Guess where I went this week-end? Philadelphia! I ate two cannolis and four chocolate covered pretzels. I went to four museums, one Bar Mitzvah, and got to spend lots of time with family.

I won't say the chocolate covered pretzels were my favorite part, but they were really good. Oh yeah, I went on this trip with my mother and sister and without my children. That made the museums possible.

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts

I liked seeing pictures of daily life from Colonial and Civil War times. I liked the still lives and portraits. I liked the grand old building.

Fabric Workshop and Museum

This place was a hoot. More a gallery than a museum. They bring in guest artists who work in one medium and support them working in another, particularly fabric. My favorite pieces were the kinesthetic sculptures by Bill Smith. They were "magnetically stabilized, air driven, computer interfaced, chaotic emu egg pendulums." Emu eggs for heaven's sake.

Rodin Museum--Heaven on earth as always.

National Museum of American Jewish History

This is a brand new museum right on Independence Mall. It's full of fascinating materials and analysis, but I found it overwhelming--not just the historical sweep but the crowds. There were a lot of tours going through and they created bottle necks. I kept getting blocked into side rooms or just stuck. So, my experience wasn't pleasant, but I did feel the potential of learning a tremendous amount about Jewish and American history. For instance, I hadn't realized that Billy Crystal and Gilda Radner were groundbreaking in how they brought Jewish humor and humor about Jews to mainstream America. I didn't realized that WW II propelled Jews out of the East Coast cities. Serving on bases in LA and Florida let them see the potential of those areas, and the G.I. bill gave them the means to move out. I would have liked to spent a lot more time in the '48 to present day section.

I went to many of these museums with various relatives. All in all, I got to see one aunt, one uncle, three cousins, two cousin partners, four cousin kids, and 130 other semi or non-relations who happened to be at the Bar Mitzvah as well. I love to spend time with my relatives. I really do. Besides being fascinating people, they have fascinating bits and pieces of the family story.

I never knew my uncle told the corner deli owner that it was unconscionable of him to charge different prices for blacks and whites and he was going to boycott until the prices were the same. I never knew that my aunt and uncle's fabulous humongous house was not an upwardly mobile move to the suburbs, but a commitment to the city and an anti-white flight move.

I never knew my cousin experienced my grandmother as cold and formal while I experienced her as warm and snuggly. My cousin is eight years older than I am and my grandmother changed.

I got to see the house my mother grew up in. The view of the magnolia tree. The route she took to her best friend's house.

I knew that there was a Jewish gangster on the other side of the family, but I didn't know fear of him showing up at the wedding was why my aunt and uncle got married in their parents' backyard.

And it wasn't all history, I loved dancing with my cousins at the Bar Mitzvah. I loved staying at their home and reading through their radical activist posters, and of course, there was the showing of my cousin's movie "Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story" which you should all run out and see.