Petunias

Rock climbing

This rock climbing tower had been upright for climbing, but when ready to leave, it was mechanically lowered onto the truck bed. This picture was snapped as it was halfway down. Kansans have things like this instead of mountains and cliffs. Not nearly as pretty, but fun.

Theme Day - Breakfast

I'm a day late on theme day - but have photographed today's breakfast. Normally I just have a bowl of cereal and glass of ice water. But today, for show I've added whole wheat toast, fresh cantaloupe, and a hard boiled egg. The bowl of cereal barely shows in the upper left hand corner. Today it was Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds.

And now, on with the show

I wonder how many times that famous movie phrase has been spoken in this wonderful old movie theater. This is the Orpheum Theater, it was built in downtown Wichita at a cost of $750,000.00 and opened in 1922. I attended the new release of Mary Poppins with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, at this theater (1964). It was great fun just being in this theater, they don't make 'em like this anymore. I don't remember the cost of seeing the movie, but I do remember they gave a discount to students, seems like it cost about 50 cents. Popcorn was probably about 10 cents and it wasn't uncommon to see some being tossed towards the ground level seats from kids having fun in the balcony.
There came a time when, the Orpheum sat empty and unattended, becoming run down. Eventually a group of Wichitans decided to renovate it, and bring it back to life. If you are interested in old movie theaters, there's an excellent website about it, just look for the link in my sidebar titled Orpheum Theater. The website has an online video telling history of this old building - and the renovation (it's really interesting). The video shows pictures of the inside, plus there are articles and photos that can be viewed, and listings of upcoming performances and shows.

Sunflower

Palace of the Plains

In it's early days, this building was sometimes referred to as "The Palace of the Plains". It was completed in 1892 at a cost of $71,000. It served as Wichita's City Hall and included space for; regular offices, a jail, police and fire departments, courtrooms, offices for the board of education, and a large city library. In 1975 a new City Hall building was built, and this building then became the home of Wichita's Sedgwick County Historical Museum.

Canadian Geese

Canadian Geese, coming close to see if I've come to offer food.

Neon Lights

Waterfall

This water park has lots of interactive water play structures, water slides, a lazy river intertube float area, shallow pool for little ones, and a lap pool for swimming. It's a great place for kids of all ages to keep cool off on a hot summer day.

Butterfly house

Yesterday's photo was taken in the butterfly house at Botanica. Here children and adults can visit during stages from cacoon to butterfly. On the other end of this "house" is a small wooden hut where the cacoons are kept safe from harm. Once the butterflies come out, they fly around in this safe haven full of flowers. It's fun to walk through with butterflies flying all around. And, you all are right, it's hard to get a butterfly to pose! I just got lucky on that last shot.

Butterfly - Cone Flower

Hot & Spicy

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many peppers would Peter Piper pick? (say that really fast!)Taken at Botanica: this patch of peppers was about 7 feet long and 3 feet wide, a vibrant display of yellows, oranges, reds, and green. This was pretty and impressive.

Kaleidascope - View 2

This is the view from the other scope on the floral kaleidascope. I think it's even prettier than the last one. I chose to show the other view first, because it was easier to see the leaves & petals of the flowers (June 21st post). In this view - if a person didn't know they were looking at flowers, they'd have no idea.

Floral Kaleidascope

On Colorado's blog, I've seen a Flower Shower.

On Photowannabe's blog, I've seen a Flower Bed.

This is Botanica's Floral Kaleidascope.

It's the one from which yesterday's photo was taken. There's a step stool in front of it for children to stand on, in order to be tall enough to look through the scope. The large circular part of this (the part with the scopes on it) can be manually moved to revolve around the potted flowers, and the actual scopes can be turned (making the patterns change in motion). There are two scopes - one on each side, both offering different patterns. Tomorrow, I'll show you the view through the other scope, I think it's neater than yesterdays. Have you ever seen one of these?

I'm excited to be added to Gerald England's listings, and to the CDPB portal. I believe I've found a great group to blog with.

Kaleidoscope - View 1

Kaleidoscopic view taken with the lens of my camera held against the lens of the kaleidoscope, at Botanica. Had no idea if this would turn out, but was delighted to see - it did! Come back tomorrow and I'll show you what the actual kaleidoscope looks like from a distance. I think it's ingenious and appropriate for Botanica to offer this fun (and different) view of flowers. Do you see the leaves?... and petals?

Girl reading book

This was taken at Botanica, Wichita's botanical gardens. Weather was hot, and it was taking a toll on the flowers and plants, but this girl (another statue) has a shady spot to read her book in.

Woman and child

Another statue in downtown Wichita - this is a woman with one arm around a child, and the other one pointing as if she's saying "look!" I took the shot from behind in hopes of seeing what she was pointing at. Not sure if it's something about the building across the street, or if there's another piece of public art perched on the traffic pole above them. One of the traffic poles does have a duck perched (bolted down) on it. Some of the small pieces are in such cute and unsuspecting places. It's not uncommon to see real people pointing and saying "Look, there's another one!"

City cow

If you could see this complete scene - you'd see a life size cow standing beside this calf. It's fun for kids to climb on (if it's not too hot) and sit on. As you can imagine if the weather is hot, so are the statues. A bit of history: In the late 1800's, Texas cattlemen drove their Longhorn steer up the Chisholm Trail to Abilene. There was a settlement around a trading post, alongside the Arkansas river, that provided a stop on the way. That settlement grew to become Wichita, Kansas. A cow town.

Boy pushing car

Here's a little boy pushing his car along the downtown streetscape. Notice the small fountains of water behind the back tires, and the turtle in the background near the building. This car is neat in the fact that small children can have a seat in it and pretend like they are driving while their "statue friend" gives them a push. When you were young, did you have a car similiar to this one? I did, and I used my feet to push the pedals under the hood, to make it go. Now a days, riding toys like this one, are battery operated and go with the push of a button. The new styles make for less exercise - but still fun for the kids.

Dog with bird

After passing the statue, (photo posted yesterday of the Fox and Ducks) the next statue seen along the walk is this one. I'm not sure if it's a fox or not, and am unsure if the bird is a duck or a partridge (there's not a pear tree in sight!). What do you all think? Is it a dog or a fox, and what kind of bird does it look like to you?