Weekend Expeditions
May 28, 2014
We had a very nice weekend, beginning with good news on Friday afternoon: Joe got a job at the LL Bean in King of Prussia Mall! It's part time for now, but Joe is very happy to be employed again.
Saturday we continued our research of the area pubs and breweries, this time going to the Craft Ale House in Limerick. I mean, really; how can you not go to a joint named the Craft Ale House? They had an excellent beer selection (and cider!), but the food was kinda... meh. I'm sure it will get a second chance, though.
Sunday we braved the Schuylkill Expressway and drove into the city, where we went to the Mutter Museum.
Oh. My.
The museum is fascinating, in a creepy kind of way. It's a medical museum, full of skulls and skeletons, antique medical instruments and anatomical drawings, and other oddities. There is a rather grisly specimen of an extremely distended colon filled with... well, let us draw a veil over that one. There are rows of bottles containing a wide variety of, ahem, wet specimens, and a case full of carefully catalogued skulls. My favorite skull belonged to a young man named Girolama Zini, of Istria, Trieste. He was a rope walker who died of a broken neck; apparently, he was not a particularly good rope walker.
There was also a death cast of Chang and Eng, the famous conjoined twins, who were joined at the breastbone. They made a good living exhibiting themselves, then retired to become farmers. Each owned his own farm. They married sisters and fathered 21 children. In addition to the death cast of their torsos, the museum also has their liver. (Alas, no chianti or fava beans.)
Outside of the building is a gorgeous medicinal garden. It was sweet and peaceful.
Then, after consulting our handy dandy guidebook, we walked just a few blocks to Devil's Alley, a great little bar and grill. They had a very good beer menu for Joe, and all-I-could-drink Coke for me. The food was excellent - I had a great bowl of shrimp and grits with cheddar cheese and two sunnyside-up eggs on top, while Joe had a chorizo burger that taxed his high tolerance for hot and spicy. He loved it!
On Sunday we commemorated the sacrifices of our veterans by shopping. And eating.