I finally made it out on our first field trip since having the baby. My sister Mary and her kids treated us to a visit to our old favorite museum The Henry Ford,. It was fun to get out but I admit it was not as easy as I remember field trips being. Mary was smart to bring along a couple bags of treats from Trader Joe's and I was lucky to have her assistance in counting heads.
We split up into two groups, she took the girls on the Rosa Parks bus while I accompanied the boys through the paper airplane tunnel and along the timeline of cars. These boys recently participated in the Pinewood Derby and discussed plans and designs for future cars. James who has out grown the Pinewood Derby had his thoughts on a car he'd like to be driving in the not too far future.
Then we all went through the special Titanic exhibit together. We got to walk through a replica of the lavish cabins and see original artifacts including coins, jewelry, dishes and suitcases. It reminded me of the worthlessness of material goods amid real life crisis.
As you continue through the exhibit the lights dim and it gets cold, there was a flashing red light and an alarm that made some of the kids nervous. Since it was the first week of the exhibit so it was also very crowded (people were unusually pushy), so as Mary and I struggled to keep our group of 10 children together we both noted that we got a tiny taste of the panic.
We felt this tragedy on a more personal level when we were each handed a boarding pass with the names and stories of individual passengers who were actually aboard. Some of the names we held as we walked through were Mr. Francis Davis Millet, Mr. Austin Partner, Mrs. Edward Candee (Helen Churchill Hungerford), Mr. Edwin Nelson Kimball Jr., Mr. Engelhart Cornelius Ostby, and Mr. Edgar Joseph Meyer. Some of these individuals survived, some of them didn't.
The exhibit was worth seeing but Mary and I both admitted it may have been more enjoyable as a double date with our spouses. But we survived it and the kids are still talking about it so now that's its over I'm glad we went.
I don't know how you girls do it. I only have one at home, and I feel like I don't go anywhere. I was remembering how we used to always go on field trips on Philly. You were always so fun and adventurous. That sure hasn't changed.
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