40 Winks with The Sphinx!

What can I say, it’s been a lifelong dream of mine to live in a museum.  So, with that expectation, we packed up this past weekend to spend one night amongst the ancient artifacts of the Near East and other cultures at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.  The program is called “40 Winks with the Sphinx” and is for children and families to explore the wonders of the ancient world and the process of discovery.  The Egyptian collection was excellent;  the ability to get close to the pieces was something you can’t really experience at the Met;  we had an engaging class on Hieroglyphics from an Egyptologist from UPenn and got to touch and examine up close an extremely well preserved mummy.   The museum is also somewhat of an architectural curiosity in that it’s rotunda is one of the largest unsupported masonry domes in the Unites States :  sitting on top of a concert hall!  At 10PM, the lights went out and with our flashlights we were allowed to poke around and explore the museum.  After that it was time to make our beds at the foot of the third largest sphinx in the world.  What a view!  It was a great experience, although my back disagrees.  I’m pretty sure now that I don’t want to LIVE  in a museum, but it sure is fun to visit!