Little Kids' Vacation 2014, Pt. 8

So. Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster. It doesn't hold a candle to Storybook Land, in my opinion. It's not as well maintained and includes many elements that are 1980's, like, spaceship old (i.e., not quite old enough to be cute). It does have some vintage offerings of a Dutch flavor, but fairy-tale offerings are slim pickin's. I was disappointed to learn that the giant shoe slide was decommissioned just last year.

Walk through and push a button to watch little people inside make candy.

Clockwise from Top L: Little Red School House, Wally the Whale ('63-''67), Old 99 ('74-'02), Swan Boat ('67-'75).

Dutch Wonderland's newest addition: animatronic dinosaurs. I wasn't really into them, or at least, I don't understand why the park didn't use that money to improve its rides and shows.

Having said all that, Dutch Wonderland was the little kids' favorite. Duke's Lagoon beats Storybook Land's splash park by far, and Dutch Wonderland has more than double the rides of Storybook Land.

Chip discovered a PlasmaCar: loved it! 

And Dutch Wonderland has roving and performing characters. The girls didn't so much notice that the non-dive shows left something to be desired...because Princess Brooke! In a pink gown!

I did appreciate The Adventures of the Frog Prince (the high-dive show we watched) very much. The girls sat in the splash zone, but Jim, Chip, my camera, and I sat above all that madness. I had a hard time getting photos from where we sat (We were under cover of some sort!), but I'm still marveling that no one broke his or her neck diving into that pool. You can watch a video of the frog divers, here, with the highest dive point at 0:22 or so. (I don't think anyone dives from the highest dive point in the video, but at least you can appreciate how very high the highest dive point is!)

Frog Prince Postcard We Bought at Dutch Wonderland

Again, I wouldn't personally choose Dutch Wonderland over Storybook Land, especially given the higher cost of Dutch Wonderland. Still, it's charming in its own way, and we enjoyed our time there. We saved a little bit of money by purchasing 7-Day Advance Tickets. We also took advantage of the Preview Plan and visited the park for three hours the night before our full day.

Before I close, I'm going to stick in a few random photos from the Lancaster area, thereby blogging out the rest of this particular vacation.

Sampled shoo-fly pie, here.

Found this dog statue on the campus of Franklin & Marshall College.

Strasburg, PA: Amos (Hershey Farm Restaurant and Inn) and Barefoot Boy Eats with Pigs (Katie's Kitchen).

And last but not least: The Haines Shoe House in Hellam. This may well be my dream house. I can't say with 100% certainty (It was closed when we drove by, so I didn't get to tour the inside!), but chances are good that--any day of the week and twice on Sunday--I'd trade our log cabin for a giant shoe house.

Little Kids' Vacation 2014, Pt. 7

As mentioned previously, we have a family membership to the Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which is an ASTC Passport participant. Through the Passport program, we can visit many other science centers and museums for free, and the Lancaster area includes three such museums. We visited all of them because: why not? Free!

We appreciated the Lancaster Science Factory most, by far, for the kids. It's a warehouse-type environment: not beautiful, but very open. Open is so nice when one's eyes are trying to keep up with multiple little people, each flitting from one exhibit to the next.

On a scale of 1-10, I give the Science Factory a 10 in the areas of kid-friendly and hands-on. It warmed my heart to see how many exhibits were age-appropriate even for Chip. He had a ball; all of us did! Jim enjoyed Parachute Launch the most; I left fairly obsessed with Magformers. Oh, and the Science Factory has a giant Spirograph: how fun!

Next, we visited the North Museum of Natural History and Science. This museum is very "old school" in terms of being collection-oriented; it houses enormous collections of rocks and minerals...and stuffed birds. The building itself is located on the campus of Franklin & Marshall College and very much has the feel of an old school, itself. I could tell the museum is trying to incorporate some more contemporary elements, but I have to say I appreciated the traditional ones above all. My children hadn't yet experienced a museum like this: the kind of museum in which you open the drawers of a dichotomous cabinet to view all manner of creepies and crawlies...up to and including a two-headed calf!*

Finally, we visited the National Watch and Clock Museum. This place is swank to the E.

