up at an estate sale a couple years ago. We managed to not buy any typewriters while we were there, but I was extremely pleased to hear that business is great, and they expected the blue IBM Selectric I was eyeing to be sold rather quickly.

From there we went to the Penn Museum, into the worst parking garage I’ve ever experienced, but thankfully we still made it in time for the workshop to begin. They had 2 hours booked for it, and it started in a classroom where the education guide set some expectations, and then it was time for her to bring a bunch of Minecraft kids around the museum to see how real life exhibits map to the experience we have in Minecraft.

The last time I was at this museum was in 2009, so I didn’t remember much, and it does seem like they’ve made some big changes. It all felt new to me! The guide first brought us all to see some gold weights and talk about gold and minerals used in ancient societies, and asked the kids about use of gold in Minecraft. From there it was over to an exhibit that had some obsidian, a very important material in Minecraft and the boys always ask a lot of questions to about it (especially because of it’s connection to lava, and lava is cool), it was nice to have someone else answering all their questions.

All the kids were getting a bit bouncy from sitting still at this point, so I was glad when we moved on to see the spectacular funerary ensemble of Queen Puabi, which has lapis lazuli! Lapis lazuli is used for enchanting items in Minecraft, so another important one there. I loved the story she told about Queen Puabi, so that was probably the most enjoyable stop for me. Our last stop was to see some armor from Etruscan Italy around 700 BCE. Minecraft characters use armor for a variety of things!

Back at the classroom, the kids got to learn a bit more about ancient civilizations and they looped in Mosaics as a topic because Minecraft has a very pixelated look to it and Mosaics are a bit like ancient pixels. So the craft that concluded the workshop had the kids armed with glue sticks and little squares of construction paper to make their own mosaic. We each left with a custom pin that said “I creeped around the Penn Museum” with a Minecraft-looking Sphynx. Love it. We spent a little time walking around the museum after the event concluded.

Our weekend continued with Father’s Day on Sunday. It started out with a really nice lunch with Grandpa, and then we drove out to Microcenter. MJ has been shopping for a monitor for the downstairs den/office area, so it was a nice opportunity for him to peruse some of the options. I managed to pick up of the official Raspberry Pi monitors that I’ve been eyeing for a while, and will come in quite handy if I manage to squeeze in some time to get the SBCs I keep here going again (one of the Raspberry Pis, and my RISC-V). The boys enjoyed playing on some of the computers they had on display, which is how they discovered some free online games that Adam later got going on the laptop we’re sharing here.

We also picked up a movie theater gift card as a Father’s Day gift so all of us can go out and see Toy Story 5 while we’re here.

It was definitely a mixed arrival week, but I’m glad we could end on some fun activities.

We flew out on Friday, so we were able to attend a birthday for their cousin Sam. The birthday party took place at an large indoor playground with all kinds of fun stuff for the kids to run around and play on. It was a lot of fun for them, and I enjoyed the Godzilla theme and cake.

Afterwards we did a bit of shopping nearby, but it was a pretty long day having just arrived the day before! It was nice to check off some shopping things off our list at the beginning of the trip though.

The following day we made our way over to New Jersey to visit with some family and continue a TV setup process that MJ started over the winter holidays. It was nice to visit them again, and the boys enjoyed playing on their power lift recliner.

Since MJ and I work while we’re there, the weekdays were pretty normal with our au pair, who travels with us, watching the kids during the day. The weather was beautiful for most of the time were were there, so throughout the trip the kids got to visit lots of interesting playgrounds and Ana also brought them to a K1 go kart place one day, which Adam hasn’t stopped talking about (Aaron isn’t big enough yet, but he enjoyed the video games!).

One evening I took the boys to the theater to see Hoppers. They’re getting a lot better at being quiet and focused during visits to the theater, which is nice because I enjoyed taking them, even if they weren’t huge fans of the movie. I was surprised at how expensive it’s become though, I clearly need to find a cheaper way to do this in the long term, but in the short term I found a pile of AMC ticket vouchers that MJ bought YEARS ago that should still be valid. With all the great movies coming out this year, we’ll have a summer full of theater adventures!

I already wrote about spending the next Saturday at CPOSC. On the way home we took the scenic route down 340 and the boys enjoyed seeing all the horses and Amish buggies, counted farms along the way, they stopped when they got to 100. We haven’t properly done Lancaster with them, so maybe that’s an adventure we’ll embark on over the summer. On the way home we needed some dinner, so we stopped in King of Prussia and went back to the Netflix House and had a surprisingly chill dinner at NetFlix Bites.

