Wonders of Wildlife Museum and Aquarium - Missouri Trip (part I)

 

We went to Missouri on 18th to 20th February in 2023.

Brief Summery

Places: Wonders of wildlife Mueseum and Aquarium, 
Location: Springfield, Missouri.
Distance: 123 miles.
Members: Me, my wife and my daughter.

Duration: 2 hours 1 min.

Experience:

On 18th February
Wonders of wild life Museum and Aquarium:

We woke up around 5:30am and packed our lunch. We filled the gas and started around 8:30am. This museum and aquarium are in Missouri state. Climate was good and sunny but windy as well. We were taking new car this year so started to showroom first.On the way we saw so many horses, cows and farms. It felt like driving on village valley instead of interstate. We rached showroom around 10:48am. Asked for , they said that for the test drive was not available in that time, some other customers were checking on it. So they showed the cedan model for the interior and then we selected the outside and inside features of the car which we wanted. They gave us the quote of it and then we got out from the showroom around 12:20pm. We had our lunch around 12:30pm and started to Aquarium around 1:05pm. Around 1:48pm reached the museum and aquarium. It was too much cold wind out there.

The entrance of the Aquarium was so nice. They have beautiful water fountain to attract the tourists. After we went inside, we asked about the tickets. They said that we have to go up, there the people will give the tickets. While we were going up by escalator they decorated the entrance very well. They decorated it with wild theme with bears, deers and trees. We got the tickets then started our tour in there. First we entered into a theater , they were playing the video of Jhonny Morris, the founder this aquarium. He was explaining about fishing, we don't have much interest about it so after 5 minutes we got out from there. Then entered into the museum entrance first, So this museum had all the animal statues which were arranged in lively fashion.

First they started it with bysons and then bears, deers and tigers, lions and mountain lion and more. And they have paintings and pictures of old times showing how they hunt the other animals in the forest. These wild animals statues were so real looks like they were hunting us only. Some birds, sheep and so many types of deer statues and so many other little animals also there. They saved some hunted deers from olden days and with thier horns they built a beutiful arch, it was like another way into the wild. In middle of that museum they put live penguins there. Then we saw some other animals which live in the antarcitica like polar bears, wolves, walrus and then saw elephants, giraffes, zebras, monkeys, ostriches, Crocodiles. so many kind of birds and their nests. Then we saw beautiful and thrilling scene, they arranged some lions and lionesses around the tent in the Africa.

And we saw cheethah, leapords and hyenas. After 10 minutes we were done with museum and entered into the Aquarim exhibit.In entrance of the aquarium there was big 3D painting showing how people do the fishing in sea. Then we saw small fishes in big tank. After that saw so many kind of fishes, corals, sea horses. They decorated the aquarium also very well. It was like we went into a shipreck under the sea. After sometime crossed a walk-in bridge, at the end of the bridge there was a tree house. Then we saw sharks, there was a great white shark also but it was small one. Then enterd into tunnel like we can see all fishes and sharks above us. There was white crocodile also, which we never saw crocodile before. So many sting rays also there, we touched one of that sting ray. It was smooth and soft like a jelly. We saw so many other fishes like nemo fish, lion fish, saw fish. We never saw this moving before, always sleeping. We bought our sovenier and got out from the aquarium around 3:48pm and started to homme around 4:05pm. We did little shopping an then we reached home around 8:00pm.

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Turpentine Creek Wild life Refuge

 

We went to Turpentine Creek wild life refuge and Walmart museum on 12th February 2023.

Brief Summary:

Place: Turpentine Creek Wild life refuge

Location: Bentonville, Arkansas.

Distance: 41.3 miles

Members: Me, my wife and my daughter.

Duration: 1 hour 8 mins.

Experience:

We woke up around 6:30am and then got ready. We had our breakfast around 8:30am. Then started to wild life refuge around 8:56am. Actually based on our plan we have to start around half an hour before because we booked tickets for tram tour at 10:00am. If we miss the tour time then we have to wait one hour so we were worried about that. Climate was very good on that day , little chill wind was also there but overall we had good weather. We crossed the big bridge on the river. It was nice scenic view on the bridge. We saw boats on the river. Seems like few people are also doing kayaking and fishing. This refuge park was very far from the town and its located on small mountain. Around 10:01am we reached the refuge park. Immediately we entered the park and asked them about the tour they said that they were about to start if we go fast we can catch them. So we went quickly over there and we caught the tram tour on time. They started tour around 10:06am. They have so many lions, lioness, tigers and white tigers. In the tour we saw one Lion first. There was only one male lion and few female lions. The lion was sleeping. Not just in the refuge but we saw lions in some other zoo parks as well sleeping all the time. Actually a lion sleeps 18-20 hours per day. So we did not expect more than this, at least we saw little near than before. 

After that saw some mountain lions and some wild cats. Then we saw many tigers, lionesses and some of them were cross breeds also like ligers, tigons and couple of other cross breeds also there. Also they are trying get the new cross breed of male tiger and female lion. So totally they have around 95 species in those 50 of them are tigers only. Some tigers are very active so we thought that we were there at right time. We felt little cold in the tram. The tour was ended around 10:45am, they dropped us at the starting point of the park only so that we can see the animals by walk. Actually they have Bears, Hyena, Black leopord and Jaguar. Along with these we saw few Tigers which we saw from tram. But we could not see all of them. Then we saw black leopard and jaguar, they were very actively roaming at that time. After that we went to see the bears, on the way to bears we saw the mountain lions and wild cats which we saw from tram. There were no bears, all of them were inside only because some people were cleaning over there.

So got back to see the tigers. Some tigers were sleeping but one tiger was very active when it saw us. While we were taking photos it was roaming very actively sometimes it was trying touching and pushing the net to catch us(but it could not as the fence was so strong). And also we did not see the hyena, when enquired about that they said that it sent to rehabilitation center. There was one only grizzly bear in separate small cave

 but it was feeling very shy to come out. At last when we want to go out we saw small window for the bear cave so went to check our luck. Yes, we saw it very near from window it was eating something. We saw big nails and tooth of it, we felt very happy for that view of bear. We thought that we missed bears and felt little disappointment but we were happy when we saw it. We got out from refuge around 11:34am.Started to home around 11:40am and reached around 1:00pm. We had our lunch around 1:30pm and were thinking about what we can do remaining half day. We then decided to go to Walmart museum but not the original one because that was in renovating process but they moved all the stuff to another place except the Sam Walton Truck. Anyway we want to go for that also so we started around 2:30pm to Walmart museum. Around 3:00pm we reached there but it was little difficult to find out the ledger building. So we called them they said directions, it was two streets away from that renovating place and we reached there around 3:15pm.

We got to know how the big store Walmart has started. We read how many struggles Sam Walton has faced and how Walmart was evolved. We did not see the Sam Walton's truck only, missed it.  We got out from the museum around 3:40pm. Then we started to home around 4:00pm and reached home around 4:30pm. We saw two different places in one day. We were very happy with that wild life refuge park and learned something from the museum because even though it was museum that was a success story from the struggle of one of the great business man. We have to remember the people like these and have to go forward with courage to achieve our dreams. This small one day trip gave us so many happy moments because it was first trip with our daughter and will never forget this trip. All is Well.

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