The marathon is considered a 'long-distance' running event; friends I know that have run one or more tell me it is the most difficult race there is, that while a half-marathon is a challenge, the full-marathon completely wipes you out.
Since I am unofficially training to run a marathon this fall, I am starting to think of other things in these terms as well. Unquestionably, I'd throw the job search into this category. The reality of life in Central Pennsylvania is that, if you are not a professor or researcher, there are few good opportunities for someone with a higher level of education. And I'll be honest... after months of networking, writing cover letters, tweaking my resume, etc., I am wiped out. It's a marathon.
I think the "Summer of Fun" will be something of a marathon too: it's a long event (according to Phineas and Ferb "there's a 104 days of summer vacation and school comes along just to end it...") and when it's all said and done, I imagine it will completely wipe me out.
So if I am thinking about the summer as a marathon, then the race is officially on.
Mile one of my summer marathon takes us to Pittsburgh... We started planning the weekend over a month ago, built around the idea of catching the Phillies on the road versus the Pirates. We settled on the Sunday afternoon game and recruited college friends to join us. Twelve of us in total.
Not long after the tickets arrived, I thought perhaps it would be more fun to make a weekend of it. I wanted to find something we'd never done before (instantly ruling out the Carnegie Science Center and Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium) that the kids would enjoy. We chose the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh.
I made the obligatory scan of the Internet looking for discounts for the museum - the best I could find were $1 discounts for things like Giant Eagle or AAA membership, or discounts from the Pittsburgh Entertainment Guide which were of no help to us.
The museum, as part of the Association of Science-Technology Centers, offers a reciprocal program with a number of science museums around the country (including the Franklin Institute and the Academy of Natural Science in Philadelphia) and so we discussed the potential value of a family membership.
Admission to the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh for two adults and two children is $42. If we make just one visit to the Franklin Institute over the next 12 months ($55), then we'd essentially break-even on the $99 family membership. Add in a visit to the Academy of Natural Science ($44) and we've come out ahead.
Since much of my family is in the Philadelphia area, I suspect we'll have no trouble visiting both these destinations in the coming year.
After we completed the membership purchase, I learned that for a $31 upgrade (bringing the grand total of the membership to $130), we would also qualify for the Association of Children's Museums' reciprocal program covering the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia ($60), expERIEnce Children's Museum in Erie ($24), and Hands-on-House Children's Museum in Lancaster ($28) along with many other children's museums around the country. I couldn't pass this up and so you are now privy to some of the places we'll be going this summer.
Because we got home late, the pictures are not off the camera yet and I'd like to try including them when I blog about the museum and the baseball game.
For now I'll say this... if the summer really is a marathon, I am pretty sure I am going to enjoy the run!
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