Wonderland Memories!
I think I mentioned a while ago that we had purchased a Wonderland season pass - expensive, but the kids love amusement park rides and what better place to experience such rides than at Wonderland! Yesterday made four days this summer - pretty good, all things considered. Unfortunately, even though yesterday was a Monday, the place was jammed by the thousands of other people trying to get in one last good kick at the can before school starts. Lots of teenagers and young college students, and lots of lines wherever we went. In terms of raw "processing", it was our slowest day of the four; however, in terms of significance, it was pretty much the best yet.
You see, yesterday Sir Goobs turned 9. Yes, nine - one more year and all of our children will have reached double digits, a fact which now reduces The Kat to tears far more quickly that the thought that she/we will be forty three years after that! For his ninth birthday, pinkie finger in an orthopedic brace and all, we decided to go have a full day of fun, and we did - we literally opened and closed the park yesterday! Packed our own lunch, and went across the street for supper, came back and rode some rides in the dark and had a blast!
One moment of griping must surface, however. We forgot sunscreen at home, an understandable oversight when you consider that, as the sun rose yesterday morning, we were gripped in flowing banks of fog and were more concerned with staying warm than with keeping the sun off. Sir Goobs is actually the fairest of the three children - #1Son just has his freckles darkened by sunlight on his face, and Darth Daughter gets a bit of red on her cheekbones under her eyes which darkens to a nice tan by the morning after. But Sir Goobs (and The Kat, and me) were beginning to turn the colour of properly cooked lobsters by about 2 in the afternoon, so we decided to acquire some sunscreen at the water park. We failed to fully consider a couple of issues here: a) this is a theme park, and will only have top-of-the-line brand-name stuff on their shelves, and b) this is a theme park, where everything is overpriced and, if possible, far overpriced because they've got you by the short and curlies and if you want it you will pay for it!!! $22 for a small bottle of sunscreen. Twenty-two dollars for about 100ml of "the best". !!!!!!! My first reaction was, literally, "I'm tempted to let him burn!" Of course, by this point my own face was prickling with that tingle that tells me my own burn is a "good one". The Kat, obviously frustrated, completed the purchase anyway because we both knew that we must have sunscreen if we are now going to actually let the children cavort in the water. Still, I was checking the contents of the bottle for, I don't know, gold flecks or something like that in order to justify the price.
We will not be forgetting sunscreen ever again, let me tell you!
The kids were also not impressed that we took time out for shows yesterday. Shows are boring. Shows require you to sit, as rides do, but you are not moving! The people on the stage were, but they don't count, and when Mom and Dad start humming or, God forbid, lip synching to the songs being sung (one was a 60's musical that was actually pretty good), well, we could see the fervent prayers for holes to open up in the ground, either to swallow them or into which we as disobedient parents could be tossed. As we came back in from supper, we decided to go right past the place where a skating show was being presented, entitled "Endless Summer" (Helen, if you didn't get to see it this year and they have it again next year, you have to see this!). They were hustling the last people in the door, and I had already turned my body in that direction as The Kat looked at me with a pleading look - we were in the doors as the one attendant called for the outer ones to be closed, and as we took our seats, the house lights fell. Wow - only word for it! Five guys and seven girls put on a half hour of amazing energy, flash and poise (even the ones who, at one point, had to go get into costumes that made them look like 'smores. My favourite was the oldest fellow on the ice, whose first name I could only catch as "Bob" - he didn't have the power and snap of the younger guys, but he had poise, grace and complete confidence in himself as he took his partner through various points in their routines - The Kat labelled it "presence", which really fits. The whole show was excellent, and well worth the time (blessed as we were by our own timing!)
I should also say, I'm very proud of myself for having ridden the Drop Zone tower. Sitting on a seat with no footrests, lifted over 200 feet in the air and then released - whoa! Let's just violently confront my almost phobic fear of heights, shall we? The best part was when we got to the top and this calm voice says, "Welcome to the Drop Zone. You are currently 240 feet off the ground. Drop." and away you go! Yes, I screamed. Sue me. I also went on the Psyclone and the Sledge Hammer. And I screamed on them. My voice this morning is a touch on the husky side, as you might imagine.
At the end of the day, we came back for some night rides, as I say, but only managed three due to the lineups full of other people doing the same thing. Darth Daughter and I experimented with the back car of the Dragon Fire and the Wild Beast, while the others went to the front. This led to some laughs on the Wild Beast as, on a platform containing at least 300 people and having each waited for almost twenty minutes to get our preferred cars, we all managed to get on the same train. Cool or what, I ask you? We then decided to make a mad dash across the park to get to the Top Gun ride. Another half-hour wait and we all managed to get in before the ride "officially" closed at 10:00 - they were nice enough to actually clear the line after we were done, but they spotted anyone who tried to join the line later and sent them off. That was a cool ride at night, and still my favourite coaster in the park (though Sledge Hammer is up there for my favourite ride). It was an awesome end to the day, complemented nicely by purchasing some souvenir items that, thanks to our season pass, were actually 70%-off, thanks to end-of-season prices. No gold flake in the sunscreen, as I said, but dirt-cheap memories of an awesome summer.
*****
The Kat may still take the kids back on some weekend through September, but this was the last "big" week before the park starts its annual transition to closing. But here's a bit of a summary... (yes, I know, anal-retentive Type A's like me get off on statistical summaries!)
Wonderland - awesome, no matter how you look at it!