On Wednesday I took the day off from work to prepare for a Passover Seder. I’m glad I did. Even though I wasn’t cooking the meal, I did have to pick up the catered food, and I made Charoset for the first time! Making Charoset is actually pretty easy, I looked at a few recipes and then settled on a version of My FAVORITE Passover Charoset where I simplified it spice-wise, swapped out the walnuts for almonds, and wine for grape juice, so the recipe ended up being:

• 1/2 granny smith apple
• 1 gala apple
• 3/8 cup sliced almonds
• 3/4 Tablespoons honey
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 Tablespoons grape juice

For chopping the apples I pulled out the food processor that I got a couple years ago for latkes.

I know it’s dead simple and all you do is mix everything together, but I’m no chef, so anything is a win. I think I will double the recipe next year so we end up with leftovers.

Then it was time to prep the dishes! I decided to pull out nice china that belonged to MJ’s grandparents, a set of glasses that my father-in-law explained came from a trip to Italy, and took some polish wipes to the silver utensils, also inherited from MJ’s grandparents. We didn’t have a Seder plate in Philly, but I solved that the week before with a drive down to Jerusalem Israeli Gift Shop. The women who own the shop were incredibly helpful, and I left with a Seder plate, a matzoh plate, a matzoh cover, and a couple bottles of wine. The last bit of shopping was picking up some endives from Acme. Finally, I had to roast the lamb shank bone that we picked up from House of Kosher, along with the hard boiled egg, both for the Seder plate.

It was a lot to do for a day when I’m “not cooking”. All worth it though, things came together really nicely and the boys enjoyed having grandpa come over instead of just doing a Seder with our immediate family in California.

I wanted to make sure I slowed down to enjoy our time too, so we didn’t really focus on home improvement projects. However, a built-in microwave repair was thrust upon us a couple days before we left. I wasn’t a microwave person until I had kids, and now we use it all the time. The switch inside the door had stopped working properly, so it could no longer reliably sense when the door was open or closed, which meant sometimes it would work. Thankfully, an appliance repair company was able to come out the next day and get it fixed. I still have mixed feelings about repairing it verses replacing it for how much we paid, but I kept an otherwise perfectly fine appliance out of a landfill, and saved us all the stress of shopping and coordinating a mounted installation, so it was probably the right move.

And I wasn’t completely idle. I realized one of the ways I want to enjoy our home there is by using our deck. We’re coming up on our 9th year with the townhouse, and we’ve never had deck furniture! Sometimes I’ll haul a folding table out there for a “picnic” or the boys will use it to run around, but effectively it wasn’t a space we could really enjoy. To change this I did a minimal amount of searching and found a nice patio couch and coffee table set that I could pick up at the Home Depot right away, and got that assembled one evening. Hooray!

Coincidentally, a neighbor also posted on the Facebook group for the development that she was looking to get rid of her patio table and six chairs. It’s a nice set, so I reached out and arranged a pick-up time. That’s how MJ and I ended up hauling a table over a deck railing and into our house the night before we left Philly, hah! It’s on the larger side, but I think I found an orientation that will work for us on the deck. I’ll take some better pictures when everything is set up over the summer.

Super Mario Galaxy came out while we were in town, we planned on having all of us go, but Aaron fell ill with a stomach bug that slowly made its way through our household, and so I just took Adam. It was a fun movie, and it turns out the whole family will get an opportunity to see it together at the end of this week when we go to our local single-screen theater to see it with their elementary school.

As the visit wound down, we managed to get lunch with cousin Lauren and her husband and new baby. I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of them over the summer, as they’re only about 40 minutes away now and they have pools at their development. And what do our kids love? Pools. And we got to see Aunt Irina and cousin Sammy one last time before we left, we picked up some takeout sushi and had a nice time in her recently renovated back yard, and then down in the playroom basement where I got to play with Lego. Oh, and the kids played with Lego too. I also managed to successfully make matzoh brie on the Saturday before we left, even if MJ and I were the only ones who enjoyed it.

In all, it was a really nice visit that didn’t end up feeling like too much, in spite of how much we packed into it. The kids had plenty of down time to play video games, and I did too. I finished reading a book while we were there, and definitely got some springtime enjoyment out of that new couch in the back, from nighttime playing on my Switch to having breakfast outside with the boys. We also had a deck umbrella delivered which will fit nicely into the hole in our new table, we’ll just need to get a small umbrella base when we get into town so that it stays put during our visit (we’ll bring it inside between visits).

Fortunately, the snow returned couple times during our trip, even though one storm fizzled out a bit and turned to ice. The boys enjoyed cleaning ice off the car and shoveling the driveway. I’m glad someone did!

Then on New Year’s Day we woke up to more snow! It wasn’t much in any of these little storms, but it was enough for them to have fun running around in and throwing snowballs, and that was plenty for them.

We made it downtown twice this trip, the first was on the last day of Hanukkah when we went to City Hall to visit the Christmas Village open air market. Notably, they have a stall that sells vegan cannoli, which means once a year MJ can enjoy them. Coming down the weekend before Christmas meant that it was pretty packed though, and the crowds made it a bit difficult to really enjoy. The boys would have liked to go on the carousel but none of us would have enjoyed the lines to get tickets AND to ride it. We ended up going over to a nearby pizzeria for lunch instead of fighting crowds at the on-site eatery, and then made our way over to The Wanamaker Building to stand in line for the Christmas light show.

