Please Touch Museum

James had a day off today (thank you Martin Luther King Jr.) so we decided to head over to Philadelphia to the Please Touch Museum. First off, Philly is such a beautiful city. I've only been there once before but that was totally accidental so it doesn't really count. What a difference it makes when you go there on purpose.
I had looked up the information about the museum on line and we thought we were quite prepared for our day out. Once we got to the museum district (I've never seen so many museums in one place before) we realized that I overlooked one crucial piece of information, I didn't look into parking. I assumed there would be parking lots, just like the other museums we've been to since we moved here. Boy was I wrong. There is mostly on street parking. And since this was a holiday there seemed to be a lot of people in the museum district (apparently visiting the museums) and it appeared as if all the parking spots were taken. I was good to go for directions from our house to the museum and back home again (thanks to mapquest). Driving around Philly just wasn't part of those directions and weren't on the map. We made our way around and eventually found a parking spot. It was quite pricey but at least it was safe.
We walked several blocks to the museum in the freezing cold, windy weather. Once inside I realized that my expectations were met, there were a ton of people! I expected that parents would be taking their kids there since they would be home for the day. It was a bit overwhelming but we didn't run into any problems since the kids could touch everything and had a ton of things to play with. There was a mini supermarket that allowed you to pick out your groceries and then check them out. I thought it was so cute but the boys weren't really into it. Granted, there were a ton of kids in that area. There was a mini farm complete with a scarecrow and cabbage patch. I thought Stellan would love the area because of the tractor that he could sit on. He ended up being scared of it but at the same time was disappointed because it wouldn't "go". I find that we often have to explain that not every tractor/train/airplane "goes"; especially the ones in books. Silly boy.
Jameson and I were in the area stocked with puzzles and story books. I thought it would be some good down time. He spotted a train puzzle and sat down to put it together. I noticed he left some pieces on the shelf so I picked them up. Imagine my horror when one of the pieces was slimey, literally. I looked and there was a glob of a phlegm-like substance pooled on the shelf where he got the puzzle. I about made my own pool on the floor. My gag reflex kicked in and I grabbed the puzzle away from him telling him it was boring, there were better puzzles elsewhere. I was so disgusted!! I did my best to keep Stellan out of that area.
All in all we had a great time at the museum, the boys really seemed to enjoy themselves. It offered a lot of different things from the Garden State Discovery Museum which was a nice change for them.
We got home and the boys each had a nice little nap. What a great day.