(photo from the flight from manchester back to baltimore.)

sparklet’s first word is officially “hi” — she said it once last weekend, and the lady sparkler and i nearly jumped out of our skin. this weekend, however, she said it about half a dozen more times to pretty much anything that moved (and a lot of things that didn’t).

anyway, it now seems to be less like an verbal accident, and more like an actual word.

so, there you go.

we’re up in new england for a family reunion, and on day one we took a boat out to the isle of shoals — tiny rock islands about 9 miles off the coast of new hampshire and maine.

not only is it a place we’ve boated to as a family for as long as i can remember, but it turns out that we have ancestors who used to live on the islands back in the 1600s.

of course, there were only two families desperate enough to live on the isles those days, and they inbred like crazy, but that’s a sign of courage and persistence, right?

this is quite possibly the greatest museum on the planet.

they have (in no particular order) the “walking piano” from big, a huge basement devoted to recreating wonderland (as in alice, not val-kilmer-as-porn-star), and an entire wing dedicated to kids versions of big people places (grocery store, kitchen, gas station, etc).

seriously, this museum alone made philly worth the trip.

with only a couple days before the lady sparkler starts her new gig, we decided to slip out of town for the weekend. (being at a non-profit, my vacation policy is always much more “robust” than hers, it seemed crazy not to take some time off when it wouldn’t count against mommy’s vacation balance.)

and with that, i bring you my suggestions for philly’s next ad campaign based on our experience:

• philly: it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than trying to book something in the mountains or the beach on six days’ notice.
• philly: it’s less hot than both (a) texas, and (b) the face of the sun.
• philly: it’s not the hell hole you remember from your junior high school field trip.
• philly: we have margaritas.

seriously, tho. we’re pretty excited.

… and, check out those blue eyes while you’re at it.