At Long Last...

The vacation blog entry!
Better late than never, eh?
What a long strange trip it has been!

On the Road!
If there was a traffic jam anywhere between Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, we found it!
Random Shots from the road are HERE. And they are really random... boring even.

The Mutter Museum and Walking Around Philadelphia
The Mutter Museum was great! It was as beautiful, gross, creepy and interesting as we hoped it would be. Sadly they don't let you take photos inside without special permission. There was a wall of skulls, the death cast of famed cojoined twins Chang & Eng, lots of things in jars and a giant colon, otherwise known as the mega-colon. I shit you not.

After the Mutter Museum we walked all over the city. We went through Chinatown, the historic area, the fancy shopping area... then we had to walk all the way back to our hotel! We were T-I-R-E-D! But it was alot of fun.

My Photos:
Walking Around Philly
Christchurch Burial Ground

Laurel Hill Cemetery
It wouldn't be a vacation without at least one visit to a cemetery, or in this case two! We saw the final resting place of Ben Franklin yesterday, and today it was off to the premire cemetery at Laurell Hill. This is where anyone who was anyone after the the mid-1830's was buried. It was modeled after the Famed Mount Auburn Cemetery here in Massachusetts and was part of the Garden Cemetery Movement. Unfortunately this cememtery is now located in a reazlly rundown section of the city. I'm tallking REALLY rundown... burnt out shells of buildings, boarded up windows, scary kind of area. It looked like a war zone. The buildings look as if they were once beautiful, but it would take alot of love and alot of money to return them to their former glory.

Warning: Anyone who visits this cemetery should not go alone. Bring a buddy and a cel phone for safety's sake. Actually, you should bring a phone when visiting any cemetery no matter what, and a mono-pod doesn't hurt either.

My photos:
Laurel Hill Cemetery
A Cemetery Alphabet #2

Eastern State Penitentiary
We TOTALLY fell in love with this place. If ever there were a place on earth full of beautiful decay, this is it! It makes me yearn to be bold enough to break into an old mental asylum and explore. I want to go back there badly, and I want to take all my friends with me.

What this place is i sthe worlds first true penitentiary. The first prison with reforming the prisoner in mind. Built in the 1830's this place was way ahead of it's time with its indoor plumbing, heat and wagon wheel architecture. Closed in 1971 it was left to rot until it re-opened years later as a museum. Rather than totally restore the building within its walls they are attempting to simply halt further damage and make it safe for the public to explore, calling it a "suspended ruin".

Steve Buscemi reads the audio tour by the way.

My photos:
Eastern State Penitentiary Vol. 1
Eastern State Penitentiary Vol. 2
The Ghost Cats of Eastern State Penitentiary

Eastern States Official Website can be seen HERE.

The Martin Guitar Company
The Martin Guitar Company in Nazareth, Pennsylvania was alot of fun, interesting and FREE! We like free! Just an hour and a half drive north of Philly we decided to make a day trip out of it and spend an extra night in Philadelphia to hit Eastern State Penitentiary again. We could have hit the road and done Guitars and the Houdini museum in one leg, but we would have been rushing around to do it and what's the point of rushing while you are supposed to be relaxing.

Anyway, The Martin Guitar Company has a free tour daily where they take you into the factory and explain how and why they do pretty much everything. Did you know it takes approx 6 months from beginning to end to build a Martin Guitar? Neither did I! They also let you take all the pictures you want of whatever you want, as long as you stay behind the yellow line and keep up with the tour. There is also a museum that you can spend hours and hours in and a "picking parlor" where you can sample (and fall in love with) the guitars to your hearts content. Ron does not own a Martin, but I bet you a dollar his next guitar will be one!

My photos:
Martin Guitar Company
Official Martin Guitar Company Website

Rodin Museum
This small, but pretty museum boasts the largest collection of works by Auguste Rodin outside of Paris. It was pretty much across the street from our hotel.

My Photos:
Rodin Museum
Official Rodin Museum Website

More Random Philly shots HERE.

We checked into the days Inn in Dunmore (right next to Scranton) and enjoyed the least expensive hotel room of the trip, but the first shower with water presuure. Ahhhh.... We had to check out at 11am the next day, and the Houdini Museum didin't open until 1pm, we killed some time by doing some laundry.

