Happy Halloween Weekends at Holiday World & Splashin' Safari

 Mind you, the Splashin' Safari was closed, so we did no splashing, though we did see some of the animals.

Also, if the name "Holiday World" puts you in mind of Wally World and the theme for National Lampoon's Vacation so "Holiday Road" starts playing in your head... yeah, that happens.

"Oh oh oh oh oh oh ooooh."

I am not yet done counting crows, so I thought I would give a brief preview of the our trip, focusing on the Santa Claus, Indiana portion.

 (Then, I should be able to get to the museum in December.)

There are some very logical themes here. First of all, of course they have a water park, but it is not open all year. There is this heat and humidity combination in the area that feels very different from the Pacific Northwest, where our humidity is often chilled.

It makes sense that a town called Santa Claus would go with a holiday theme for its amusement park.

 That leads to four different areas, divided into Fourth of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

Only one of those happens in the summer, the peak of the hot and humid weather. In addition to the Splashin' Safari being closed, the rest of the park is only open on weekends, which are currently Happy Halloween Weekends.

I don't know if it's only this year, but there is a dinosaur theme to that, meaning that there are dinosaur statues in the corn maze that you get to via hay ride, and that the nightly Halloween "spooktacle" drone show is Dinos in the Sky. 

I admit we did not take as much advantage of this as we could have. I thought I wanted to do the maze, and then I remembered how horrible our track record was on finding the way out, and it was in fact still pretty hot and humid, snow men aside.

 That is one thing about being in a place that is seasonally-themed all year, but has extra seasonal things... sometimes you don't know what is always there and what is temporary.

There were definitely pumpkins in all four lands. That is probably temporary.

The hay ride to the corn maze is probably temporary, but the HallowSwings are probably permanent.

 I assume the Trick or Treat Trail is just for the Happy Halloween Weekends.

But Holidog is always there and has his own section of Fourth of July.

 One of the big draws for us was something we read about walking in a candy apple orchard. 

That was not what we expected. Kitty has many important roles for the Happy Halloween weekends, including her Dance Spooktacular and as the proprietor of Kitty's 3D Candy Farm.

I had been expecting a walkthrough of some fabulous decor, which the park overall is pretty good at.

However, the candy farm is all virtual. There are clever parts, like the stream full of jumping Swedish Fish.

It's cute, but it was not fabulous. I was also surprised that -- given how it appears to be mainly for kids -- there are areas where the 3-D really seems to be trying to trip you.

It was still possible to find candy apples, but not like we thought.

The overall design of the park seems to be a mix of rides for kids and long roller coasters. 

To some extent, we have probably been spoiled by Disneyland, but that does not take away the importance of local theme parks, especially the water park parts.

We're not sorry we went.

One thing that was really impressive was that soft drinks were free.

There were drink oases throughout the park. Honestly, that self-service option probably saved them some labor costs, where they could concentrate on service of food and souvenirs.

For food, my favorite thing was Ben's Soft Pretzels.

These were delicious, a great deal, and not exclusive to the park. I don't know when I will be near one again, but I recommend them.

https://www.benspretzels.com/ 

Otherwise, it was fine. There are a lot of options for entertainment, especially for children, and prices were pretty reasonable.  

Did it make sense to drive 2 1/2 hours from our main destination of Cincinnati for what we saw and did? Well, we did it anyway, didn't we?

If we did end up tired and perhaps a little bit irritable, we did not end up wishing we were dead.

COVID: It was mostly outdoors, but it was very crowded. You have no idea how many pictures I had to not use because they were full of people. Probably it is mostly okay to not wear masks, but you have to use your best judgment. 

Accessibility: This was pretty good, with ramps everywhere, and lots of people using them. Sometimes access does require using special entrances.