Wanamaker’s has an interesting history. Founded in 1861, Wanamaker’s was one of the first department stores in the United States, and made several innovations in the realm of retail. After changing hands, the brand finally saw an end in 1995 when it was turned into a Hecht’s, and in 2006 it was turned into a Macy’s. Macy’s closed in the spring of 2025, leaving the building vacant. In spite of changing hands, Macy’s kept up a Wanamaker tradition of a free Christmas light show, and it was believed that as the era of department stores came to a close, so would that tradition. The building is a historic landmark, so there are limitations as to what can be done with it, but there was never a guarantee that new owners would allow open public access like the department stores had. Fortunately, they decided to keep up the tradition of the light show for at least one more year in 2025, and we finally got to enjoy the vintage light show that MJ had enjoyed when he was a kid. The future of this light show is uncertain as the building closes for a couple years for renovations by the new owners, so I was glad that we got to see it.

We also learned that there was a Dickens Village upstairs that I hear included vintage animatronic figures as you walk through the story of A Christmas Carol, but it required free, timed tickets that were sold out for the day. They also had an indoor market, which due to capacity tracking in the building was a much more pleasant experience than the outdoor market and we picked up a few things. From there, we hopped on the train and headed home.

We waited until after Christmas to do some of our bigger shopping, like our stops at Ikea and the King of Prussia Mall, but the mall was still a bit of a mad house. In spite of the demise of shopping malls in the United States, King of Prussia is thriving, and growing. For this visit, we had a little shopping to do, and while we were there we had lunch at Netflix House Philadelphia. Netflix House is the latest in “experiences” popping up in malls, amusingly in places like the aforementioned vacant department stores. Netflix House has a diner-like restaurant and bar where the dishes are all themed based on shows and movies from Netflix, and then you go downstairs to huge displays that reflect their various hit shows and movies, and a free theater (with timed ticket) featuring some of their movies. Of course there’s a very busy gift shop, and then paid activities like a VR experience , mini-golf, and a Wednesday-themed carnival and arcade. The mini-golf was sold out for more than a week, and even with those tickets there was a line to get in.

I love this trend. Like most people, we do a lot of shopping online now, and the loss of traditional department stores has not been much of a loss to us. The joke with Macy’s downtown going out of business last year was: “Such a beautiful location, but I haven’t been to there in years.” “No one has, that’s why it closed.” But sold out experiences at Netflix House? That’s what we want now. So much so that it’s the place I suggested meeting up with my friend Stephen who happened to be in town for the holidays too! It was still winter break for students, but it was a weekday and the place was still packed, just like when our whole family went over the weekend. I think during our next trip we’ll check out Bluey House in Plymouth Meeting.

My second visit downtown was on our final week there. I took a couple early morning work meetings and then packed up my work laptop to hop on a train with our au pair and the boys. SEPTA Regional Rail is nice for working on and I’d queued up a bunch of work that would be easy to do in-transit, which worked out nicely. Once we arrived at Suburban Station, it was a quick walk over to The Franklin Institute, where we all got tickets and I got the three of them settled into their museum adventures. I then walked over to Parkway Central Library next door. You see, I learned from a podcast a couple months ago that Grip the raven resides there, in their Rare Books Department. Grip was once the pet of Charles Dickens’ and was made immortal by his novel Barnaby Rudge. Edgar Allan Poe was a reviewer of the novel, and it’s said that the presence of Grip in the book, as well as a subsequent meeting with Dickens and learning that Grip was a real bird, was an inspiration for his most famous poem, The Raven. Quite the bird! I had to meet her.

I also had the pleasure of arriving in time for the daily 11AM tour of the Rare Books Department itself. Among various other treasures, I saw a real page from a Gutenberg Bible and a writing desk that once was owned by Charles Dickens. Just across from the Rare Books Department they also had an exhibit about death called Or Not to Be which is what actually drew me to come down and visit Grip on a work day, rather than waiting until our next trip. It was a nice little exploration.

I then spent a couple hours working there in the library before meeting up with them at The Franklin to do a late lunch and check out a science show. It was then back to work for me, while the kids spent a bit more time at the museum before taking a 4PM train back home.

And of course, we spent a bunch of time with family. The boys got to visit with grandpa a bunch of times, including a couple of nice meals together. The boys got to enjoy some visits with their cousin Sammy and Aunt Irina. Our trip also included a jaunt over to New Jersey for lunch with a cousin, and then some time visiting with her husband at their house where we ate diner cupcakes (the BEST), MJ diagnosed a problem with her TV, and the boys enjoyed playing with their power lift recliner. MJ and I even were able to go out for a couple of nice meals together on our own, including a very nice dinner downtown at Buddakan. I also spent one evening on my own to finally see Wicked: For Good in the theater, which was quite a treat.

