Guaranteed Amusements

Sometimes there just isn't all that much to do in that hour before dinner, so we head out to Penn's campus to wait for Misha to finish work. I won't lie - I've been known to stretch that 15 minute walk out to a leisurely 25 just to eat up some of those long minutes. In the summer, the campus is a lovely, empty park... but now of course the students have returned en masse, and they aren't too keen on avoiding a toddler whose walking path is lurchy and sometimes unpredictable. Add careening bikes and skateboards, and you can see why our campus trek is at least somewhat stressful much of the year. But still, there are some guaranteed amusements. For instance, this holey bench, perfect for sticking fingers into:



Or this piece of public art which we call "The Red Rocket" and which Lara sometimes decides is a house. She invariably tries to make that sloping edge on the right into a slide, which... well, all I can say is she's lucky that diaper is so padded!



On the way back, we see this guy. Ok, I see him. Lara doesn't care that much about a bas relief monk (scholar?) holding a book. I'm sort of obsessed with this sculpture. Is it a riff on gargoyles? Why is it there, on this building that has no other stonework or plaster ornamentation? I could probably find out, but I choose to love the mystery.