Port Charlotte

6 Let’s Go! E/N/C/V June 20-26, 2012
ROAD TRIP
Blast away at Wet ’n Wild
BY KIM COOL
FEATURES EDITOR
The old kids’ area at Wet ’n Wild has been
replaced by something that is newer, better
and — as if that could be possible —
wetter.
According to the press release, Blast Away
Beach is “Florida’s largest family water play
area,” and covers more than an acre of what
is considered Florida and the “world’s first (1977)
water park.” That Wet ’n Wild also may be one of the
few parks where a family can bring a cooler with
them for their playday is another reason to visit.
Newly opened on June 2, this new familyfriendly
area surrounds a 60-foot tall sand
castle and includes two pools containing more
than 85,000 gallons of water. To insure a soggy
experience, the sand castle area has 17 water
slides and the new area contains more than
160 soakers, jets, waterfalls and water canons.
For parents or grandparents who simply want to
watch, there is dedicated seating and plenty of
shady tropical trees.
The beauty of Blastaway Beach is that it is
child-friendly. Even the littlest children can aim
the water canons at mom and dad and their
siblings without being traumatized by the giant
water slides and rides favored by the high
school and college kids.
For the safety of the littlest water nymphs,
there is just one entrance and exit to this
secluded area of the park.
For those who prefer white-knuckle experiences,
Wet ’n Wild offers The Black Hole, a
two-person hydra capsule water thrill ride;
Brain Wash which is billed as “a six-story
extreme tube ride with a 53-foot vertical drop
into a 65-foot domed funnel;” Disco H2O
which is a four-passenger tube experience;
and Flyer, a four-passenger water toboggan
thrill ride. This is but a sampling of the thrills and
chills that await those with the stomach for them.
If the heart begins pumping a bit too fast, chill
out on the Lazy River where you can float along
on a rented inner tube — passing waterfalls
instead of shooting over them.
Admission is $48.99 for ages 10-59, $42.99
for those aged 3-9 and 60 and older, $34 for
Florida residents with ID (Half price after 5 p.m.)
Parking is $12-$16
Locker rental is $5-$10 plus tax plus refundable
deposit. Towels are available to rent or bring
your own.
Wet ’n Wild is located at 6280 International
Drive, Orlando.
Take I-75 north to exit 261 (I-4). Travel east on
I-4 to exit 75A. The park is on International Drive
at Universal Boulevard.
SUN PHOTO BY KIM COOL
This is but one of many ways to fly through the air in the water at Orlando’s Wet ‘n Wild theme park.
The park is open from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
through Aug. 18.
For more information, call 407-351-1800 or
800-992-9453 or visit www.wetnwildorlando.com.
At Dali Museum, even cleaning is an art
BY LENNIE BENNETT
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SUNDAY LUNCHEON CRUISE - July 15th - 12 :30pm - 3:00pm
From our breath to dirt particles on our
clothes, everything about us contributes to
art’s slow deterioration. The dilemma for
museums: how to protect precious artwork while
making it accessible to vast numbers of people.
Patrons have the rare opportunity to see Conservationist
Rustin Levenson clean and repair,
inch by inch, four of the largest and most popular
paintings at the Dali Museum.
The four masterworks by Spanish surrealist
Salvador Dali are also those deemed most in
need of help: The Discovery of America by Christopher
Columbus (1958-59); The Ecumenical Council
(1960); Galacidalacidesoxiribunucleicacid — Homage
to Crick and Watson (1963) and The Hallucinogenic
Toreador (1969-70). The monumentally sized
works, which measure at least 10 feet in height and
length, have been moved from their regular home in
the permanent gallery and propped against walls in
the Hough Family Gallery.
During the conservation project, titled
“Stripped Bare and Bathed: the Preservation of
Dali Masterworks,” visitors can watch during museum
hours, and Levenson and her colleagues
will answer questions daily at 3 p.m. Their work
will be projected live onto a gallery wall.
“There is a mystery to conservation,” says
Hank Hine, director of the museum, “the chemicals,
the arcane technology. But most of it is
very hands-on and we wanted to demystify and
dramatize the technique.”
Levenson and her team begin by testing a
gentle, water-based solution on a tiny bit of every
color on the canvas to make sure it removes only
dirt, never paint. The cotton tips are taped to a
sheet of paper to compare shades of grime. Then
the painting is divided into sections with hanging
strings and each person goes inch by inch, slowly
swabbing a section.
It’s a laborious process. Levenson spent several
weeks evaluating the paintings and writing damage
reports. It took her two weeks to figure out and mix
the right chemical solutions for each painting.
“It’s more complicated than it looks,” Levenson
says. “It’s part art history, part science. No one
should ever try to clean art at home. The worst
damage I have seen was by untrained restorers.”
She says the best way to see the “before and
after” effect is to come during the cleaning when
the brightness of the dirt-free canvases will be
more obvious.
As paintings go, the ones by Dali are in pretty
good shape, needing mostly just cleaning. Levenson
refers to a painting by Gustave Courbet waiting
in her studio. Insects, she said, have eaten
away almost all of the canvas leaving nothing but
paint and a coating underneath.
“It looks pretty scary,” she says, “but I think we
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can fix it.”
Conservators will be at work weekdays at the
Dali Museum, One Dali Blvd., St. Petersburg,
through Friday.
Admission is $21 adults; $19 seniors, military,
police and firefighters; $15 children 13 to 18 and
students with ID; $7 children 6 to 12. Hours are
10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday
and noon to 5:30 p.m. Sunday. Hours are
extended to 8 p.m. Thursday.
For more information, call 727-823-2767 or
thedali.org.
Related events:
6:30 p.m. Friday: Internationally regarded
conservator Rustin Levenson will give a free
public lecture in the Dali Museum theater about
her work on four paintings in the collection and
her career as a conservator.
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday: “A Conversation
About Conservation” will feature regional
museum professionals, including Joan Kropf and
Hank Hine of the Dali Museum; Kent Lydecker
of the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg;
Elizabeth Brincklow of the city of St. Petersburg;
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