Philly, the executive summary

I took off on a whim to Philly to visit my friend Chewie, the super awesome dinosaur guy I met last summer in Montana, and geek out for a few days. He manages dinosaur hall at the Academy of Natural Sciences and understands the art of sarcasm so much better than anyone else I've ever met.

I was absurdly amused by the wild ass.

I saw "boathouse row", a lovely double entendre, riddled with rowers on the river in everything: singles, doubles, quads, fours, eights, rain.

I ate cheese steak (see below), and got to briefly experience the awesomeness that is Reading Terminal Market for lunch another day.

I saw tourists running up the "Rocky" steps (that lead to the art museum) - I did not feel inclined to partake in this ritual, even though there is a statue of "Rocky" there.

I got to look in the collections (including some very very awesome specimens, and the Thomas Jefferson collection), and work in the prep lab on some of the very bones that I helped to collect and excavate last summer. I also got to meet very cool museum people, including one of the finders of tiktaalik, which was incredibly awesome. I also extensively roamed the exhibits at the museum - it's easy to spend full days in a place like that.

jaw of tiktaalik - check out that palate and all those little teeth!