Thursday, August 24, 2006
The home stretch
This week has flown by...On Sunday, we were on our way to Santa Claus, IN.
Denise had always heard about the place, and wanted to visit. The
campground sounded great, and there was a water park and amusement park
right next store that the kids were excited about. Unfortunately, Santa
didn't deliver...
We had rearranged our schedule to drop one day in St. Louis and add a day in
Santa Claus, IN. What we didn't know was that school was about to start in
that area and that Sunday, August 20, was going to be the last day that
anything fun would be open. When we arrived mid-afternoon, we found all
this out. We headed over to the water park/amusement park (called Holiday
World), and had a blast. The crowds were thinning out as the park closed at
8. The cashier thought we were crazy to be plunking down $30 a head to walk
in at 3:30. But, we were determined.
We enjoyed the water park the best, particularly a ride called Zinga that we
all rode together. We rode that one a few times, and had a blast. Ben and
Denise wanted to skip the roller coasters, but Sam and I gave them a shot.
I was proud of her as she made it through the one with the steepest drop,
called Voyage. We also rode Legend (twice!). Both are great wooden
coasters (no loops), with high speed drops and very sharp turns. Both
seemed like particularly long rides, which tired us out.
We had hoped to watch the Yankees-Red Sox game that night on cable, but our
RV park didn't have cable hook-ups. They also didn't have Wifi in the
section we were in. This upset Ben, but we at least tracked the game on the
Internet via Verizon Broadband Wireless.
The next day, Monday, all the fun stuff in the RV park was closed. It was
'off season', and that meant no swimming pool, no mini-golf, and nothing to
do. We left there after lunch and headed to Cincinnati one day earlier than
planned. That worked out great.
We spent Monday night in our RV park in Rising Sun, IN, after finding a
place to have dinner. It's a small resort area, near a couple of big
casinos. This was also off season, so the park was pretty empty. On
Tuesday and Wednesday, we explored Cincinnati. Denise and Ben went to the
zoo on Tuesday, but Sam and I went to the Aquarium. Everyone enjoyed their
choice, and we met up afterwards for dinner at a nearby pub (Washington
Platform Saloon -- felt like Cheers on the inside). We then tried Graeter's
Ice Cream, which deserves its great reputation!
On Wednesday, we visited the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
and The Natural History Museum at Museum Center. The Underground Railroad
Museum was fascinating. Cincinnati was right on the border between slave
and free states, with the Ohio River being a major crossing point. The
museum was beautifully done with movies, interactive exhibits, and artwork.
I could have spent hours there, but the kids got bored after a couple of
hours. Ben did buy several historical novels on the subject in the
bookshop, so I know he got something out of it.
Museum Center in Cincinnati is a collection of museums in the old train
station. The building itself is worth the visit as it is beautifully
restored. We spent a couple of hours in the Natural History Museum, which
has several unique exhibits, including a cavern you can walk through and a
depiction of what life at a glacier's edge is like. Although we were tired,
we enjoyed it quite a bit. We also took in the Omni movie on Beavers. As I
learned at MIT, they really are nature's engineers! The kids liked it, but
I am told I took a brief nap in the middle...
Today is Thursday, and we now have more driving than sightseeing left. We
drive to Gettysburg today. Ben and I will look around there tomorrow.
Denise and Sam have already decided to skip it (I could have predicted
this). I've been there before, and am looking forward to seeing this with
Ben. He likes history, and we'll have a good time together. On Saturday,
we do a long drive to get home. Hard to believe that it is almost over...
We haven't taken many pictures over the past few days, but Ben does have
some from the Cincinnati Zoo that we'll upload some time soon.
