Day 75: Texas Wendish Heritage Museum

On August 2, 2009, Mom and I went with one of the friends we were visiting in Texas to see the Texas Wendish Heritage Museum. Dad had gone out to see it the day before, so he just stayed with Mik so we did not have to drag him along. Our visit consisted of seeing four buildings.

We started at the church, which still has an active congregation. The building is not all that spectacular outside, but inside it is beautiful. I love all the blue in the church. The pillars are also interesting because they are wood, but they are painted to look like they are marble.

The first museum building we went into was the kitchen that they make the Wendish noodles in. They had the eggs laid out because they work better if they are room temperature and the next day was noodle making day.

The second building was part of the main museum. They have a genealogy library and a gift shop along with the exhibit in this building. One of the most interesting things in my opinion was the display on the different ways they make decorative eggs.

The last building we went into has items set up on display to show different settings with items donated from Wendish families that immigrated to Texas and their descendents. There are settings like a child’s room, a couple’s bedroom, a store, and a schoolhouse (by the way this was part of what the building these exhibits are in used to be). One of the older things is a black wedding dress from the 1879.

Car Sticker Update: Lion Country Safari

The final bumper sticker we put on the car was the one for Lion Country Safari. We technically went before the Marlins game, but we actually bought it the day before going on the safari and then did not remember to put it on until the day after we went on the safari. The sticker has the Lion Country Safari logo and then an image of several of the animals they have at the safari.

Mik’s Food Scrapbook: Lion Country Safari

While at the walk through part of Lion Country Safari we stopped at their cafeteria area and had lunch. Mik had a chicken sandwich, chips, and Milano cookies. The chicken sandwich was okay, but he said there was not enough chicken for the size of the bun. The bun overpowered the chicken flavor and he found it was better to just eat the chicken separate.

Smashed Pennies: Lion Country Safari

Visiting the gift shop was one of the highlights of the walk through part of Lion Country Safari. Not only because Mik got his lion here, but also because they had a penny smashing machine. Mik and I both got one with a lion head image. Mik also got one with an image of a gorilla. Around the border of both designs it says Lion Country Safari 1967-1997, West Palm Beach, FL.

Day 71: Lion Country Safari

On July 29, 2009, before our final game of the trip we visited the Lion Country Safari attraction because it was right next to the KOA we were staying at and tickets for it were included with our campground stay. It turned out to be a pretty fun thing to do, although I never would have done it if they tickets had not come with our stay at the KOA. It is not as good as an actual African safari, which both Dad and I have done before, but was a cool thing for Mik who has never been to Africa and only done the much inferior safari at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The main reason it is better than Disney is that it actually feels like it is large enough to be a natural habitat, although the rather frequent fences make it not the same as the animals in the wild of Africa.

We started with the walk-through safari part, which is sort of a little amusement park/zoo. There are a few animals to see area the walk through park, but it more like seeing them in a zoo than the more in the wild feel of the safari. They have a few rides, but we only went on the carousel. Dad and I also played about half the mini golf course before the humidity got to us. Even Mik could have tried a few holes if he had wanted because they had four wheelchair accessible holes. We did not spend much time at the walk through part because of the Florida humidity. There really was not much of interest either unless you actually wanted to feed the animals.

The drive through safari was the highlight of Lion Country Safari. It is not as good as a real African Safari, but it is still fun. They even have a CD that you can pop in to the car radio and listen to as you enter the different habitat areas, so you can learn about the different animals you are seeing as you go. The first time through I forgot to get my zoom lense out of the bag in the back of the car, but I did have my video camera and below is a video I put together of some of the okay to good footage I got on the Lion Country Safari.

Mik did not want to go around a second time and I really wanted to go around with my zoom lense. Since the campground was right there outside the park we dropped Mik off back at the Kabin. Dad and I then drove the safari loop again. It was worth doing again not just to use my zoom lense to get some better photos, but also because some of the animals, especially the monkeys were more active this time around.

Overall the Lion Country Safari was enjoyable, but I honestly never would have done it and still would not do it for the actual cost of admission because the walk through part was not worth it and the $18 per person is not worth it just for the drive through part. I am glad, though, that we did use our tickets that came with our campground reservation, as it was still fun to do.