|
| |
Amarillo, Texas - Part 1
Written by: Janet Pope
A trip for the city girl Janet, to discover what it's like in the wild Texan country.
Traveling is never uneventful, especially flying. Recently, en route to Amarillo, Texas, I suffered through a cranky, crying baby in the seat next to me and her harried, helpless mother, trying in vain to console her. I felt badly for both of them, but it did make for a noisy flight. The second leg of the trip, from Dallas to Amarillo, was also not without bumps in the road, figuratively and literally. After I settled in my seat and heard the thud of the door shutting, the flight attendant informed the trapped passengers that the bathroom on the plane was not working. Since I had just run from one late connecting flight to another, without stopping at a restroom, I was justifiably concerned. I was even more concerned when the attendant announced that we would be sitting on the runway a while, due to thunderstorms. But the final "piece de resistance," was when she went on to say, "But don't worry, there are plenty of free drinks on board." I saw no hint of laughter on her face. So let me get this straight, I thought, I'm stuck on this plane, without a bathroom, but plenty of fluids.
Thus began my trek to the Panhandle section of Texas.
Next, I arrived in Amarillo, and my luggage did not- but that's a whole other story. Anyway, I knew I was deep in the heart of Texas, as the song goes, when the representative from the Visitor's Bureau who picked me up was wearing cowboy boots, a large cowboy hat and a smile who welcomed me with "Hi y’all doing?" Now, coming from New York City, this is what I had hoped for.
I settled into my deluxe room at the Ambassador Hotel, without luggage, and decided to grab a quick lunch at the TGI Friday’s in the lobby. I then roamed around this beautiful hotel and discovered the inviting indoor pool with whirlpool – but, no luggage, no bathing suit. So, I checked out the business center and thankfully the luggage arrived soon.
My group met and headed off to the nearby Don Harrington Discovery Center with Digital Space Theater. Built in 1995, mainly as a facility for health and science education, it is in the process of growing and expanding to a full, state-of-the-art technology center. Currently, they are within a $1.2 million renovation, over the span of the next four years.
Within the Discovery Center is the Digistar 3 Space Theater System, only the fifth one built in the world. I learned here that basically IMAX, which we have all heard of, is on film, but this is a digital projection that can perform one continuous image. Even more impressive is the fact that, at the Don Harrington, they have the capabilities to completely script and produce the shows in house for a relatively much lower cost than typical IMAX productions. They even have shows that rotate, giving the return guest something new to see.
We watched "The Puzzle Barrier," which was geared more towards math, riddles and illusions and aimed at the fourth to eighth grader. I found some of the puzzles a definite challenge, and that did worry me a bit. I am teased by my family a lot for saying "It's amazing!" But since that was one of the maze sections in this film, I am forced to say it again: "It was amaze-ing."
We also got to tour the main exhibit area of "hands on" science experiments and models, but the future plans for this facility will take it to a whole other level. Plans include: a Life Science area; a Preschool Science area; an Outdoor Science Park; a Library with hi speed Internet access; Land, Water and Sky Towers and a Physical Science and Gadget area.
Ganesh Ganpat, the Executive Director, has a great deal of passion and vision for the Don Harrington Discovery Center and, with his leadership, he is updating and expanding this into a first rate science center for learners of all ages, so don't miss it when you are in the area.
Enough learning- off to dinner. We ate locally at Macaroni Joe's Pasta House. This quaint restaurant looked like something out of Disney Land's It's A Small World attraction. There were wooden beams inside and house structures that looked like little singing puppets dressed in colorful costumes might pop out of the windows. The tables all had flickering candles and the walls were strewn with twinkling lights - great atmosphere. The table was set with square plates and crooked glasses - if you weren't drunk, you might not be too sure after seeing your glass.
Our group decided to share some appetizers and I could have happily made a meal out of them - hot and crunchy fried green tomatoes, shrimp crustini and mob queso, which is a spinach, artichoke, shrimp and sausage dip - my personal favorite. These with a loaf of their fresh and crusty bread would have sufficed. But I succumbed to gluttony and ordered the lemon butter shrimp, which is a wonderful blend of shrimp, spinach and mushrooms in a creamy garlic sauce. Now that we were all stuffed, we again gave into temptation and ordered a sampling of their delicious "to die for" desserts. We all had our favorites and I must admit that among our group, Josephine's Demise - a rich chocolate concoction - won by a landslide, but my vote went to the Italian Cream cake. Trust me on this, you don't need to be Italian to love it.
Suitably stuffed, we headed back to the Ambassador Hotel, and now that I finally had my luggage and a bathing suit, I spent the rest of the night relaxing in the jacuzzi. No matter what the turmoils are in traveling, they seem to disappear after a good meal, a hot tub and a comfortable bed to fall into.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
|
|
|
|
|
|
