Sunday, July 31, 2011

Wonder World Park



Anyone who grew up in Central Texas probably visited Wonder World as a kid. It was around long before we had Six Flags theme parks on every corner.  In addition to touring the giant underground cave, you can view Central Texas from the top of a 190' observation tower, try standing up straight in the anti-gravity house, and take a train ride through a wildlife park where you handfeed the animals.



I had not been to Wonder World since the mid-70s but since we were going to be San Marcos anyway this weekend, we decided to take our kids and their cousins there. And not much has changed! It was like stepping back into a time warp. They still have the giant dinosaur and cavemen signs with cutouts for your face. I had my picture taken there over 30 years ago, and my kids happily carried on the tradition. Although Wonder World looks like a throwback to days gone by, it's very clean and well-maintained. And we had a blast!




We purchased our combo ticket using a coupon printed off the internet.  The combo ticket let us visit all the attractions for one price. The 45-minute cave tour was our first stop.



Wonder World's cave is different from other caves we've visited in that visitors here are encouraged to touch any and every thing in the cave. "You can even kiss the walls if you wish".  This alone made the whole trip worthwhile for my little nature-loving explorers.


The reason they allow visitors to touch things inside the cave is because it is not a wet cave formed by water. It is the nation's only dry cave to be formed by an earthquake. This earthquake took place along the inactive Balcones Faultline.  So you won't see any stalactites in this cave, but you'll still see plenty of fossils and interesting rock formations.


Our cave tour began in the Poker Room where the original owner and founder played poker and hid his whiskey back in the early 1900s.  We then walked down a long hallway that followed a path beneath the Balcones Faultline. Looking up at the cave's ceiling, you could easily see the faultline running the length of the cave.


And our tour guide pointed out the giant keystones in the ceiling that were wedged between the faultline and kept the cave from closing in on iteself.


The next cavern we visited was called the Darkroom. After we were all seated, the guide turned out the lights and we got to experience total darkness. You couldn't even see your hand in front of your face.

Just outside the Darkroom was the Wishing Well. Back in the late 1800s, the nearest source of water was a 6-mile hike from the homestead.  In the Texas heat, that became unbearable. So they started drilling for water. Instead of water, they found a giant cave. Eventually after exploring around in the cave, they discovered a hole that went 200ft down into the Edwards Aquifer. So this became their new source of water. And given that the year-round temperature in the cave is 71F degrees, I'm sure that was a big improvement!



The last room in our cave tour was the cavernous Fossil Room.  



The ceiling is a petrified sea floor, so you can  see all kinds of fossils in here. 




We spent lots of time in here looking at all the different rock formations and using our imagination to guess what they looked like.   



Our tour guide pointed out the most famous formation called the "Caveman's Toilet".  And the kids couldn't wait to sit on it!



One of the nice things about this cave tour is that you don't have to backtrack to where you came from in order to leave. They now have a steel cage elevator that comes down to the bottom of the cave and takes you all the to the top of the Tejas Observation Tower.



From the observation deck of the tower you can see the two distinct land formations that meet up along the faultline -- the Gulf Coastal Plains and the dramatic uplift of the Texas Hill Country.


After taking turns looking through the telescope, my kids begged to climb the metal staircase to the very top of the tower.


 This was a definite challenge for someone like me who is afraid of heights. But up we went ... and the view from the outside was even more spectacular.




The next stop on our tour was one of my favorites -- the Anti-Gravity House. I remember as a kid thinking how awesome this place was. And it is just as much fun today!


Physics was never my strong suit in school, so I can't begin to understand how they do this exhibit. Just suffice it to say that it's nearly impossible to stand up and walk straight in here.


And watching a demo of balls rolling  uphill was way cool!  The guide did warn us that you may experience extreme vertigo in here, so be very careful and walk slowly.  And after a few minutes I did begin to experience this sensation and felt like the room was spinning and I couldn't walk straight. But it was no big deal and just added to the experience.



