Sunny day, sweeping the clouds away

I acquired many great photos as well as a sunburn this weekend at Sesame Place, an amusement park for small kids in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. I met up with my brother, sister-in-law and nephews (4 and 5). Because I met them there, I didn't have any children with me in the car when I paid for parking -- I did, however, have a tattered overnight bag in the seat next to me. Surely I was put on some "Creepy Man Watch List."

It's really a good little park. Almost all the rides and attractions will get you wet to soaked, a detail my brother failed to share, requiring an ill-dressed John to have to buy a last-minute swimsuit and some sandals. There's not much there that's strictly kid-only or adult-only, so it's a great place to spend time with people around my nephews' age. My brother's family has been several times and learned a few tricks, one of which is to make a reservation to have breakfast with the characters. We did that Sunday morning. It's a great deal -- a decent buffet and delighted kids who get to hang out with Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, Elmo and some of the new muppets I don't care about. Best of all, it gets you into the park two hours before the general public, so after breakfast there are almost no lines.

Driving there was no problem, even though my GPS took me through Manhattan, which sounds like it would be troublesome but was no sweat. Coming back, though, I thought I would avoid Manhattan nevertheless, since there seemed to be a direct and convenient non-Manhattan route through I-278, which I shall never drive on again if I can help it. What a nightmare! The bridges, tolls and general traffic create such extraordinary bottlenecks that I almost never broke above 20 mph. I'd almost have been better off walking. This area of the country -- and I include Connecticut in this gripe -- is no fun to drive in. I guess that's why people smarter than me don't even try to do it.

The week has not even begun, and I have 3 definite and 2 tentative plans for the 5 weeknights, failing to give my wallet the rest I know it needs. Oh well. Gotta live while the living is good. And I got paid Friday! Even though it was just for 9 days of work, and even though the taxes here are steeper than in Texas, it was still the biggest direct-deposit I've ever gotten. (That's both a testament to the generous compensation The Associated Press affords its summer interns, and the highly ungenerous compensation newspapers afford their journalsits.)