You see, yesterday Sir Goobs turned 9. Yes, nine - one more year and all of our children will have reached double digits, a fact which now reduces The Kat to tears far more quickly that the thought that she/we will be forty three years after that! For his ninth birthday, pinkie finger in an orthopedic brace and all, we decided to go have a full day of fun, and we did - we literally opened and closed the park yesterday! Packed our own lunch, and went across the street for supper, came back and rode some rides in the dark and had a blast!
One moment of griping must surface, however. We forgot sunscreen at home, an understandable oversight when you consider that, as the sun rose yesterday morning, we were gripped in flowing banks of fog and were more concerned with staying warm than with keeping the sun off. Sir Goobs is actually the fairest of the three children - #1Son just has his freckles darkened by sunlight on his face, and Darth Daughter gets a bit of red on her cheekbones under her eyes which darkens to a nice tan by the morning after. But Sir Goobs (and The Kat, and me) were beginning to turn the colour of properly cooked lobsters by about 2 in the afternoon, so we decided to acquire some sunscreen at the water park. We failed to fully consider a couple of issues here: a) this is a theme park, and will only have top-of-the-line brand-name stuff on their shelves, and b) this is a theme park, where everything is overpriced and, if possible, far overpriced because they've got you by the short and curlies and if you want it you will pay for it!!! $22 for a small bottle of sunscreen. Twenty-two dollars for about 100ml of "the best". !!!!!!! My first reaction was, literally, "I'm tempted to let him burn!" Of course, by this point my own face was prickling with that tingle that tells me my own burn is a "good one". The Kat, obviously frustrated, completed the purchase anyway because we both knew that we must have sunscreen if we are now going to actually let the children cavort in the water. Still, I was checking the contents of the bottle for, I don't know, gold flecks or something like that in order to justify the price.
We will not be forgetting sunscreen ever again, let me tell you!
The kids were also not impressed that we took time out for shows yesterday. Shows are boring. Shows require you to sit, as rides do, but you are not moving! The people on the stage were, but they don't count, and when Mom and Dad start humming or, God forbid, lip synching to the songs being sung (one was a 60's musical that was actually pretty good), well, we could see the fervent prayers for holes to open up in the ground, either to swallow them or into which we as disobedient parents could be tossed. As we came back in from supper, we decided to go right past the place where a skating show was being presented, entitled "Endless Summer" (Helen, if you didn't get to see it this year and they have it again next year, you have to see this!). They were hustling the last people in the door, and I had already turned my body in that direction as The Kat looked at me with a pleading look - we were in the doors as the one attendant called for the outer ones to be closed, and as we took our seats, the house lights fell. Wow - only word for it! Five guys and seven girls put on a half hour of amazing energy, flash and poise (even the ones who, at one point, had to go get into costumes that made them look like 'smores. My favourite was the oldest fellow on the ice, whose first name I could only catch as "Bob" - he didn't have the power and snap of the younger guys, but he had poise, grace and complete confidence in himself as he took his partner through various points in their routines - The Kat labelled it "presence", which really fits. The whole show was excellent, and well worth the time (blessed as we were by our own timing!)
I should also say, I'm very proud of myself for having ridden the Drop Zone tower. Sitting on a seat with no footrests, lifted over 200 feet in the air and then released - whoa! Let's just violently confront my almost phobic fear of heights, shall we? The best part was when we got to the top and this calm voice says, "Welcome to the Drop Zone. You are currently 240 feet off the ground. Drop." and away you go! Yes, I screamed. Sue me. I also went on the Psyclone and the Sledge Hammer. And I screamed on them. My voice this morning is a touch on the husky side, as you might imagine.
At the end of the day, we came back for some night rides, as I say, but only managed three due to the lineups full of other people doing the same thing. Darth Daughter and I experimented with the back car of the Dragon Fire and the Wild Beast, while the others went to the front. This led to some laughs on the Wild Beast as, on a platform containing at least 300 people and having each waited for almost twenty minutes to get our preferred cars, we all managed to get on the same train. Cool or what, I ask you? We then decided to make a mad dash across the park to get to the Top Gun ride. Another half-hour wait and we all managed to get in before the ride "officially" closed at 10:00 - they were nice enough to actually clear the line after we were done, but they spotted anyone who tried to join the line later and sent them off. That was a cool ride at night, and still my favourite coaster in the park (though Sledge Hammer is up there for my favourite ride). It was an awesome end to the day, complemented nicely by purchasing some souvenir items that, thanks to our season pass, were actually 70%-off, thanks to end-of-season prices. No gold flake in the sunscreen, as I said, but dirt-cheap memories of an awesome summer.
*****
The Kat may still take the kids back on some weekend through September, but this was the last "big" week before the park starts its annual transition to closing. But here's a bit of a summary... (yes, I know, anal-retentive Type A's like me get off on statistical summaries!)
- we managed at least 234 individual person-rides in four days at the park, an average of 47 rides each, or just under 12 rides per day (this takes into account the water park rides as well). Thanks to the slower days at the water park, we may have actually gotten on more "rides" but these numbers are good to work with.
- taking into account park admission and parking (i.e. our season pass), it cost us approximately $1.75 per ride.
- However, we also took in the 60's musical and the skating show which, at 30 minutes each, could conceivably have been valued at about $10/ticket (or $100-worth of value), an acrobatic/diving show (a $25 value at $5/ticket), and the cliff diving (meh).
- On the other hand, one could add in the cost of gas (about $40/trip) and eating out (factor in another $60/trip (but only 3 trips, because we had one overnight at a friend's)
Wonderland - awesome, no matter how you look at it!