After playing around in the Anti-Gravity house, we stopped by the snack bar for popcorn and icees before hopping on the train.  We also bought some deer feed for $1/bag since our tour guide said we could handfeed the animals on our next stop at the Wildlife Park.





The train ride takes you through a waterfall into Mystery Mountain and when you come out the other side you're in the Wildlife Park.





The train drives around the park area as you look at native wildlife.  At one point, the train stops and deer walk up to the train to be fed.  The kids loved this and were climbing over each other to feed the deer.






After the train ride, your tour ends at the Wonder World gift shop where my kids were fascinated to see their first Jackalope.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Coast Guard Airlift from Carnival Spirit, June 9, 2011

Several people have asked me to post video of the Coast Guard airlift that took place on our Alaska Cruise. More details about this incident can be found on my earlier blog dated June 10.

This rescue took place just outside Tracy Arm Fjord because a sick passenger needed to be flown to an onshore hospital. We were watching the events from our balcony on deck 7. The Coast Guard lowered a rescue swimmer to the Lido Deck on deck 9. We were so close that eventually we were asked to go inside our cabin for safety reasons.  The wind from the helicopter was stirring up the water so much that we were getting splashed even 7 stories up! And I had to hold the camera with two hands to keep it from blowing out of my hands.

At about the :16 second mark you can see the rescue swimmer coming out the helicopter. Then at :21 he is being lowered onto the deck.

It was amazing to watch our Coast Guard in action.  Three cheers to the USCG!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

A Wedding at Sea

A few days before our cruise, Freddie and I celebrated our wedding anniversary. 

May 30, 1992

So when we read in the Fun Times newsletter that we could renew our wedding vows onboard the ship, we decided to go for it! Our children were especially excited to attend "our wedding" since they missed it the first time around. Haha!



Carnival Cruiselines offers two different packages for Vow Renewals. The basic difference between the two is the number of guests included, and whether or not you want an open bar with hors d'oeuvres for the reception. Since we were cruising with 5 other family members, making us a party of 9, we chose the first option.

1) Standard Package:  ($385.00 Package Price)

• Special-ceremony location
• Ceremony performed by the Ships Captain
• Keepsake “Renewal of Marriage Vows” Certificate signed by the Ship’s Captain,
Presented in a leather folio.
• Recorded ceremony music
• Photography Service
• One Long Stemmed Rose for the Wife and matching Rose Boutonniere for the Husband
• 2-Tier Wedding Cake
• Sparkling Wine and 2 Etched (“Love”, “Honeymoon” or “Anniversary”) Champagne Flutes
• One 8x10 Wedding Photograph (Additional photos available at a reasonable price)
This package accommodates up to a maximum of 8 guests, including the celebrating couple. Additional guests can be included at a rate of $12.00 per person.

2) Deluxe Package: ($735.00 Package Price)
• Special-ceremony location
• Ceremony performed by the Ships Captain
• Keepsake “Renewal of Marriage Vows” Certificate signed by the Ship’s Captain,
Presented in a leather folio.
• Recorded ceremony music
• Photography Service
• One Long Stemmed Rose for the Wife and matching Rose Boutonniere for the Husband
• 2-Tier Wedding Cake
• Sparkling Wine and 2 Etched (“Love”, “Honeymoon” or “Anniversary”) Champagne Flutes
• One 8x10 Wedding Photograph (Additional Photos available at a reasonable price)
• One Hour Open Bar with Hot/Cold Canapés
This package accommodates up to a maximum of 20 guests, including the celebrating couple. Additional guests can be included at a rate of $22.00 per person.

The Wedding Coordinator first had to check with the Captain to see when he would be available to perform the ceremony. He asked if Sunday afternoon would be okay with us. That was the day the ship docked in Ketchikan. But it would be a short day in town since the ship left around 12:30pm, so we agreed that would work and we scheduled the ceremony for 3:30pm.

The day before the ceremony we met with the Wedding Coordinator in the Chapel so that she could explain the order of the ceremony.  At the event itself, the Wedding Coordinator was there, as well as the Captain, a Photographer, and 2 waiters.



