Gina is a big fan of the original Sherlock Holmes stories and when she found out that the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas was hosting a a big interactive Sherlock exhibit, well, she just had to go. The museum has a lot of other stuff to do, like extract wheat DNA in the hands-on lab.
We had a nice hail storm. I don’t think it was enough to warrant a new roof.
I’d been meaning to get to Compton’s Double Falls for years and I finally just went ahead and did it. Hike was pretty simple: Park on Cave Mountain Road, hike downhill for a mile or so and then hike back up hill to the truck. It’s not a tough route to find and it’s even marked with orange ribbon.
I took a slightly different route on the way out and ran across this bear-shredded log. The area had a strong musky smell as if the bear had just been there. For the rest of the hike I sang and talked to let the area bears know that I came in peace for all mankind.
It turns out that there’s a couple of sections of a major theme park in Orlando, Fla., mocked up to look like locations in the Harry Potter novels. And because Abby has turned into a Harry Potter nerd in the last year and Gina has been a Harry Potter nerd since sometime in the ’90s, they hatched the idea to go to this theme park for spring break this year. I’m not a Harry Potter nerd, but this is my payback for making them go to Big Bend last year. They even convinced the aunts Jodie and Katie to come with us.
Abby has been agitating to go on a plane for three or four years and she finally got her chance. She had her fancy matching luggage and carryon so she was pretty adorable making her way through the Hell of the airport. When the miracle happened and the plane lifted off she nearly flipped her lid. “This is so cool,” she was almost trembling with excitement. She knows I don’t like to fly. She kept looking over and saying “You’re scared, aren’t you.” And then laughing manically.
So we got to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and I admit it was pretty neat what with the rides and the recreation of Hogwarts and fictional London.
The first stop was the wand shop to get our interactive wands, which are used to make things move in various areas of the park. Picking out just the right wand is a laborious process.
Abby worked out the kinks with some help from a passing witch and then gave me some spell-casting instruction.
They like to keep things authentic at TWWOHP, even down to having an actual giant as the maitre de at the Three Broomsticks tavern.
On the second or third day (it’s easy to lose track of time in paradise) we hit a giant water park with some major league water slides. I commonly deride water parks as merely big tanks of pee, but I really enjoy a good waterslide. After this place, I’ll never be able to go to Wild Urine Country again.
We hit the fictional London locale Diagon Alley at night, which is not to be missed. It made for some cool photos except for the people standing shoulder to shoulder in every inch of the place.
A giant dragon was perched on the roof of the Gringotts Bank building and every 10 minutes it belched a massive flame blast.
People would line up just before the flame time and hold their phones up to video the spectacle in the horribly wrong vertical orientation. I lined up a great shot of them and that jackass in the striped shirt walked in front of me right when the flame went off.
We ate some great food.
We got some exotic hair accessories.
We rode the Hogwarts Express a few times.
We acted silly.
And on the last day while killing time before we had to be at the airport we ate at what must be ground zero for the Orlando hipster scene, Yellow Dog Eats. It had this awesome VW Bus photo area out back.
We’ve been on a couple of our patented family walkabouts that Abby professes to hate, but actually loves. We wandered around Petit Jean State Park back in February and stopped by the abandoned Carden Bottoms school on the northwest side of Petit Jean Mountain. It’s evidently a popular place for those into abandoned stuff. It does have a few interesting features, like this abused piano.
We’ve been getting some good rain in the late winter and the waterfalls have been pretty spectacular. We hit Glory Hole Falls in mid-March and stopped long enough for a family portrait.
A week before I headed out on a solo trek and stopped by Car Wash Falls on the banks of the Big Piney in northern Johnson County.