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3 years 1 month ago
- Posts: 105
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Having grown up in a suburb of Philadelphia, up until high school we'd take semi-annual trips to historical standby's.
-- The Philadelphia Zoo. Every year until 8th grade there was a zoo trip.
-- Historical Philadelphia. Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross house, etc.
-- Science Museums. The Franklin Institute science museum was an annual event, and it was a special treat due to its domed IMAX theater. We'd also go to the Academy of Natural Sciences museum, which housed dinosaur bones and taxidermy wildlife.
--Amusement Parks. Dorney Park & Wild Water Kingdom was the most commonly visited on school trips, with Hershey Park a close second.
-- The Colonial Plantation. This always struck me as a bit of a strange trip, but we'd go there every year from 5th to 8th grade. A sprawling 18th century plantation house with stables and various activities such as hand-dipping candles and kneading our own bread. What I remember most vividly was tossing my buddy's glasses down an antique well. Um, yeah, sorry about that, Tommy!
-- Phillies games. Mind you, this was back in the mid-90's when the Phils were one of the worst teams in the league. Still, it was always a fun night out. Twice, I got to go onto the field and sing the National Anthem with my choral group. I don't remember the scores to the games, but during one of them I caught a hot dog that was shot from a cannon!
-- DC Trips. There were only two of these, in 5th and 7th grades, but they were fun. I remember the long bus rides down and those god-awful coach bus bathrooms more than the actual sight-seeing.
-- The Mountains. In 7th grade, we spent 3 days in cold cabins in the Pocono mountains. Other than being unfathomably cold, I remember very little.
-- Watching Whales (and other cold, wet things). In 8th grade, we went on a whale watching trip down in Delaware. The highlights of that trip were having our entire grade (about 200 of us) clown-car into a small conference room to watch Beavis and Butthead Do America on a projection screen. Excellent choice. Our teachers were shocked that the film only got a PG-13 rating. Also, a positive memory for me was that while on the actual boat looking for Shamoo & Willy, I was one of only 3 students who didn't vomit everywhere -- the scene was ghastly: imagine a Tarantino film if vomit was his bodily fluid of choice.
-- High School. The only trips taken in high school were to the University of Penn to watch plays and to the Mutter Museum of Genetic Oddities. The latter contained the skeleton of a midget prostitute and the jarred, cancerous testes of a giant, among other amazing specimens. I need to go back there.
Ah, I miss my youth!
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