every time I get on your rollercoaster ride
The jboys, grouchyoldcoot, and I went to CMU's Kennywood Day last weekend. It was lovely weather, all sunny and warm, which meant the park was pretty packed, lines were long, and I got a bit of sunburn. Rain would have been nice. But overall, it was good.
Joel had to go get a checklist of approved rides, which seemed to mostly correspond with the rides the rest of us wanted to go on, so it worked well. We weren't able to use his cast as an excuse to bypass the lines, though. I discovered that my tolerance for fast spinny things is significantly lower than it was 15-20 years ago (when I did a lot more amusement park trips), and the dizziness recovery time is a lot longer.
We stopped for lunch and refilled water bottles (bonus: the people at drink counters were willing to give me free ice, if there wasn't a line and I asked nicely, so we had cold water almost all day) at a place right next to the Pittsburg Plunge, i.e., the ride that makes the humongous splashing wave. The boys then spent the next 30 minutes getting totally soaked. I think that option was even more fun than the ride would have been.
click for all picsOn our way to the CMU pavilion to get free stuff, we passed a show just about to start, and wandered over to catch the Lumberjack show. I, uh, being not from 'round here, had never heard of such a thing. There was axe-throwing, chainsawing, high-powered chainsawing, chainsaw carving, chopping, logrolling, and speed climbing, which I'd never seen before, and so, in taking 5 seconds to fiddle with my camera for a picture, pretty much missed the whole thing. All of it by pretty good-lookin' guys, too. Totally wow.
We ended our day on the classic Jack Rabbit, which, of course, is still full of awesome, even with the long lines.
Joel had to go get a checklist of approved rides, which seemed to mostly correspond with the rides the rest of us wanted to go on, so it worked well. We weren't able to use his cast as an excuse to bypass the lines, though. I discovered that my tolerance for fast spinny things is significantly lower than it was 15-20 years ago (when I did a lot more amusement park trips), and the dizziness recovery time is a lot longer.
We stopped for lunch and refilled water bottles (bonus: the people at drink counters were willing to give me free ice, if there wasn't a line and I asked nicely, so we had cold water almost all day) at a place right next to the Pittsburg Plunge, i.e., the ride that makes the humongous splashing wave. The boys then spent the next 30 minutes getting totally soaked. I think that option was even more fun than the ride would have been.
click for all picsOn our way to the CMU pavilion to get free stuff, we passed a show just about to start, and wandered over to catch the Lumberjack show. I, uh, being not from 'round here, had never heard of such a thing. There was axe-throwing, chainsawing, high-powered chainsawing, chainsaw carving, chopping, logrolling, and speed climbing, which I'd never seen before, and so, in taking 5 seconds to fiddle with my camera for a picture, pretty much missed the whole thing. All of it by pretty good-lookin' guys, too. Totally wow.
We ended our day on the classic Jack Rabbit, which, of course, is still full of awesome, even with the long lines.