Hanging With a Friend and the Franklin Institute

Even though GrandCamp is over, the fun around here continues. On Tuesday I went to Mt. Holly to see a friend and loyal blog reader, Sabra, for a visit. Sabra and I have known each other for a long time, but have somehow never been able to sit down together and just talk.

We went into The Daily Grind for a cold frappe and conversation. Sabra brought her lovely scarves, woven on an Ashford Knitters Loom, for me to see--she is an excited weaver who is making some truly lovely fabric with her loom. She is also active in a number of groups involving knitting, singing, and promotion of the NJ Farm Fair.  Such an interesting life! A couple of hours later we reluctantly said good-bye, with a promise to meet together again next year.

On Wednesday morning Bob and I gathered three of my children, one son in law, and all seven grandchildren for a trip to the Franklin Institute. It was a challenging outing, involving a half mile walk to the train station, a train ride to the end of the Patco line, then another twenty minute walk to the museum. It was very hot, and our large group was quite a sight!

But wait, you may say, isn't the Democratic National Convention going on right now? Yes, and not only was the museum much less crowded (I guess people must have been avoiding playing tourist with all the hub-bub happening,) but it was so much fun people watching as we walked past the upscale hotels en-route. While we didn't actually recognize anyone famous, we did see a couple of people being interviewed. My daughters remarked how fun it was to see the Convention-goers all dressed up in designer dresses and suits, and Emily commented on the eyeglasses people wore (she's a licensed optician so she notices that kind of thing.) The people-watching made the long, hot walk much more interesting, for sure. We were very glad we had decided to take the train, however, and not try to drive into the city. Traffic was backed up everywhere.

At the museum, we all went inside the giant Human Heart exhibit, something that I don't remember doing the last time I was here.

Rob, Adam, and Quinn each made paper. I remember doing this as a parent-helper with Emily's class when she was in 2nd or 3rd grade. Such memories it brought back!

The polarity of magnets was of great interest to all of the children.

We also saw a Planetarium show that demonstrated how satellites provided us with information that we use daily. The Franklin Institute is so large that we never get to see the whole thing, but that's OK. We can always go back!

As we started our walk back to the Patco station Adam stopped to show us how nonchalant he would be around dinosaurs. Such a goof!

It was a lovely trip, the kind that makes wonderful memories.