The Chapel is beautiful with several murals painted on the walls. They had also brought in a few floral arrangements to display near the altar. And I was given a long-stemmed red rose to carry and Freddie was given a boutonniere.



As soon as the Captain arrived, the ceremony began. I walked down the aisle behind the children to a recorded soundtrack. The music was nice, even if it did include an instrumental version of "Careless Whisper" by Wham.



The Captain, in his heavy Italian accent, had us repeat the ocean-themed vows . . .



After the ceremony, we posed for pictures with the photographer. Then the head waiter popped open the champagne and we had a toast in our engraved champagne flutes. They provided ginger ale for the kids.  Then we cut our cake and served each other a bite, just like the first time around.  The cake was two tiers, so we had one tier that was chocolate and one that was a white cake.



Overall, it was a very nice ceremony and the memories are well worth the money. The next day, they delivered to our cabin the cake topper, the champagne flutes, a copy of the vows, and a white leather portfolio with the wedding certificate in it.




Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Sightseeing in Seattle



Our Alaska Cruise sailed out of Seattle. Since we had never been to the Pacific Northwest, we decided to fly in a few days before our cruise to do some sightseeing. And we were thrilled that our cousin Jordan, who lives in Portland, could drive over to be our personal tour guide. We picked a great time to visit, too, because Seattle was having some unusually warm, sunny days.



We stayed at the Hyatt Place Hotel, just on the outskirts of downtown.  It's a nice hotel within walking distance of the Space Needle.  After spending a few nights in town, I now know why Tom Hanks was Sleepless in Seattle. It doesn't get dark until nearly 10:00pm at night and the sun comes up around 5:00am in the morning! But that actually helped us adapt to having nearly round-the-clock sun in Alaska.  There were days on our cruise when the sun would rise at 3:45am and not set until 11:00pm at night. It definitely messes with your body clock!

We began our tour of Seattle at the famous Pike Place Market.  We loved walking around America's premier Farmer's Market and seeing all it had to offer.  All kinds of people set up shop at the market including commercial fishermen, farmers, craftspeople, and street performers.





Before our trip, I had the kids watch the movie Sleepless in Seattle so they'd recognize the market when we visited. So they were very excited to see the famous fish throwers as soon as we walked in the door.




Just around the corner from the Pike Place Fish Co. we found the mini donuts!  Mmmm. If you aren't hungry when you arrive at the market, you will be soon! We had fun eating our way around the market, sampling everything from donuts to homemade jerky and of course coffee at the original Starbucks across the street.





Outside the market we found Beecher's Handmade Cheese shop whose Mac-n-Cheese was featured on Oprah's show as one of her favorite things. So we stood around a few minutes watching them make cheese. (But the strong smell soon had us moving along).



In addition to seeing all the fresh fish, fruit and flowers, we enjoyed the street performers. Especially the Beatles impersonators. They were quite good, dressed in their suits with their mop-top haircuts, playing guitar and singing. One of them even played left-handed.  But it was the street performer down a ways who really caught our attention. Talk about talent! He could spin a couple of hula hoops while playing both guitar and harmonica AND balancing a second guitar on his nose!



After we had our fill of the market, we decided to let the kids work off some energy running around Gas Works Park.  Mom & Dad needed to work off all those food samples, too!


This former gas manufacturing plant, located on Lake Union, has been converted to a fun recreation spot. The old boiler house is now a picnic area and the exhauster-compressor building is a play area for kids. 



And the big hill overlooking the lake is the perfect spot for a view of downtown Seattle. It's also a great place to watch seaplanes taking off in the lake. But first, you have to climb to the top!





After a late lunch, it was time to tell Jordan goodbye so he could begin his 3-hr journey back to Portland. Then we decided to walk over to the Space Needle and challenge my fear of heights. I kept my eyes closed during the elevator ride to the top. But once we got up there, the view was too beautiful not to enjoy. Just don't look straight down!