We caught the bus early to the Rodin Museum where the boys gave us their interpretation of the Thinker and we admired The Gates of Hell.  According to our tour guide the previous day, couples queue up on their wedding day to have their pictures taken outside the gates throughout the Summer; an idea which apparently has the happily married amongst us smiling in amusement whilst the less blissfully entwined tend to grimace in discomfort…

After lunch we headed into The Franklin Institute. I have already lost count of the number of museums we have visited so far but if I ask the boys which ones they’ve enjoyed the most, this one comes at the top of the list for John. Predominately a science and technology museum, most of the exhibits are hands on and very interactive.

We walked inside the Giant Heart taking the route that blood flows through the atriums and ventricles, watched open heart surgery in an operating theatre and diagnosed a heart attack following critical heart emergency response training.

Teddy and Alex enjoyed the KidScience zone, using magnets, mirrors and water to explore different materials and I loved the interactive mystery in the Train Factory that had me listening to clues and concocting theories like a big kid, whilst the boys climbed onto the Baldwin 60000. Over in the IMAX we listed to Ewan McGregor telling us about the plight of the humpback whale and in the planetarium we experienced views of the Earth from outer space.

The bus back took us past the Philadelphia Museum of Art, famous for its now iconic “Rocky Steps” where in 1976 Sylvester Stallone’s character trained for his match with Apollo Creed.  The film makers donated the statue of Rocky to the City after the third film in the series and it now stands just adjacent to the staircase.  Tempted as I was to run up and down the stairs like so many others, I settled for a photo and resolved to find the film on Netflix for the boys. After all, you can’t come to Philadelphia and not know who Rocky Balboa is.  It’ll come as no surprise that the quote that all 4 boys love most is:

“You’re gonna eat lightnin’ and you’re gonna crap thunder…”

Great film.