They could do worse. 

https://holidayworld.com/

Beaverton Art and Mural Trail

Two Blondes and a Redhead by Blaine Fontana

It may have come up because of looking for more information on the Trinket Trail, but we saw a thing for a mural trail:

https://content.civicplus.com/api/assets/577730dc-cbb6-4cf6-8f61-55f97e8a7902 

A Muyazaki Moment by Blaine Fontana

(I don't know if that is a joke or a typo; there are reasons to think a typo is more likely.)

Well, there were only eight mural on it, and they are pretty close by. That should be doable.

School of Outdoor Learning by Angelina Marino - Heide

It's never that simple, is it?

A Portrait of Resilience by Drew Merritt

A big part of that complexity was that I had previously gotten a Tualatin Valley Public Arts Trail Brochure. I had a print copy but there is a digital one available:

https://issuu.com/oregonstualatinvalley/docs/tualatin_valley_public_arts_trail_digital_guide 

There were some mismatches.

Ribbon by Jason Klimoski and Leslie Chang

Naturally, some of that was that there was art that was not murals.

Embrace Your Inner Light by Angela Ridgway

 But there were other things, like name differences.

Beaverton Cultural Dance by Jon Stommel and Travis Czekalski

 

This mural is listed as Rather Severe in the Tualatin Valley guide, but that is the name of the studio the artists work from.

 

Hampton Rodriguez Mural by Hampton Rodriguez

 

Two murals were listed in the Tualatin Valley guide, but were not part of the mural tour. Is that because of when they were painted? Or because they didn't have titles?

 

 
Untitled by Susan Charnquist

 

For me the saddest is one that is listed in both places, but differently.

 

 

This is either Water Lilies or the Larry Kanga's Mural, and while Larry certainly worked on it, it was completed by Sandy Kanga and Allison McClay. 

 

 

 

I can only assume he died before he could finish it, and that is sad, but also it is tucked in between two buildings, where you can't really get a good view of it, even though the business sign on the building kind of echoes it.

 

Three Creeks, One Will by Devin Laurence Field

Woo Woo by Gina Wilson

 

Anyone else get a Keith Haring vibe? 

Singing Sky by Richard Taylor

 

There were two other frustrations with my art quest.

 

Rest Note by Matt Burney

 

Rest Note is supposed to be interactive and musical (and also part of a series of four). I could not get any music.

 

 
I assume this crank is supposed to be involved, but turning it did not do anything. There was a plaque, but it did not appear to have instructions.

 

Common Threads by Addie Boswell, Van Cooley, Sara Siestreem, and Antwoine Thomas

 

Then, there was a misprint of the address for one of the murals.

 

Gather by William Schlough

 

The mural tour lists Hope for the Future by Hector Hernandez (and 15 Merlo HS students) at 12590 SW Broadway, which is where it is.

 

However, the Tualatin Valley guide lists Hernandez Mural at 2590 SW Broadway. Well, some of the artists have more than one, and there was another mural further down... I thought it was this:

 

That is one thing, there is always art that is not listed, though someone put it there and probably knows about it.

 

Also, there is unofficial art. Maybe people get inspired and create their own, even if it will not last. 

As it was, the last mural explained something for me. I had seen it before and wondered what was on the other side. The building seems to get really narrow.

First of all, there's a Chinese restaurant there, Chen's Dynasty. I always like knowing about those.

And the reason that it never seemed to fit is that having been on Farmington/Beaverton Hillsdale many times, which is where I have seen it, and Canyon/TV Highway many times, I sort of forgot Broadway existed. I have been on Broadway, but not nearly as often. 

I like exploring and I like art. If this endeavor had some frustrations, it still worked out. I am pretty good at noticing things, but this took me a few places I don't normally go.

COVID: While these are all outdoors, you will notice as you go around that the inspiration affects others, and there are some pretty cool murals indoors as well. Dos Hermanos Cafe looked worth checking out.

Accessibility: Pretty good, except that sometimes to get a good view you might stand on a railroad track for a while, or want to climb in between buildings for Water Lilies.