Graduation Weekend II Part IV: Sunday

We stayed at the Grand Prairie Hotel in Hutchinson. Betsy had stayed there before for a conference. Here are her instructions on how to find it: "Um, I think it was close to the mall, because I didn't have trouble getting to the mall and it is a Best Western I'm pretty sure and it has a name like "The Big Ol' Cowboy" or something." One out of three isn't too bad right? It is close to the mall.

Anyhoo, the reason why you want to stay at the Grand Prairie is that they have a water park inside, and it is fun. They have a kiddie pool with slides, a pool with basketball goals, a climb-over-the-water-via-a-rope-ladder-and-unstable-floatie-thingys-thing, a lazy river, and two big ol' water slides. We got up nice and early to go swimming, and had a great time.

Anna's favorite was the kiddie pool with the little slides. She also rode with us on the big slides, which she also liked, despite holding her hands over her eyes the whole time.

Here we are at the moon. Also conveniently located at the Grand Prairie Hotel.

After lunch we returned to the Cosmosphere so we could see the museum. We also watched possibly the worst imax film ever about the Grand Canyon. Luckily we didn't have to pay for Anna, as she was still a two year old.

Here, Betsy and Anna pose in front of the "Black Betsy" rocket engine, the engine that broke the sound barrier . I never realized what big aviation buffs Betsy's parents are. Honestly-who names their daughter after a Rocket engine?

Here Anna tries out the ejection seat of a B-29 bomber

Here is Anna towards the end of the museum. Notice the leash. Fun fun fun. If you haven't been to the Cosmosphere since you were 12, like myself, you should definitely go again. It is so much larger and has so much stuff in it now. It is very impressive.

On the trip home, with Anna and Betsy sleeping, I stopped at the Santa Fe Trail tracks between Dodge and Cimarron. I wanted to see how they compared to my own private Santa Fe Trail track (On hard ground they traveled four abreast, creating tracks, whereas on sandier ground they traveled single file, creating track.) I think mine is just as impressive even without the (very nice) handicap accessible path. I'm guessing it got struck by lightning?