Back at home got to do lots of Lego, play with the Hanukkah train, and we made a little progress on some house projects. I also ended up with an infection that made me a lot more tired than I expected halfway through our trip. I was recovering from a sinus infection when we arrived, and ended up with a secondary, antibiotic-resistant infection elsewhere in my body just a few days after I concluded the round of antibiotics I had been on from the sinus infection. I actually thought I was just tired from all our adventures, birthdays, and holiday stuff, so I blamed my brain when I melted into the couch while MJ worked on things with the boys over the weekend. A visit to Urgent Care on Monday and a pile of tests proved that the pain I had developed that day was indeed an infection. Time for a second round of antibiotics! Somewhat amusingly, I had just begun reading Everything is Tuberculosis, and the irony of reading a book that spends a lot of time talking about antibiotic resistance while fighting off an antibiotic-resistent infection myself was not lost on me. And both also made me acutely aware of how fragile we are in this arms race with bacteria and infections. Thankfully, my infection was uncomplicated and this round of antibiotics knocked it out in a few days and I was feeling a lot better by the time we traveled home on January 8th.

We arrived on Saturday night and were able to meet with my father in law for lunch the next day. MJ and I worked Monday through Wednesday while our new au pair settled in with the boys and started exploring the area with them (library! trampoline park!). As we prepared for the holidays, the boys and I set up the Hanukkah train (a vintage Lionel train) and put away the LEGO train we usually have out. When we were in town over the summer, we had stopped by Joe’s Train Station, our local train hobby shop, and picked up the Lionel Lighted FasTrack that we opened to use for the first time. Since our train is older, it didn’t come with modern FasTrack, and has a clip that went on the metal tracks, that also meant it didn’t have the standard power cable that’s often used. When I bought these lighted tracks, they also sold me the FasTrack Accessory Power Wire (6-12053) and I was left to figure it out myself. Thankfully, the model train community is very active! And eventually I found this post on Reddit helped me get the wires from my transformer connected the way they needed to be. I wish I had taken a better picture before I put the bottom plate back on, but it’s transparent so you can kind of see where I disconnected the power from where a plug would generally go, and replaced it with my wire. And then, voila! It works!

Well, it worked with some wires exposed and Adam was scared of being zapped (fair) so MJ put some connectors on the ends of the wires so we could not only more easily use the lighted track, but also switch back to the metal track easily. No more fiddly connections at all!

The light follows the train, now I just need to convince the boys not to put so many cars on the track at once.

Speaking of building things, the drawer on my desk has been unstable for a while, and finally broke entirely over the summer. I’ve been living out of some bins next to my desk, not optimal! MJ bought the wood and brackets needed to fix it, and the boys helped them with the repair this trip. Woohoo! A working drawer once again!

The boys have also been building a lot of Lego. I always thought that the skill levels for Lego sets were based solely on the complexity of the components involved, but we picked up a Bluey House set recently and there’s more to it. On the Bluey set the pieces are simple, but the instructions are also much more detailed and even show hands holding a specific piece and exactly where that single piece goes. I was helping Aaron (almost 5) build the house at first, but after a while he said he wanted to do it himself, and he did! So proud! Now he’s got the bug and wants to do a lot more.

On Thanksgiving we woke up and made Death Star waffles! And then I spent a big chunk of time in the afternoon making food for the potluck dinner we had at my sister-in-law’s house. I’m not much of a cook, but I could manage carrots, green beans, and stuffing, and everyone was quite happy with vegetarian brown gravy from a jar and cranberry sauce from a can. The dinner came together beautifully at her place and our usual chaotic family Thanksgiving was fun.

Being over there reminded Adam that she had a fire pit, so that’s how we ended up with an outdoor fire, in Philadelphia, in November. It was COLD! But I’m glad they got it going for him, they kids really enjoyed it.

As our visit wound down, we spent an evening at Astra Lumina, a nighttime walk through various light features in a forest in Jenkintown. We went with the parking option that used the shuttle, which we figured would be more fun for the boys anyway (yep!) and was a lot cheaper. The frequency of the shuttles made it quite a reasonable option. From there, we got to explore the lights! The boys love being outside and playing with lights in the dark, so it was a perfect mix of things they enjoy. It’s on the pricey side, but for us it was all worth it. Afterwards we had a great dinner at Vintage, a restaurant MJ’s grandfather was a fan of, and I had a spectacular seafood dish while Aaron fell asleep on the bench.

Following the weekend, it was back to work on Monday and then we packed up on Tuesday to fly home. If not for the kids going to school, we probably would have stayed through the winter holidays. Our next trip back east was just 15 days away.

