I love memberships. With a membership you can say "hey, I'm bored, let's go someplace" without having to worry about staying long enough to get your money's worth.

Thursday I asked the kids if they wanted to go to the Newark Museum. Owen jumped up and down with excitement. Bridget was quiet a second and then said "Ok. After this Totally Spies" (I think she's watched every single one online at this point).

Five mintues later the episode ended and then she was with Owen, impatiently waiting for me to be ready.

First we ran around in the sculpture garden. Almost all the old stuff had been removed and a new exhibit was in place. I meant to ask if it was temporary but forgot. The new exhbit was a Chinese artist (or many Chinese artists? I tried to read the plaques but got pulled away). There seemed to be a lot of penises. Penii? Penis'? (mental note - look up what the plural of "penis" is).

Then we went inside to the life sciences floor. Very, very cool. No matter how many times I go I still get a kick out of the exhibit that shows how NJ and Africa were once joined. And the leaf cutter ants and termites fascinate me. I hope that's a permanant exhbit. We hung around there for awhile but the kids were hungry so we left.

I used to intern at the museum and had a vague memory of grease trucks in the park. It wasn't lunch time though, and I soon realized any food venders were gone. So we walked down the street and found a little deli shop in an office building. The above picture is the historic Ballantine House (part of the museum) with the office building behind it. I thought it looked like a cool shot.

After a snack we headed to the library. I wanted to show them how cool it was. Owen was impressed but Bridget just complained about the stairs. Ah well, you can't make everyone happy.

I thought we'd be going home then but Owen wanted to see the mini-zoo in the museum so back we went. First we checked out the human body exhbit and then on to the zoo and finally we left. Just in time for rush hour. Rush hour just means that the trip home took 25 minutes instead of 20 so not a big deal.

Tomorrow we're taking a much longer trip to Philadelphia. We're going to the Franklin Institute where Bridget and I will be checking out King Tut's return to the US and then we'll hang out at the museum til we're done. I've never been there, but Robert has fond memories from when he was a kid. I've heard differing opinions on this museum ranging from "not what it used to be" to "far better than the Liberty Science Center". So I can't wait to see what I think tomorrow.

Oh, and our membership to the Newark Museum gets us into Franklin Institute :) AND Liberty Science Center. All for $60 a year for a family. Cool :-)