The Kansas Underground Salt Museum (working mine plus salt history) won’t open this summer after all. November is now the goal. But wipe away those salty tears of disappointment. Plenty of new summer thrills await.
Ride Expedition Everest in Orlando. Disney’s newest coaster, housed in Animal Kingdom, is abominable, but in a good way. Highlights: spooky tunnels, screamy sounds, a backward ride to escape the Yeti (hope it likes Florida humidity).
Stargaze in Hilo, Hawaii. A simulated star is born in front of your eyes at the Imiloa Astronomy Center. A volcano erupts (on screen) in the planetarium show. Also: native plants, native myths.
Jaw with Jaws in San Diego. Stand by the second-floor railing in the atrium. Look up. Now you know what it’d be like to be dinner for a 34-foot-long megalodon shark, whose toothy likeness hangs from above at the San Diego Natural History Museum’s $8 million display of regional fossils, opening July 1. Also: skeletons of mammoths and giant sloths, dino models.
Take the train in southern Colorado. The ’50s-era Alamosa to La Veta train is back: Two refurbished Pullman passenger trains will chug through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Deer, coyotes, mountain lions, bears, and hawks might wave at you! Passengers see Great Sand Dunes National Park, with freaky dunes as tall as 750 feet.
Climb a Kentucky bridge. We climb Newport Southbank Bridge, aka the Purple People Bridge, because it is there. Because it is purple (focus groups picked the color). Because a safety line, walkways, “ascension areas,” and a guide make it not too scary. Because the $60 fee entitles you to don a purple protective suit. Because at the 150-foot apex, high above the Ohio River, you can see Cincinnati. Most of all, because, according to a spokesman, “You can’t fall if you want to.”
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