The boys got to see a lot of grandpa through afternoon visits all summer, but we were also there to celebrate his birthday with the whole family!

The Sunday following our return we went downtown to visit The Franklin Institute again. Yes, we had already been there, but this time we were meeting a friend and his daughter! The last time all three of us were together was long before any of us had kids, so it was quite the momentous gathering.

Plus, there were parts of the museum the boys wanted to re-visit or hadn’t seen the last time. Aaron got really into the interactive exhibits. Afterwards we went out for pizza.

On my own, I was able to take a long lunch one day to catch up with a friend over sushi and an evening to have dinner with a friend in King of Prussia. It reminded me how good it feels to catch up with friends, and there’s no reason my social life in Philly is more active than in California. I have friends in California too! Time to be better about planning outings with friends.

Later in the week I put a pause on work for an afternoon and took the boys out to the nearby Churchville Nature Center to visit the butterfly enclosure. We’re members and they have a lot of great little events, but this was the first time we’d been out there this trip. It was definitely a warm day to be outside, but not as bad as some of the other days have been, and the mist they provide for the butterflies definitely felt nice!

We spent Friday evening at The Academy of Natural Sciences in downtown Philadelphia for their event around Haddy returning to Dinosaur Hall. It was fun to see their newly installed Hadrosaurus foulkii, but mostly it was a good opportunity to visit the museum with the kids after hours. Afterwards, we had dinner at Victory Brewing Company. I’d never been to this “new” downtown location, but the vibes brought me back to the dozens of times I visited their brewery in Downingtown.

Our final week in town was rather chill, owing partially to do with some work stuff really picking up and causing us both to work a bit more than usual. But we still did a couple family visits and dinners, and over the final weekend in town we made our way out to our local model train shop where we picked up a few goodies, including some light-up tracks. Unfortunately, that evening I tripped in our den while working on some stuff with MJ and sprained my ankle, and badly bruised my shoulder. Ouch. This is the fourth time I’ve sprained this ankle (amusingly, it happens every 4 years) so I skipped the doctor and just tended to it at home. Still, no fun.

Outdoor time throughout the summer was mostly water-driven pursuits on the lawn with the hose or water guns and balloons. However, our final week there the weather cooled down a bit and allowed the boys to spend a bit more time outdoors riding their bikes! They love doing this in California but often find it’s too hot to do during a Philly summer.

Overall, it was a nice visit, and the six weeks flew by. It also felt like the right amount of time for me. I was definitely ready to come back to home prime when the time came, and our journey back to California was uneventful.

Thankfully, our trip got much better from there! Thanks to MJ’s dad, we found Wheelworks over in Huntingdon Valley that was able to do a thorough detailing of the back of the van to get every molecule of milk out of it. And we ordered an all-weather mat to put in that portion of the carpeted floor so this doesn’t happen again. We also finally picked up a dresser for the boys so we could move their changing table upstairs now that diapers are largely a thing of the past. Aaron helped me assemble the dresser next to the old changing table that’s now being used for storage in their bedroom closet. The trip to Ikea for the dresser also gave us an opportunity to scope out some furniture for an “art center” to put in our kitchen for the boys and some cabinets for a server project we’re working on.

MJ’s father has come over several afternoons to spend time with the boys, which they’ve really enjoyed, and is the whole reason for us being here. We’ve also had a chance to catch up with MJ’s sister and nephew for dinner and house visits, including an evening that included a fire pit outside, which Adam won’t let us leave without doing again, this time with s’mores.

The boys have enjoyed catching the ice cream truck each time it comes through the neighborhood, and literally catching fireflies when we keep them up late enough for the fireflies to come out. One evening we also found a toad in the road that Aaron hilariously scooped up to help him cross it.

On our first full weekend here was a bit chaotic as we settled in, but then we went down to The Franklin Institute to visit the newly re-opened Heart and got to finally show the boys the Baldwin 60000 steam train that resides in the under-construction-for-years Hamilton Collections Gallery. The train used to move, but we learned that since it only could move a few feet the wear on the wheels was uneven and maintenance under those conditions was challenging. It’s still cool even though it doesn’t move, and the boys do enjoy a run through the Heart.

We saw a planetarium show, which Aaron continues to be unable to stay quiet during (thankfully, he does ask questions that are on-topic, and the person sitting next to us fell asleep in spite of his regular whispering, hah! We also made our way over to the Demonstration Theater to see the “Liquid Air Show” that Adam really enjoys, and this time didn’t disappoint.

The next day we drove out to New Jersey to have some pool time with our friends Mike and Jess and their two sons. The boys are getting really comfortable with water, which we’re really happy about. I’m hoping this translates to more security when it comes to their swim classes upon our return to California in August. It was great to catch up with our friends too, which only seems to happen about once a year, Facebook contact aside. The heat did get to me at the end though, so the drive home was a bit of a queasy one for me.

