Transportation Lesson #1: 8 Steamboat Rides Ranked by Ticket Price

Photo by Krenda

One of the ways Cincinnati inspired me is its history, especially on the waterfront I feel connected to bustling years of commerce and drama.
 
Cincinnati celebrated the steamboating era with a festival named “Tall Stacks Festival”. Over half a million people visited and more than a dozen steamboats visit the Cincinnati port.

The Magnolia Belle, The Natchez, The Mississippi Queen, The PA Denny, Delta Queen, General Jackson, Majestic, Spirit of Peoria, and more have all docked upon the Cincinnati shore.  The Tall Stacks Festival had so many steamboats and ride options, making it difficult to choose.  We enjoyed cruise both during the day and at night.

You don't need to wait for a festival.  If you want to treat your family to a steamboat ride, here's a few options in descending cost order:

1.  The African Queen (Marina del Mar, Florida) - family four approx. $200
Famous because it starred alongside Humphrey Bogart and Katherin Hepburn in The African Queen movie.  The $49 cruise takes you down the Port Largo Canals to Atlantic Ocean.  The two hour dinner cruise cost $89.  If you time it right, you may also attend the Humphrey Bogart Film Festival in May.

2.  General Jackson (Nashville, TN, Opryland) - family of four approx. $150
The largest inland shipbuilder in the US (Jeffboat in Indiana) built one of the largest showboats in the world.  Multiple shows available.  Taste of TN showband or Sunday in the South show $45 cruise and balcony seat, $30 child.  Nashville Nights show $60 adult, $45 child.  Pay more for better seats and/or meal.

3.  Katahdin, Maine (Moosehead Lake, Maine) - family four approx. $140
Leisure boat turned to log hauling vehicle and back to leisure boat docked at the Moosehead Marine Museum.  Katahdin operates June to Columbus Day with multiple cruise options:  Sugar Island cruise 3 Hours $35 each, Mt. Kineo cruise 5 Hours to see cliff side of Kineo Mountain $40 each, Head of the Lake Cruise 8 Hours $75 to Seboomook and includes dinner

4.  Steamboat Natchez (New Orleans, LA) - family four approx. $128
Cruise on New Orlean's only steamboat while enjoying the music.  Jazz cruise $48 adult and $21 children.  Jazz pianist or jazz trio plays.

5.  Sabino Conneticut (Mystic, Conneticut) - family four approx. $76
Sabino is believed to be the oldest wooden coal-fired steamboat still operating in the United States.  The 90 minute downriver cruise costs $18 per person, but does not require museum admission.  Sabino offers shorter, cheaper ride.  The half hour cruise costs only $8, but that offer requires Mystic Seaport Museum admission ($29 adult, $19 child age 4-14).  Although I did not cruise the Sabino, I admired it in the sunset.
 
6.  Belle of Louisville (Louisville, KY, Ohio River) - family of four approx. $66
Take a sightseeing cruise on one of the oldest operating steamboats in the world (built in 1914).  The Belle operates April to October with a capacity of 1914.   

7.  Minne-Ha-Ha (Lake George, NY) - family of four approx. $47
Minne-Ha-Ha was built in Lake George in 1969, not Minnehaha Minnesota.  Lake George Steamboat Company offers rides spring, summer, and fall including a summer pirate cruise giving kids treasure bags.  The one hour cruise costs $16 for adults and $7.50 for kids.  When you disembark, enjoy the sounds of a steam calliope on dock.

8.  Minnehaha, Minnesota (Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota) - deal during special events $20 for four total!
It once ferried residents and then sank in 1926 and raised in 1980.  It has a 90 person max. capacity.  Standard cruise $15 adult and $5 children or 2 hour Grand Minnetonka Voyage $25, but check out specific dates for special events with $5 special pricing:  Excelsior Art on the Lake (June), Wayzata JJ Hill Days (Sept.), and Excelsior Apple Day (Sept.)

State Park #4: Hugh Taylor Birch State Park, Fort Lauderdale - kayak & water sports

One of my favorite classes in high school was water sports.  It's difficult to decide which offered more fun - scuba diving in the deep end of our high school pool or learning the eskimo roll and doing it over and over in my kayak.

People began using kayaks, otherwise known as "man's boat" or "hunter's boat", approximately 4,000 years ago.  If you want to tie in a geography/history lesson combination, look for the locations of the people who first developed and used the kayaks:  Inuit (Greenland, Canada, Alaska) and Aluet (Russia, Alaska).