Houdini Museum
Where to begin with the Houdin Museum? This place was small, but stunning. Located in Scranton, PA. this museum is in the home of John Bravo (aka Dick Brooks) and Dorothy Dietrich, the first woman to do the catching a bullet in the teeth trick. They show you a short film about Houdini, take you through their huge collection of Houdini stuff, then on a stage they have built in a surprisingly large space they put on a magic show that is over an hour long. Simply fabulous!

My Photos:
Houdini Lives!

Official Houdini Museum Website
Official Dorothy Dietrich Website
Official John Bravo Website

Niagara Falls, Ontario
Okay, I'll admit, the falls were indeed beautiful and there is a certain elemental side of me that has always been attracted to bodies of water but c'mon... it's falling water. They also looked alot smaller than photos and documentry videos lead you to believe. Framkly, we were a little underwhelmed, but we can cross that off the to-do list called life.

I find it funny, but not really surprising, that an entire regions economy is totally based on this random occurance in nature. Much like the tourist traps where you pay to have your car mysteriously roll uphill, or the over-hyping of a gorge for a quick buck. The merchandising was incredible! The Clifton Hill area reminded me of a mini Las Vegas, only colder. And wet. And not flat. We had our first real rain of the trip here, but that didn't stop us from walking around... actually we had the streets pretty much to ourselves because of the rain. It rained quite alot the second day we were there so yes, we saw falling water while standing in falling water.

Two days are really all you need. You can walk to the falls and see everything there is to see in a matter of hours. Because of the touristy nature of this area the local restaurants are open pretty late, so if you don't get in until after 10pm you should still be able to find something pretty good to eat. The Guinness World Records Museum is total crap by the way, but Ripleys Believe it Or Not Museum was worth the ticket price. We also splurged on the fancy room with the jacuzzi in it for this portion of the trip. After walking so much in Philly our legs were aching for a long, hot soak.

And there were Amish people everywhere! I don't know why, but they were there. It was surreal. I also discovered something calld and Oreo Earthquake at Dairy Queen. Vanilla ice cream, Oreo brownies, Oreo crumbles, hot fudge and marshmallow = heaven.

My Photos:
Niagara Falls

Jell-O Museum!
There's always room for Jell-O and this trip was no exception. We crossed back over the border into New York to stop at The Jell-O Museum. This is another small museum, but it's very well thought out and thorough... obviously a labor of love for the folks in Le Roy, New York. They had a cool gift shop as well, and gave us a free box of Jell-O on our way out the door. It's also another cool place where photography is allowed.

My photos:
Jell-O Museum

Official Jell-O Museum Website

Crossing into Canada, again.
We crossed the Canadian border in the Thousand Islands area and immediately spotted an observation tower. I first thought it was part of the border patrol, but nope, it was a tourist trap, and it nabbed us! Hook, line and sinker! The view was amazing and the Thousand Islands area may be worth another visit someday, though something tells me it will be buggy in warmer months. The dude who created Thousand Islands dressing built a castle on an island around here which is now open to the public and would be nice to see one of these days.

My Photos:
Heading Back into Canada

Ottawa, Ontario
I love Ottawa! This was our third visit to this beautiful city, and even though it rained, we had a blast. We toured Parliament and got to go up into the tower, we ate REAL poutine and met up with Charles DeLint again! We went to the National gallery of Canada and saw a giant freaky baby head! And we walked, and walked, and walked! I think we walked more in this vacation than we have in years, and were probably in better shape because of it.

My photos:
Ottawa, Ontario

Official Pariament Website
Official Charles DeLint Website
National Gallery of Canada Website
Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography


This whole trip was PERFECT. We saw weird things, art, people, tasted new foods, heard great music, had interesting conversations, got away from home and relaxed.

Many, many thanks to Kenny for the last minute loan of a laptop. It came in very handy for booking our hotel rooms while on the road! And thanks to Ron's dad for loaning us the GPS thingy. That gizmo kept us from getting horribly lost on more than one occasion and I don't know whose voice the use for the commands, but I feel like I know her personally now.