Have you ever heard the expression: "like a bull in a china shop?" Well, Jim and I felt like we had released three such bulls, in the form of little children, into this museum. I'm slightly more accustomed to this feeling than Jim, who broke out in what looked like a cold sweat.

In the (unedited) images below, Chip is performing to the music of what I think was called an organ clock. The antique clock was in a display case, but one could push a button to hear recordings of its music. Chip pushed the button over and over, shook his tail feather, rolled on the floor in delight. Jim was so stressed he had to walk away.

The museum had actually made some efforts in terms of being child-friendly; the older kids could participate in a scavenger hunt and make a few small crafts along the way.

Most of the employees were welcoming, and one gentleman pulled the children aside for a special demonstration. There was a woman giving a tour, though, who got a little snarky with me a couple times: Chip pulled one of his sandals off, and she made a comment about stinky feet (not in a funny/nice way, either). Another time, she made it clear that the children and I were in her way.

Thus, it gave me extra pleasure to have the children whisper and squirm through her entire presentation on what Jim and I agreed to be the museum's most fascinating offering: the enormous Engle clock (11' high, 8' wide, and 3' wide).

Among the Engle clock's mechanical features are two organ movements; forty-eight moving figures (including Jesus; the twelve apostles; the three Marys; Satan; Father Time; the three Ages of Man; Death; Justice; Orpheus; Linus; Revolutionary soldiers; Molly Pitcher; and Stephen Engle, himself); and an Engle-original tellurian illustrating the positions of the moon, constellations, and zodiac as they relate to the rotating earth. The clock also indicates months, days of the week, moon phases, and tides.**

In my opinion, Clementine was almost old enough to visit the National Watch and Clock Museum: the other two little kids, notsomuch. I would like to return, some day, when I can more comfortably take in what the museum has to offer. BUT...I got to see the skeletal figure of Death mark the hour by striking a skinny thigh bone against a skull in the Engle clock, and that made the whole trip worth it.

Now that I've built this post, I think it really demonstrates how great the variety among the science centers and museums on the ASTC Passport list. There was a time that I would've assumed a science museum to be a science museum, but every one is different and worth checking out. Our lives have certainly been enriched by these visits.

*I love Michelle J. Enemark's photos from the North Museum. (She got a great shot of the two-headed calf!) You can view them here.

**Source: "The Eighth Wonder of the World" sign at the National Watch and Clock Museum. I knew I wouldn't be able to remember all that information, so I photographed the sign.

Little Kids' Vacation 2014, Pt. 6

We messed up, at the Chattanooga Choo Choo last year, by choosing a standard room over a train car. So, when I found out about The Red Caboose Motel in Ronks, Pennsylvania, I decided we just had to stay there.

We were assigned the B&O car. I was like: "No way! We got the Body Odor?" (Disrespectful, I know, but I played a lot of Monopoly as a kid, and we referred to B&O only as Body Odor.)

The truth about our train car is that the interior was straight-up 1970s: wood paneling, ratty carpet and blankets, formica table. The floor seemed ready to give way in one spot by our bed, and the ceiling was buckled in the bathroom. Jim asked: "Are you sure you want to stay here for three nights?"

And yes, because the further truth about our train car is that I loved it. It wasn't as nice as Erin's and Dave's train car in Chattanooga, but I found it homey and loved the novelty of the entire motel; thus, Jim and I spent the night of our seventh wedding anniversary holed up in a train car, eating Ramen noodles for dinner and making out while the babies slept nestled in bunk beds.

Jim did buy a Groupon so we could eat in the dining car, one night. I appreciated the dining car and the Reuben sandwich I ate there; I wish I'd taken photos. The dining car is off to the left in the photo, below.

(They'll leave the light on for you.)

The Red Caboose Motel is close to Lancaster and all its attractions but also just across from this:

Beautiful.

I photographed the sign, below, on the motel property. It blessed my heart. 

Jim says that, for the money, we can do better than The Red Caboose Motel. But I would totally stay there, again.