The wonders of Wisconsin

You don’t have to turn to the Bible all the time to know there is a God. You just have to turn left and right to see how, side-by-side with the marvels of science, natural wonders remind you of Him. They stare at you as you glide down the Wisconsin River in a faithful reproduction of an amphibian ship called the Wisconsin Ducks. It makes you sit up and notice as your gaze follows a long deer running amid the trees.

It makes your jaw drop as your boat glides past a giant rock formation shaped like a grand piano. "Do you hear rock music?" our young, handsome guide Lucas (a student working part-time to see himself through college) jokes.

Your boat splashes head-first into the river and you scream your lungs out. Lucas, on the wheel, turns and, eyes flashing with mischief, seems to tease: Wasn’t that fun?

You try to settle back in your seat, but you can’t. Up ahead is a duck making its way to you know not where. You hold your breath as you snake through a creek and Lucas says this is the most thrilling part of the ride.

You hold on to your seat as he threatens to go back the same route, this time with the gear in reverse! Thank God he didn’t make good on his threat, and you plop back in your seat, sighing with relief.

Back on solid ground, you’re just so happy you’re still in one piece you smile at your guide and wonder silently why he never considered a career in comedy.

What the heck. The family is looking for a good time, never mind if the rules of speeding are so strict a police officer flagged us down and issued us a ticket (penalty $75, or you go back to Wisonsin – an hour away from where we live – to claim your ticket).

The car stops at three big domes looming up ahead. It’s the Mitchell Park Conservatory, another nature-meets-science marvel right smack where you least expect it: in techie-laden USA.

Inside, miles and miles of plants and flowers bloom all over. The Tropical Dome, with its collection of tropical plants, reminds you of home. Here, bamboo trees, avocado, orchids, kapok, etc., are just among the 450 species of tropical plants that grow in an area of almost 15,000 sq. ft.

It’s a microcosm of a rainforest, with its lush foliage, economic plants and cascading waterfall. Birds, small reptiles and insects thrive here.

The Tropical Dome may be ho-hum to us Pinoy visitors. But not the Arid Dome. It transports us to a land of cacti, desert blooms and foliage that make us marvel at how nature adapts to dry surroundings.

The hardy Pachypodium namaguanam, for instance, grows tilted to the North, so sunshine won’t strike its sides, avoiding sunburn. The Prickly Pear stores vitamins and sugar and is still harvested today by Mexican Indians.

South American desert plants thrive here, too, and the Madagascar collection is a sanctuary for endangered, unusual plant forms. Free-flying birds live wild in the Crop Garden.

The last, but the most interesting and most beautiful, is the Show Dome. The perfumed air from rows and rows of flowers in bloom draws you like an irresistible force.

The feast for the senses continues as you step inside and gawk at the explosion of bright colors. Bright yellow daffodils, purple and white pansies, flowers you never thought existed, bloom in this veritable Garden of Eden.

Then, it strikes you like a lightning bolt. No wonder you’ve never seen these flowers before. These are hybrids – genetically changed by blending different plants together!

And the way they are grouped together! You feel like getting a crash course on nature’s ways. Beside a patch of colorful blooms stands a wooden sign that tells you why flowers come in different colors. It reads: Bees see yellow, blue, purple and white the best. Butterflies and birds like red and orange. Moths and beetles see the white and yellow, but at night.

There are other trivia worth remembering, But somehow, this one leaves you scratching your head and asking why you never asked your grade school science teacher about this.

Whatever, there were more eye-popping wonders in store.

Painted conspicuously on the ground right beside the glass domes is the giant Analemmatic Sundial. Until now, the only sundial I’ve seen is the one at UP years ago, when I, fresh from college, decided to take up further studies before age would make me too lazy to absorb new knowledge.

This one simply beats anything I’ve seen. It tells the time using the same old sundial method: through the shadow cast by the sun. But there’s a whale of a difference.

This sundial has markings to tell you where to stand, depending on the date when you happen to find yourself standing on it.

When you stand with your back to the sun say, on May 8, and raise your arms above your head, you get he right time .

I remember my science teacher telling me the sun’s position in the sky changes from month to month. It has something to do with the Earth’s orbit. So the time of the year you stand on the sundial is important.

It helped a lot that it was springtime, and the sun stayed up longer than usual. We not only enjoyed using the sundial, we also had the time of our lives at the Treasure Island Resort indoor pools, where I learned how to play mini-golf for the first time (blush, blush!).

Lights were completely out at the Haunted House, where my niece fell on the carpeted floor after my son pulled her hood from behind and a cousin stepped on her foot out of fright. We hollered with glee as we raced past each other in a thrilling go-kart challenge.

Before we knew it, the day was over. Off we went to a Kentucky outlet (such big servings they have!) to refill our grumbling stomachs and laugh over the day’s thrills.

Next time, we hope to see Holy Hill and the House of Rock. Sigh, if only we had enough time!