From Broadway to Sesame Street

By KEVIN DING

The American Museum of Natural History is on pretty much everyone's recommended list of things to see in New York, so we saw it. Sedona was certainly awed while getting a cool perspective on this Tyrannosaurus Rex's and Allosaurus' leftovers here in the lobby.

Too bad we actually went into the museum instead of leaving after checking out the lobby. OK, OK ... I'm being a little harsh. But for kids and adults alike in our family, the place was kinda boring. Call us unsophisticated -- but don't call us if you're historians and looking to hang out.

Call us any time, though, if you look like this ...

Yes, we made the drive of just more than an hour from New York City to Langhorne, Pa., to visit the sensational "Sesame Place" amusement park, but I'm getting ahead of myself with that. After just a few more token photos and another hotel-room video from our third day in New York, we'll move on to some truly meaningful American history, because what could compare to "Sesame Street" as a paragon on our children's educational and societal landscape!

The main reason we liked Sesame Place so much is that it's far more age-appropriate across the board for Sedona now than our hometown theme parks. Also, the size of Sesame Place is perfect -- manageable yet laden with stuff -- and nearly half of the attractions there are water-related, which is a refreshing twist.

Here's Sedona all lit up while enjoying her first water attraction at Sesame Place.

Here's Maven striking a model pose ... or just shying away from the mist behind her.

Sedona was willing to try all the water rides, even though she didn't love getting sprayed and the most daring one with a dramatic drop didn't really agree with her. We had a really nice tube ride down a "river" with Maven and Maggie in one tube and Sedona and me in the other. And Sedona's run down the chute below was very well documented by Maggie in these action photos:

A most compelling subplot developed for us while we were there, too. It began at the Sesame Place parade, where first Elmo and then Zoe just missed connecting with Sedona in person. If you don't think this is that big a deal, please take a close look at Sedona's face near the end of this parade video when Maggie asks her if Zoe, Sedona's favorite character, touched her.

We went on about our business, though, and the girls had a ball in this shallow pool with waves and a mega-Ernie lording over everyone. I find the opening sequence of this first pool video to be weirdly hilarious. You might notice that Sedona was having so much fun she was reluctant to leave to go to the bathroom. And while Maggie and Sedona were in the bathroom, Maven came up with her own game in the second video.

We left that area when Maven voted to try and make the last "Elmo's World" live show of the day. (Yes, we got there an hour after opening and basically closed the place down, staying from 11 a.m. till about 8 p.m.) "Elmo's World" was a very cool show loved by both kids, but Sedona just missed Elmo again as he danced up and down the aisles. To her great credit, Maggie was left highly motivated to get any monster or puppet or creature or fuzzball to acknowledge Sedona after that latest near-miss ... and we headed straight for the "1-2-3 Smile With Me" attraction.

The results -- highlighted by one big hug hello and one absolutely super-huge hug good-bye -- were spectacular. The sentiment in the following montage, especially the final photo taken just after we left that room with Elmo and Big Bird, carried the day ...

To make the ending fully happy, we went to see the last showing of Big Bird's Beach Party musical performance, where Sedona and Zoe got to bond, after all. And you have no idea how the nondescript Bert has shot up Sedona's personal rankings since she touched his hand at the end of the show.