It’s been a long time, maybe years, since just the three of us took a little vacation together. Lia has always wanted to see Philadelphia, so off we went. We stayed in the city, walked almost everywhere, ate ice cream for dinner, rode a double-decker bus, saw severed body parts, and were in bed by 9 each night. Pretty cool.

Joe’s newest emerging skill is identifying each of the three of us by name. Where’s Mama? Where’s Dada? Where’s Joe? Here he is at Love Park. Who do people love? This guy.

Behind Joe is the Liberty Bell. There was a line out the door to see it. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Crack is whack.

About a half-hour out of Philly is Sesame Place. We met Elmo and Cookie Monster, and rode some neat rides. I was nervous about the swings – Lia and Joe called me milquetoast, hopped on, and laughed at me each time they went by.

For educational purposes we went to the Franklin Institute and the Mütter Museum. No photos allowed at the Mütter, but darn that place was cool. It’s hard to describe – it’s a serious medical museum with Einstein’s brain, an 18th century mummified Philadelphian, lots of preserved parts and pieces of people, a wall with 139 skulls. Also umlauts, so it’s pretty metal.

This photo is Joe reading over a ledger at the Franklin Institute. The place is sort of the grand-daddy of city science museums. There was an incident there with a key that will become part of our family lore – remind me and I’ll show you a video clip of it sometime.