The City

I'd like to make one thing clear: I hate the city. It's true.

We tried to go to the zoo this morning. It was a sort of overcast day, Monday, June 12th... seems like a day when not too many other people would choose to go to the zoo. (Either because of the weather or because the kids aren't done school yet.) But no, as we pulled off the expressway there was literally a line stretching out the gates of the place. The first parking lot? Full. Hoards of people pushing strollers and dragging little kids were streaming down the sidewalks. Snarl. Maybe we'll try plan "B".

Back onto the Schuykill and the traffic is stop and go. Of course it is! I mean, why not? It is 11:45am, after all. People are probably headed home from... breakfast? What the heck.

The decision was then made to try hitting the Franklin Institute. So we took the Vine, then got off and were driving around the city. I hate the city. People crossing the street at any given point, people crossing on red, cars changing lanes suddenly and without warning... glorious. Finally we got to the right street and.... thenFranklin Institute lot is full. Great. The lot attendant (who supposedly spoke English) told me about somewhere else I could park, but I decided not to. I wanted out of dodge.

Next thought: oooh, maybe that Muenter Museum place at Penn? Yeah, not exactly someplace they advertise with big signs. "Turn here to see a two headed baby with hooves in a jar of formaldehyde!!!" We drove around University City... until I got bored of it. Stopped briefly and walked around the block, just to make it seem like we tried. Still nothing.

We then, inexplicably, headed back towards the zoo to see if maybe things had cleared up a bit. No, now the second parking lot is full too. (We found this out after driving down a street where the west bound lanes were just completely shut for construction but no detour had been established, so both lanes of traffic were more or less travelling in one lane. Awesome.)

With that, we left the city. Back to suburbia to have some lunch and, as it turned out, pick some strawberries at Linvilla Orchards. Much more my speed, for sure. We might try the city again sometime in the future, but there will be no driving involved. Public transportation, take me away. Does anybody know if the city will be closed any time soon so we could go on that day?

I hate the city.