Philadelphia related post number two: Animal-related stuff. Today I’ll be talking about the Academy of Natural Sciences [of Drexel University], the Adventure Aquarium, and the Philadelphia Zoo. 
First up: the Academy. We never would have known about this awesome little museum if it weren’t for Pack Up + Go: the envelope they sent us included two tickets, so of course we decided to capitalize upon the opportunity.
The Academy surprised me: the outside was modest and easy to miss in the crowded city, but the interior was expansive. It was like the TARDIS: bigger on the inside. One of the largest rooms there housed several (kinda scary) fossils ranging from sea turtles to mosasaurs. Did you know that the mosasaurs’ closest living relative is the Komodo Dragon? Or that it used to live in Kansas, where there was once (or maybe two or three times over history, I don’t know) a sea in the middle of what is now the continental US?
There was a kids’ area with all sorts of little critters and a butterfly house to walk through, but what stood out most to me were the dioramas. They had entire hallways of statues upon statues, so lifelike that you almost thought the tiger in front of you would suddenly start breathing, or the rabbit would break out of it’s trance and hop away. This stunning aspect was implemented by the impressive scenery to display the habitat and the other creatures in the scene suggesting an ecosystem and not just an image.
After we finished exploring the Academy, we took a lunch break, then caught a ride over to New Jersey. Apparently, Camden is a big crime town, but the Aquarium was great. We arrived in time to watch the hippos eat cabbages, stared at a bunch of jellyfish, then walked over a metal bar (with netting) a couple feet above a bunch of sharks. We also watched penguins fight over little fish and bought some delicious cinnamon sugar donuts.
My favorite part of the aquarium was probably the multitude of critters to pet. I got to pet a stingray, a shark, a starfish, and even a shrimp! I passed on petting the crab and the lobster, even though the lobster’s claws were rubber-banded shut.
On Monday we went to the Philadelphia Zoo, which is the oldest zoo in the US. I finally got to see both a golden lion tamarin and a flamingo up close (which have both been on my to-see list for ages), stood five feet directly under a leopard, and stood a similar five feet directly under a red panda.
I got to be so close to these animals thanks to the Zoo360 program, which follows a series of suspended wire trails throughout the zoo, which the animals take turns having free range. From what I’ve seen, they have one path for the little critters (mostly primates, and, apparently, red pandas) and one for the big cats, as well as a similar trail on the ground outside the meerkat enclosure for them. The goats have a bridge that goes over the sidewalk, and some of the other monkeys have a climbing structure that takes them exceptionally near a parallel human climbing structure.
There were a bunch of games, selfie machines and other interactive exhibits to engender a learning environment, which I thought was ingenious. If you want the kids to learn while they’re on vacation, you have to convince them that they want to learn, right? Anyways, I appreciated it.
