offshore171
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Griswold’s Road Trip
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Fantastic accommodation choice for the Griswolds and I also had to watch the movie yesterday because of this TR.
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Boxing Day was “moving day”., on to Philadelphia. It was -9 in the morning, and a winter storm forecast for the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York area to arrive later in the day.
After what seemed like and never ending packing session (how did we spread so much stuff out in 3 nights?) we were on the road to Philly.
After what seemed like and never ending packing session (how did we spread so much stuff out in 3 nights?) we were on the road to Philly.
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Fun fact for Griswold’s fans - during the scenes where the grandparents are arriving in Christmas Vacation “It’s a Wonderful Life” is playing on the tv.
It’s actually a tradition of ours to watch Its a Wonderful Life each Christmas. If you haven’t seen it, you should. For the younger amongst us don’t be put off by the black and white.
When I found out that the taxi driven by Ernie in the movie is at the America On Wheels Museum in Allentown on the way between the Poconos and Philly it was a no brainer to stop there.
It’s actually a tradition of ours to watch Its a Wonderful Life each Christmas. If you haven’t seen it, you should. For the younger amongst us don’t be put off by the black and white.
When I found out that the taxi driven by Ernie in the movie is at the America On Wheels Museum in Allentown on the way between the Poconos and Philly it was a no brainer to stop there.
The museum had a reasonable collection of a variety of forms of wheeled transport and some model train / Lego displays. There was also a section where kids could play mechanics on cars which the junior Griswold’s enjoyed. Some random shots from the collection.
Forgot to mention you are allowed to open the back door and sit in the back compartment and pretend to be George Bailey. It’s quite spacious!
Philadelphia woke cold and icy. Where we were the winter storm hadn’t seemed to bad, but a lot of ice including on the Griswold mobile which required a lot of scraping before we set off.
Not sure if it was just a coincidence but there appear to be a few males who would normally fit the “homeless” description at breakfast and I wondered whether they had proactively or otherwise been given accommodation for the night at the hotel with the storm. Time will tell tomorrow I guess.
We hung around a bit at the hotel for the weather to warm slightly and then headed out to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Movie reference 2 - the stairs at the front are the stairs Rocky Balboa runs up in Rocky 1 and 2 during the montage showing how fit he has become. There is the Rocky statue made for the movie at the bottom of the stairs and another at the top.
I won’t embarrass the Griswold’s with the video of them gingerly making their way up the sometimes icy stairs (thankfully no one slipped) Rocky style and dancing around at the top, but here is a picture from the front of the museum looking back towards Liberty Bell Hall. At the end of the first forecourt you can make out the rocky statue with a throng of people around it, the 72 famous stairs lie below out of sight.
Not sure if it was just a coincidence but there appear to be a few males who would normally fit the “homeless” description at breakfast and I wondered whether they had proactively or otherwise been given accommodation for the night at the hotel with the storm. Time will tell tomorrow I guess.
We hung around a bit at the hotel for the weather to warm slightly and then headed out to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Movie reference 2 - the stairs at the front are the stairs Rocky Balboa runs up in Rocky 1 and 2 during the montage showing how fit he has become. There is the Rocky statue made for the movie at the bottom of the stairs and another at the top.
I won’t embarrass the Griswold’s with the video of them gingerly making their way up the sometimes icy stairs (thankfully no one slipped) Rocky style and dancing around at the top, but here is a picture from the front of the museum looking back towards Liberty Bell Hall. At the end of the first forecourt you can make out the rocky statue with a throng of people around it, the 72 famous stairs lie below out of sight.
The museum itself is massive, and I can see why you get a two day ticket. After a pit stop at the Cafe (yes called the Cafe) which served surprisingly good food we did as best as we could for about three hours before the junior Griswold’s hit the wall. We only scratched the surface and I can see you could easily spend two days here.
Some highlights follows, they are mainly 19th and 20th European as I like that style, however they have very good Asian, medieval and 17th / 18th century western collections with many set up in rooms that have been taken from the actual locations and preserved.
Think for example, Chinese art work displayed in a Buddhist temple from 14th century Beijing, or a recreation of a 17th century French drawing room.
No photos of those unfortunately as was just taking them in!
Some highlights follows, they are mainly 19th and 20th European as I like that style, however they have very good Asian, medieval and 17th / 18th century western collections with many set up in rooms that have been taken from the actual locations and preserved.
Think for example, Chinese art work displayed in a Buddhist temple from 14th century Beijing, or a recreation of a 17th century French drawing room.
No photos of those unfortunately as was just taking them in!
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