Saturday began fairly early as we gathered downstairs for breakfast, carpooling and cabs to get to University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archeology and Anthropolgy at opening time. We would need every minute we could get if we hoped to see even most of all the incredible collection of antiquities and artifacts from around the world Tom had returned to work so my mother, kids, and I shared a taxi. I had my car, of course but the path to UPenn looked confusing. We had learned that Philly's taxis were inexpensive, clean, efficient, and usually right on the hotel doorstep. It was an irresistable combination :)
To Touch the Past
We gathered outside the museum's iron gates and chatted while we waited for the nice man with the keys to let us in. We were looking forward to getting out of the heat too but we were in for a surprise. There was no air conditioning. none. nada. it was well over 90 degrees with humidity outside and only somewhat better inside courtesy of the huge cooling fans and incredibly high ceilings. But it was all worth it.
My family was pleasantly suprised at the apparant age, elegance, and grace of the museum building itself. In places it looked to be well over a hundred years old. In my mind's eye I could see a Jules Verne or Mark Twain wandering past the fountain in the brick courtyard, mentally attributing the stonework faces to works they'd seen around the world. It was easy to imagine we were in a museum in Egypt itself in the Sphinx room with its brick "ribs" and great lotus columns. I closely examined stone faces & vases in rapt awe. The works themselves were wondeful, but it amazed me even more that they often allowed me to see/feel/ ~even smell~ relics from old Egypt / Greece / Canaan / Africa/ Japan, if I wished. Even the glass cases allowed you to come very near indeed. The freedom, the trust, of that was exhiliarating. I was not surprised that we were all satisfied to look, but there's no doubt that having so many artifacts "up close" added to a feeling of "touching the past."
Sepdet gave her promised tour of Egypt and the first oriental rooms. My group was one of the last in (we loved that courtyard & foyer) and one of the first to fall back (because of William) but what we heard of it was very good. I especially enjoyed her pointing out a hieroglyphic inscription on a Ramses II statue with a "typo." :)
Everywhere we looked we seemed to find things that reminded us of Myst & D'ni. Scraper's group located a Polynesian leader's robe that put them in mind of Saveedro. TK & company spent time comparing the Mayan architecture to drawings of D'ni. Fahrmboy & SR388 pointed out "Gehn's dagger" in Moab's collection, complete with sun device. Erithan's group found the totems significant. My daughter was thrilled to find an exhibit on the Eagle/Wolf Indian moieties of the upper Northwest and their "killer whale" hats. (Too bad no one got a good picture of the Whale hat. It looked like just the thing for covering Gehn's bald spot ;) Even the main doors reminded us of 233!
The trip through the museum was something of an adventure itself. They were "making minor improvements" that somehow resulted in our using small service corridors & stairways to get to the next great vaulted hall. We felt like honest_to_goodness explorers diving in and out of these stuffy places. The Greek gallery was especially tricky. You followed a series of small signs that led you to a set of bathrooms & an "emergency" staircase. They had deactivated the set of alarms on: a) the door TO the Greek gallery (well-marked) and b) the ONE door near the bathrooms (not_so_well_marked on the inside). ALL the doors (attic to basement) had signs reading thusly "DO NOT OPEN THIS DOOR an alarm will sound..." See? We even got a classic observation puzzle <g>
At lunchtime we gathered toward the front of the museum. Most decided to eat at one or the other of the two museums. My family stayed at the Archeology museum's air-conditioned cafeteria, despite its lack of cheesesteaks, for the sake of my son who was wilting noticeably. His health is much better than it was but the combination of high heat & humidity, old dust, molds, pollens, etc had been a bit much. Katie & her family visited the little knots of intrepid explorers hanging there. She said that she & Rick were taking her kids to other museums which their little kids would like better but was visiting friends for lunch (she rejoined the Mysterium group at the Franklin Institute when we went in & just before closing time). Okey dokey. She was probably right about the Archeology museum but I think her kids would have liked FI alot. I am still sorry William missed the Franklin Insitute. Full-sized planes, trains, and things that go "wwhhhheeeeee" are right up his alley :)