On the 4th of July we took a drive up to Kutztown for a visit the Crystal Cave. Aaron loves caves, and was left wanting after we took him to the cave/tunnel near the old San Francisco Sutro Baths for his birthday. Fair. This time we went to a real, natural cave! Plus, it’s a cave MJ had gone to with his parents when he was a kid, so there was the nostalgia and family connection factor there too, which was amusing to reflect upon as the tour guide through the cave mentioned that visiting the cave has become a family tradition for generations. Indeed! The story of the cave is an amusing one too; discovered in 1871 it was opened to tourism just a year later when they learned it was an otherwise useless limestone cave, but tourists might enjoy seeing it.

After lunch and the cave tour, we took advantage of the less humid, cooler summer weather of Kutztown to do through their mini-golf course. I’ve continued my streak of having enough focus/interest to complete about 9 holes really well, and then take a bored/distracted approach to the second half of the course. It’s a good thing I don’t play real golf.

Then we had some ice cream on-site and bought a big bag or rocks and sand with gemstones and fossils mixed in that they had a little “panning” area set up for. The boys LOVED that. As expected, Adam was very into the rocks and gems, while Aaron is still completely enamored with the fossils.

That evening we enjoyed some sparklers in the yard before getting to bed much too late, but that’s what summer is for!

On Saturday we began our serious New England trip prep. MJ had done a lot of the legwork to determine what would probably be needed to install the tow hitch on the minivan, so we had an appointment at a place in King of Prussia to get the work done. I drove out as well so we could spend the afternoon having a lovely (if too filling) lunch at Fogo de Chao and then a little adventure over at the mall. MJ and I both picked up some things we needed at L.L. Bean, and then the boys and I made our way over to the Lego store for… things we didn’t need.

Unfortunately, the hitch installation didn’t go well, and we had a multi-state adventure to get that completed ahead of us. The heat and overindulgence at Fogo also got to me that afternoon and I was flagging a bit by the time we all had to drive home. Still, part of the work was done and I was happy to have our new Lego treasures with us. But speaking of the car, MJ and Adam also had a project of installing a new rear view mirror on the new minivan. As high as it was, the trim level on our minivan didn’t have the buttons to open the garage, or auto-dimming for nighttime driving. Bummer. So we ordered the mirror from Kia and eschewed the dealer quotes for them to install it. It took more time and a few more panel removals than expected, but they got it done! Right in time for our road trip to New England that began on July 9th.

I had one last big event before out trip though, and that was presenting at the Philadelphia area Linux Users Group chapter that I was a member and organizer of years ago. It’s a great group of folks, several of whom I’ve known for decades, and I was there to give the latest about open source on mainframes. I started out with a Star Wars scroll parody with a mainframe theme (YouTube video) There was a lot of hardware geekery, but the gem of my presentation was definitely showing off zopen Community tools that bring familiar open source CLI tools to IBM z/OS Unix System Services (USS). I had a developer account that I was able to do a live demo with, and then several folks dove into the repositories during the meeting. It was a great night and I really enjoyed seeing so many old friends, and at the end I was surprised that one of the organizers had brought his son, who I hadn’t seen in probably 15 years? I babysat him once, he’s now old enough to be a software developer and attend PLUG talks now, wow! Also, cool. I couldn’t have thought of a better way to wrap up work and go on vacation than that.

We got in on a Friday night, and the next day the Churchville Nature Center happened to be having a day of activities for members. It was a nice, local thing to do with all of us feeling a bit tired. They had animal caretakers out with some of their snakes, reptiles, and turtles, and several activities for the kids to engage with. The boys got to touch a turtle shell and a snake skin, and they both were quite fond of the bearded dragon.

Over the week we lucked out with great weather, so the boys spent a lot of time outside with their au pair, but also enjoyed indoor activities and toys they hadn’t played with in a few months. I’m glad they were occupied, as I was in the midst of a very busy time at work with a major product launch on the horizon and two major projects I’m working on barreling in on their concluding phases. I wish I could have spent more time with family, but I was simply inundated. MJ had his best friend come into town, and even her I didn’t see much as I was sequestered in my office, and then working a couple late evenings while she spent time with MJ.

The next weekend we were fortunate enough to be in town for cousin Sammy’s birthday. Amusingly, it was at another nature center, so the boys definitely got their fill of local critters on this trip! Aaron got to pet a snake, hold a friendly cockroach, and feed a tortoise. Everyone got to enjoy beautiful cake made by Aunt Yilia.

Throughout our stay it was nice to have their grandfather stop by a few times to play with the boys, and go out with Irina and Sammy a couple times. One day we went to the library, where I worked from for a couple hours. Libraries continue to be a reading lifeline for me, as I was able to continue reading a large book I started on the west coast without having to haul it across the country, a quick search showed which nearby branch I could pick it up at without even having to do a transfer. And yes, I realize ebooks exist, I have a Nook and a Kindle! But it’s not my preferred experience.

