Philly mamas - fun stuff for 20 month old????

[squimp]

Share your town with me! I'm going to be visiting my wonderful ILs near Philadelphia for about 10 days later this month, mostly sans DH (!). So I'm looking for suggestions - what fun stuff can we do while we're there? We'll be filling up on funnel cake and great Greek food, and probably taking a trip to the "shore".

Are there any good museums, parks or outdoor activites that you would recommend? Any good toy stores or good shopping to hit :)? They're in Marlton, if that helps.

Thank you much!

[momathome]

You may want to check out the Garden State Discovery Museum - this is off Rte. 70 in the Cherry Hill area, pretty cloe to Marlton. In Philly, the Philadelphia Zoo is awesome and very kid-friendly. The Please Touch Museum in Philly is a smaller version of the Garden State Discovery Museum and right across from the Franklin Institute, which is a neat museum but might be a little old for your kiddo. If you are up for a bit of a drive, Sesame PLace in Langhorne, PA is fun as is Storybook Land in New Jersey (can't remember what town it is in). HTH! Oh, shopping - the Cherry Hill Mall is very nice and has all the standard kids stores. I am not too familiar with boutiques in that area but in Washington Twp in Gloucester County (about 25 minutes outside of Marlton) I know of 2 wonderful children's boutiques - Nene's Lullabye Boutique and Little Big Shots. Oh, another cool place in the Moorestown/Marlton area - Paws farm. If you need help with directions, feel free to email or pm me and I will try to help if I can. Have a great trip!

[aliceinwonderland]

I had no clue funnel cake (what is that?) and greek food were Philly things, but I am not really a native of there. I find a whole lot more greek food (which i love) here in Chicago. Now that I think of it there is one greek fast-food type place on the Penn campus. People like Philly cheese-steaks when they come here mostly.


Anyway, back to your question.

There is the "Please Touch Museum" and I second the recommendation of the Philadelphia Zoo. They have cool stuff there for kids. DH took Erik to both these places when he was very young and Erik loved it!

Not child-specific, but a fun Philly thing is the Reading Terminal market...lots of cool stands, and some Amish people (but many others as well) selling their wares.
have fun.
e.

[Jen841]

The Please Touch Jude loved at that age. He loved people watching at Reading Terminal. We have not checked out the Zoo yet, but he always loved the Lincoln Park Zoo so we will be checking it out soon. He did enjoy walking through Valley Forge State Park. Strasburg Railroad was a hit with Jude and the nieces and nephews. It is in Lancaster County. Well worth the beautiful drive through Amish Country. The train was amazingly neat and clean. I hear the Train Musuem near there is fun too, we just ran out of time.

We are new to the area, I will be checking back for ideas. It is a fun area to discover. Right now the local discoveries are hits... parks, ice cream parlors, fire station, fun shopping carts, toy trains at the grocery, lolly pops at the dry cleaners.... funny how things we don't think twice about are such hits to little people.

[aliceinwonderland]

Talking about ice cream, did you discover that Italian place near Rittenhouse (I think?? I never know where I'm at). Anyway, it had 5 million different flavors and pretty decent tasting ice-cream (more like gelato, but not quite as creamy). They had a Turkish Coffee flavor too (just to illustrate the many flavors they had). It became a weekly thing for us :)

e.

[mmaimp]

Storybook Land is in Cardiff - Egg Harbor Township, NJ. I'm not sure how updated it is but my oldest DS just went there with his Grandparents and had a great time.

Also the Adventure Aquarium just reopened and looks great. It's in Camden next to the battleship (not too good for kids). There is parking right across the street from the aquarium.

At the Shore I think Ocean City is a great place for kids. Nice boardwalk, rides, miniature golf, fudge & saltwater taffy, thin crust pizza, French fries with malt vinegar, Taylor porkroll sandwiches and frozen custard! I'm making myself hungry.

Have a great visit

[CiderLogan]

I went to grad school in Philly, before DD, so I don't have a good sense of the kid-friendly places, but once (for a friend who was moving there) I wrote up a list of (cheap, vegetarian-friendly) food places that I liked, so I thought I would share in case it could be useful for you....

Scoop de Ville ice cream shop (I think this is the name -- it's inside a candy shop, with a pink strorefront) on 18th St. between Chestnut and Sansom Sts. -- they have this machine that mixes candy or fruit into the yogurt/ice cream -- yum!

Amazon Juice at 18th and Chestnut St. for smoothies

Copabanana (2 locations, one on South St. and one closer to your place, I can't remember exactly where) has good margaritas (try orange-mango) along with sandwiches and Mexican food (NOTE this is a bar-type place, but it might be ok for kids during the day)

Primo Hoagies on Chestnut St. at 21st (open weekdays at lunchtime only) for big hoagies (no seating but good for takeout) -- Wawa markets also have pretty decent hoagies

Tomato pie (divine cheeseless pizza) from Casia's in South Philly -- lots of good Italian places and bakeries around there, of course!

There is a place downtown called Reading Terminal Market that is open Mon.-Sat. that is my favorite place in Philadelphia. It's a combination of a market (great place to buy produce and flowers) and a food court with some great places to get a cheap, casual meal, including: the Dutch Eating Place for breakfast, Bassett's ice cream, a Mennonite pretzel place (name?), etc. (NOTE: I bet your DC would love this - I know my 21-mo old would)

There are a lot of "food trucks" around the universities. If you'll be near Penn, you might go over there during the day sometime to get *cheap* and delicious Chinese or Middle Eastern food from the vendors
Also near Penn are some Indian buffet places (something like $8 for all you can eat, several places a few blocks from the University) as well as a Mexican place (can't remember the name) in the shopping area near the bookstore

Other essential food in Philadelphia: pretzels with mustard from street carts, water ice (or water ice combined with frozen custard, called a gelati), hoagies....

Jenny
Mom of Julia, 8/03

[squimp]

Funnel cake is definitely a Philly thing. I had never seen nor heard of it before.... My MIL makes really fabulous Greek food - so I'll be filling up on that at her house :).

[squimp]

You guys are making me hungry with the food descriptions (it's lunch time on the west coast...). I think I had the best gyro ever at Reading Terminal. And DD looooooves french fries. She can say the words with amazing clarity and I am slightly embarrassed by that :+!

[aliceinwonderland]

Oh, I see...Well, I know now!! Thanks :)

e.