Select few allowed to swim in Hearst Castle pools

Select few allowed to swim in Hearst Castle pools

SAN SIMEON, Calif.

The Foundation at Hearst Castle is offering a chance to swim in the California landmark’s iconic pools, where Lady Gaga and Hollywood’s Golden Age celebrities dipped their toes.

The foundation will allow members to pay for a swim in the outdoor Neptune Pool on four dates this year, starting in July. Two other nights are reserved at the indoor Roman Pool.

All it will cost you is $500 for a foundation membership and $950 for the swim.

Only 40 tickets will be sold for each of the Neptune Pool events and 20 tickets for each Roman Pool swim.

The Roman-themed, marble-lined Neptune Pool holds 345,000 gallons. The pool was refilled last August for the first time since 2014 when cracks caused it to leak up to 5,000 gallons a day.

‘Wizard of Oz’ comes to life in Michigan park

HOLLAND, Mich.

Families in western Michigan can follow the yellow brick road as a project brings “The Wizard of Oz” to a Holland park.

Yellow bricks have been laid in Centennial Park as part of the Holland Oz Project. It will direct visitors to a living mosaic book that’s been constructed out of plants and flowers in a tribute to the L. Frank Baum novel and classic 1939 film, the Holland Sentinel reported.

The outdoor exhibit will also include life-sized bronze sculptures of characters that Kansas girl Dorothy met along her journey through the whimsical world of Oz. Many believe that Baum wrote the magical characters that included witches, munchkins and friends Tin Man, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion while staying at his family’s Lake Macatawa cottage nearby.

The sculptures will be installed by Herrick District Library in August.

Museum displays newly acquired Aretha portrait

DETROIT

The Detroit Institute of Arts is displaying nine recent acquisitions including a portrait of Aretha Franklin by photographer Anthony Barboza.

The works including the photo of the late “Queen of Soul” are on display until Sept. 15 during the fourth rotation of “Out of the Crate: New Gifts and Purchases.” The rotating gallery displays a selection of the museum’s newest additions and offers a behind-the-scenes look at the art acquisition process.

Franklin was 76 when she died last August in Detroit of pancreatic cancer.

Apollo 11 exhibit to land in Cincinnati in September

CINCINNATI

The last of five stops for a special exhibition for the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing will be in Cincinnati.

Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission will open at the Cincinnati Museum Center on Sept. 28 and run through Feb. 7.

The exhibition features the Columbia command module and more than 20 objects flown on the Apollo 11 mission.

There are also models and videos exploring the birth and development of the U.S. space program.

Neil Armstrong, who lived in a Cincinnati suburb after his space career, and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon July 20, 1969, meeting President John F. Kennedy’s bold deadline for putting a man on the lunar surface by the end of the 1960s. Armstrong died in August 2012 at age 82.

Associated Press