On our last full weekend there I was clued into the Himalayan blue poppy blooming at Longwood Gardens, and we decided to make a day of it. Our kids love gardens and flowers, and I’m a big fan of the sprawling Longwood Gardens, having formed many pleasant memories there. It was about an hour long drive, but Adam and I hunted for colorful cars to complete a rainbow and Aaron took an unapproved nap. Disappointingly, it was too early in the season for any of the fountains to be on, but we did get to enjoy the tree houses and all the springtime blooms starting to come up.

And then there were the blue poppies. I’m not actually one to chase flowers, but these ones are breathtaking and difficult to grow, so I was really happy to get to see them.

It was my first time being in the area for children, because the last time we were at Longwood Gardens was nearly 7 years prior, when I was pregnant with Adam! They also redid the bonsai tree area since I last went there, so that was nice to visit. It was a tiring day for everyone with a lot of walking, but I think we all enjoyed it.

MJ and I got out on a rare date night while we were in town. The final Tuesday we drove down to Philadelphia to eat at Buddakan, one of our favorites. I made my way through a sake sampler and a cocktail as we enjoyed various dim sum dishes and a small steak. I’m glad we went and we enjoyed it, but I think when we visit over the summer we’re going to expand our options some beyond just our usual places. Surely some new, exciting places have opened that we have yet to experience!

On this trip I also discovered that my favorite bagel place in the world has a location just 20 minutes from our townhouse! Yum Yum Bake Shops was my go-to when I worked in Lansdale and wanted to ruin all the work I’d just done at the gym. Their bagels are chewy and perfect, and I haven’t managed to find that level of perfection since, especially not on the west coast. So, one morning I braved traffic down Street Road and made the pilgrimage. I also got a giant donut for the boys because I accurately predicted that they’d get a kick out of it.

Finally, this trip was notable because we had a new car. Well, a minivan. I’ll write about it soon, but we purchased it right before we left and then had it shipped across the country, since it needs to be registered in California (long story). This meant that for this trip, and over the summer, we’ll have two cars! It’s quite the indulgence, but it was good to have overlap. The Acura MDX has been a great car there, but with it hitting the 8th model year it’s going to need a California smog check unless we can get an exemption, and we can’t get that done in Pennsylvania. Two cars did mean that I had to spend some time cleaning out the garage, and then we had to squeeze both cars into the garage upon our departure. But they did fit! Even if it was very tight.

We took a Saturday afternoon flight home at the conclusion of our two weeks. It was a solid trip, and I’m grateful that we finally made it a visit without anyone getting sick or any other major calamities. It’s also starting to get a bit easier to travel with the boys, partially due to them getting unlimited screen time on flights and them actually starting to really love that perk. With each trip they’re also doing a better job of carrying their own backpacks and suitcases through the airport, which is a load off from us. Plus, diaper-free travel is a game-changer! I never want to change a diaper in a busy airport restroom again.

Because of how it moves around on the Gregorian calendar, there is always a chance that we’ll be spending part or all of Hanukkah in Philadelphia over the winter school break. It presented an interesting challenge, how do we give the big gifts like their new bikes if the bikes are in California during Hanukkah? And for smaller things, do we just plan on bringing a bunch of gifts home instead of keeping them at our vacation home? We got creative, and brought along an extra suitcase just in case we ended up bringing things home (we did!).

Now, one of the things about winter break is that the kids are home from school, so we revisited our summer strategies of keeping them occupied. During this two and a half week trip, our au pair also decided to take some much deserved vacation over New Years and so that left us with most of Hanukkah just the four of us, and nearby family. This year it began on the evening of Christmas, and with most things closed the boys and I got to work on making a bunch of sugar cookies from my family recipe. We quickly discovered that we don’t own a rolling pin (our supplies are rather limited there) so we used a water bottle. The cookies came out great, I forgot how much I like them. I ate a bunch.

For dinner MJ and I got Wawa hoagies and I tried my hand at making latkes. We purchased a food processor a few days before so I wouldn’t have to manually shred potatoes and onions like I did last time when I made them in California. What I didn’t think about much was oil, so I just used what I had: vegetable oil. I came to regret that decision. Turns out, using vegetable oil for latkes makes them cook much too quickly and I ended up with burned latkes, only a few of them were even edible. It also filled the house with an oil smell that lasted for hours. Thankfully, my second attempt at the tail end of Hanukkah was much more successful with Canola oil and lots of ventilation.

Also, we discovered that Aaron loves latkes.

We did some Hanukkah crafts, including a table runner that the boys enjoyed coloring and putting up some small lights around the house.

The boys fell in love with sparklers over the summer, so I joked about and then produced “Hanukkah sparklers” which we played with in the snow on the second night, which is also the night they were treated by grandpa coming over and doing gifts with them. This year we also gave Adam the opportunity to help with candles, which he was really excited about.

