The Backyardigans Live!

Thea and I were kiddie culture vultures yesterday. We had tickets to The Backyardigans Live! The Tale of the Mighty Knights at the Susquehanna Bank Center (formerly the Tweeter Center, and probably a few other names before that) in Camden.

Given that gas prices are getting higher by the day around here, driving an hour and paying ten to fifteen dollars for parking seemed stupid. Our other option was the NJ Transit Riverline, a light rail that runs from Trenton to Camden - complete with free parking a number of the stations. I picked Bordentown as the closest town that I'm a little bit familiar with (thanks to its annual Cranberry Festival). And for $1.35 for each of us, we were transported to the Camden waterfront in an hour or so. On the train platform we ran into a patient of mine, who was at the earlier show with her daughter and mother, and who recognized me first - I have more of a context memory for names and faces, out of the office environment, the synapses just don't fire well enough.

We arrived early enough to talke a walk around the small marina and down to the battleship New Jersey, before going into the arena, snarfing down a carbohydrate, nitrite and sugar-laden lunch, all at prices that border on extortion.

After an initial, "These aren't the words to the song!" as the show opened (the story was adapted from The Tale of the Mighty Knights cartoon and the storyline deviated a bit), Thea just sat there, sang along and smiled so much that I could see her dimples even in a darkened theater.

Thea's batteries ran out in the car on the way home. We'd just driven into Princeton and were planning on getting ice cream at Thomas Sweet's, one second she was there and the next out cold.

Anyway, all in all it was a good day.