Spring Break? Me?

Our plans for Spring Break started out with me arranging a camp to take Rosie all week, while her school was closed. I hunted down a great place to take her, pleaded for a spot, pulled the moolah out of the budget; she was enrolled! Then, I told Monkeyrotica that it was all arranged, figuring that he'd be relieved that he didn't need to worry or at the very least pleased that Rosie's days off school would be occupied without inconveniencing Grandma Sheila too much.

His answer was totally unexpected: "Why don't we go somewhere instead?"

I was flummoxed. "Wait, what? ...Who are you?" I asked. "And what did you do with Monkey? We never go on trips!" He dislikes traveling (especially with kids) and it's usually me that talks (and gets vetoed) about taking the kids places to see sights, get culturally enriched, all that good stuff. Beyond that, he and I rarely have even taken our personal vacations together before kids. This was almost entirely unprecedented.

After talking it through and determining that Monkey was serious about a Spring break trip, we narrowed locations down with these factors: driveable in less than a day, educational/fun for kids, not too cheesy or expensive. We came up with Philadelphia, just 150 miles (3 hours) away. Lots of excellent museums, parks, interesting history, SOLD!

I picked out a charming room in Philadelphia's Historic District, the Morris House Hotel, and started planning and reserving events. Monkey was in charge of picking out places to eat for lunch and dinner. We packed, we left! (more to come...)