Of course the Hanukkah train came out too! The boys are treated with year-around trains in Philly now that we have a Lego train that we put together over the summer, so we temporarily put that one away so we could enjoy the more traditional model train.

Next year there’s a good chance we’ll be splitting Hanukkah between coasts, so that will be an interesting one!

We were greeted with snow! The boys had seen flurries before, but they’d never actually had the opportunity to play in the snow, and that was remedied with this visit. They shoved a little, tried to ride their bikes in it, and delighted in throwing snowballs at me. I made the mistake of shoveling the driveway because I was worried about ice, and that set back my recovery by a couple days, but it didn’t tear anything, which I’m grateful for. It did end up being bitterly cold for several days though, and I’m glad we had recently bought some winter coats for them both.

I took the last week of the year off to enjoy Hanukkah, which I’ll write about later, and go on some adventures with the kids. The first was to Fonthill Castle in Doylestown. First we stopped for brunch at nearby Cross Keys Diner and it was absolutely perfect, it was everything I love about little Pennsylvania diners. Then it was off to the castle! I had been to the sister museum, Mercer Museum, a couple of times, including with the boys two years ago. The castle was a whole new experience. The museum is a winding path of all kinds of collected items from the early 20th century, including a lot of every day things, offering a real snapshot into life back then. The castle is where Henry Mercer actually lived, building what was a farmhouse into a castle of concrete. It’s just as strange and whimsical as the museum, which unexpected discoveries at every turn. We happened to pick up a children’s book about the castle when we were at the museum the last time, so we had some idea what to expect, and it was fun to match up the photos and drawings in the book with what we were seeing in person.

The whole place was absolutely fascinating. I loved how natural light was so effectively used in places like the library and map room, since electricity was still rather new and most rooms would have been lit by a single light bulb. In one room he had real cuneiform tablets built into the columns from thousands of years ago that he picked up on his adventures around the world. We also did a little hunt ourselves after MJ read a Hanukkah display that mentioned he had a menorah tile somewhere in the house – we found it, on the ceiling!

Aaron got a picture of his stuffed dog, also a purchase we made the last time we visited the museum, by Rollo’s Stairs, a series of stairs that the dog had run through and left his footprints in while the concrete was still drying.

Upon completion of our indoor exploration, we took some time to explore the grounds. One of the photos from the book had the tree-lined driveway pictured, so we took a nice stroll down the driveway to experience it.

It was probably the warmest day of our trip, so the boys also enjoyed running outside in the grass around the castle, which also allowed me to get a few more photos of the whole castle in all its glory.

Since both MJ and I had off on New Years’ Eve, we took the opportunity to hop on the regional train down to Philadelphia, an adventure the boys constantly ask for. Our first stop was to see the Ice Dinosaurs exhibit at the Academy of Natural Sciences. We love this museum and Aaron really loves dinosaurs, so we knew it was a must on our visit downtown. It was a hit with all of us!

From there, we took a bus over toward City Hall for lunch at Iron Hill Brewery, and then walked up Market street to visit The SEPTA store to pick up a bunch of transit goodies, and also look at their exhibits. They have a full size PCC trolley in the downstairs lobby, and also various small exhibits scattered around. In front of the store itself there are a couple of model train displays to enjoy. From there, we walked up to City Hall, which I’d never actually walked through before, and then visited the outdoor Holiday Market still going on. I am certain it has shrunk since Christmas, but there were still several booths still set up and the boys got to watch people ice skating. Now they really want to go ice skating. Plus, MJ found a cannoli with vegan filling, so he could eat it! Turns out, you can do just about anything with enough oil and sugar.

We filled the rest of the week with activities like free building with Lego, which it turns out Aaron really, really enjoys, and Adam and I finished our first Light My Bricks build, which was a lot of fun. We started with a small car we knew we could finish on our trip and took the other kits (R2-D2 and Tantive IV) home with us to California to work on them here.

The boys are also enamored with science kits, so they received a few of them from their grandpa for Hanukkah. One of them was a volcano experiment that had you first make the volcano and let it dry for a few days, and then use it for exciting eruptions!

And the Friday before we left was an exciting day: The release of “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” on Netflix in the US! The boys and I have been so excited about this, and watched all the other movies leading up to it in preparation. So first thing on Friday morning we all snuggled up on the couch and watched. I even paused for a little while to write about it on my fan site!

Our evening on Friday concluded with a final dusting of snow and dinner at our favorite Italian place in town, a beautiful conclusion to the trip and a nice distraction from all the house close up tasks we had the following morning.

For the trip home, I was four weeks post-op and thankfully had the ability to handle suitcases to a limited degree. The pain was definitely still there, but the flight didn’t add to it, and we all got home safely and on time.