While most people today don't use a kayak to hunt seals and whales, kayaking provides great exercise, especially building arm muscle.  Plus, kayaking on lakes, rivers, and along ocean shores provides an opportunity to experience nature from a different viewpoint.

How might you inspire a paddling interest?  Perhaps watching a film or paddling festival.

Film festivals:  1) Reel Paddling Film Festival (Portland, ME, Hadley, MA, Alexandria, VA, Lake Placid, NY and more cities)
2) National Paddling Film Festival (Frankfort, KY) $25 ticket and silent auction

I've enjoyed watching the paddling competition at the Teva Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado.  Here's 3 other festivals:
1.  Gauley Fest (Summersville, WV), proceeds support American Whitewater's river conservation
music acts, first come first serve camping; 3rd Sat. in Sept., $20-40 tickets
2.  Reno River Festival (Reno, NV, Wingfield Park Whitewater Park), 35,000 visitors; USA freestyle National Championship, kayak and fishing clinics, yoga, bike ride and costume contest, music; May
3.  Upper Klamath Festival (Klamath, OR) $30 participant fee includes shuttle, free camping; 2nd weekend in April

Renting a kayak at a state park gives you an opportunity to try the adventure.  My husband took these photos at Hugh Taylor Birch State Park in Fort Lauderdale, FL.  By kayaking, my son and I entered shallow areas that big boats couldn't access and we got close to birds.

National forests provide wonderful waterways for kayaking and canoeing.  Check out nationalforest.org for a full list including these 3 forests with varied views:
1.  Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (Superior National Forest, MN) 1,200 miles of routes
2.  Indian River Canoe Trail (Hiawatha National Forest, MI) canyon like banks
3.  Clearwater Canoe Trail (Lolo National Forest, Montana), mountain views

If you get more serious and want to learn whitewater kayaking, Nantahala Outdoor Center paddling school has classes ($130-$150/day; Bryson City, NC).  It's less than 2 hours from the popular Smoky Mountain vacation rentals, including our luxury cabin rentals Lightning Bug Lodge (Sevierville, TN) www.lightningbuglodge.blogspot.com and Indigo Moon Lodge (Pigeon Forge, TN) www.indigomoonlodge.blogspot.com.

Kite Science and 8 Festivals in the US

In attempt to find a new theme for each birthday, we held a birthday party at a kite festival (West Chester, OH Voice of America park).  The party included a kite shaped cake and a kite for each kid to fly.  On this day, we felt grateful for wind.  There's a science lesson in kite flying, the need for wind pressure or force to keep the kit in the air.  It's called lift and it counteracts the force of gravity.  Kids understand gravity or the force that pulls things towards the earth well.  Have them jump up and down.  Kites garner more physics terms:  thrust, drag, angle of attack, and tension.

You may also tie history into a kite flying demonstration.  Kites have served as so much more than just toys.  During the Han Dynasty, a Chinese general flew a kite above a town to calculate the distance his army would have to tunnel to reach under the city walls.  Scientists and inventors experimented with kites.  Benjamin Franklin experimented with kites and electrical energy.  Alexander Wilson compared air temperature.  The Wright Brothers flew kites to test their wing-warping control system.

Kites play a key role in certain sports; power kites pull fliers on surf and land boards.

If you have small children, check out a book about kites such as Curious George Flies a Kite, Let's Fly a Kite, Kite Day A Bear and Mole Story, and Kite Flying.



Kite creation can bring out the artist in your child.  Years later we attended a kite making class at a naval base and the kids had just as much fun creating as flying.

Kick off your child's interest in kites by attending a kite festival.  Here's 8 other kite festivals in the US:

1.  Frank Mots International Kite Festival, Veterans Park, Milwaukee, WI, launches nearly 600 kites plus demonstrations from professionals
2.  Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (National Mall, Washington DC), visit the exhibit indoors and go outdoors to fly kites
3.  Ziller Park Kite Festival (Austin, TX), over 85 years old festival, one of the oldest in the US
4.  Outer Banks Stunt Kite Competition, Wright Brothers National Museum (fitting location!) Kill Devil Hills, NC
5.  Bug Lite Kite Festival, Bug Light State Park, South Portland, Maine
6.  Soar into Spring Kite Festival, Floxglenn Park, Flagstaff, AZ
7.  Sunfest Kite Festival (Ocean City, MD) festival on the beach, location considered "The Kiteflying Capital of the World" with it's wide beach and regular winds, host site of The AKA (American fliers Association) convention
8.  Marblehead Festival of the Arts Kite Day, Deveroux Beach, Marblehead, MA