William recovered enough at lunch to play a brief game of "tag" with the Postma kids (among others) but that didnt last long, so Mother decided she'd stay with him at the hotel while Rebecca & I went on to Franklin Institute. I had to go. I had told Franklin Institute that Tina or I would pick up the group tickets but I when I checked on the reservation they hadnt remembered. Turned out fine though we spent an incredible amount of time playing around in the foyer, counting heads, chattering, teasing Marcel for having "pulled a Drew," giving Scraper money for the tickets, getting group photos, making jokes about "Gehn" Franklin's printing press etc. FINALLY we wandered in & splintered off into fluid little groups. Mine had Kirsehn & Rebecca (my daughter), & sometimes Scraper, Bulldog, Lehsa, Morning Rose, Alahmnat, Rchan etc
The Franklin Institute was excellent fun. There were electric telegraphs, generators, & sparking ladders machines which Im sure will help us in upcoming adventures ;) a large meteorite, a Foucaults pendulum with a beautiful 'compass rose" on the floor, a mag-lev exhibit near the full sized steam locomotive, a walk-through heart, astronomy section, and weather makers (I wanted one that made aurora borealis' effects ;). . Scraper was particularly adept in getting the weather machines to work :) There was a large Riven-like book-press in the hallway, a movie with penguins at the Imax, and a section with mechanical principle "toys" that held the lot of us spellbound long after we'd rounded up RAWA's penguin army toward the end of the day. I dont know who saw them first or thought of it. I heard five different people name five OTHER different people as the original thinker of the kindly thought, but soon the race was on to round up Mysteriumites and direct them to the enormous science/toy store. There was an entire endcap dedicated entirely to penguins! Scraper was induced to coordinate the purchase and signings of the ice-cream eating horde. It just so happened that the register opened out next to a large, odd, ball-machine that made intriguing pit, pat, bong, and whirring noises. Some of us stared at that thing for half an hour. (Those who escaped THAT trap were caught by film of a Rube Goldberg/domino contraption near the exit :) We played with bouncing marbles, weight puzzles a la Amateria, Menger sponge software (Gandalf refused to comment on their effort ;), and vibration machines. One of the coolest of these was a glass "harmonium" (at least I think that was its name. ) Benjamin Franklin invented this musical device which made music by causing glass bowls to vibrate (they would spin and you touched them with your wet hands). Ben himself expected that musicians would eventually desire more such instruments based on precise harmonic vibrations. This made me think of the D'ni sounders. Had they used varieities of such things as instruments? perhaps made of different metals or stone?
Finally it was time to go. We were going to take a taxi to save time but Kirsehn, Rebecca, & I ended up walking back to the hotel before we saw one available. Mother & William soon joined us for dinner at Best Western's grill area. We figured that was the only way we'd eat our cheesesteaks quickly enough to get to Marriott on time. WRONG! They took over half an hour to serve us and queasy little boys eat slowly *sigh* We were literally running up escalators once the taxi dropped us off at Marriott. For all that we were STILL late & more than a little surprised to be "in time" for the presentation! Scraper greeted my arrival by announcing I'd pulled "an Alahmnat"..well.it wasnt traffic that got me but guys? Thanks for waiting. Okay "sort of" waiting. :)
The minute I sat down I thought I could hear water. The screen was still light if pebbly. I knew the connection had been set up early, so I wondered if IMF was in Dni already with just the graphics off. I was close. IMForeman had simply turned his avatar to face the wall until "time." Then he turned around and
we were there.
I still remember the way we cheered, the "ooOOOOOOOOOoooo"'s that rippled through the room. Everyone seemed to be leaning forward, craning for an even better look. I looked up at Scraper. She was smiling., drinking in our delight, sharing her own.
to be continued....