Amusement Park Hell

It actually wasn't that hellish. I just wanted to be melodramatic.

We along with my parents took our son to a semi-local amusement park this past weekend. A good time was had by all. It's weird to go to parks like that mostly for the enjoyment of someone else rather than for my own enjoyment. Not weird, but rather, new...for us. It's actually more fun to see him have fun. I think I'm sort of over roller coasters and carnival games and the like, at least until our son is older and wants to do that stuff.

The drive down was pleasant enough. A perfect day really. We only had to stop 3 times for potty breaks...another downfall to being so "old". Actually, I can blame my parents for this one. :)

We got there about 1/2 hour after it opened, and were very disappointed to see that the parking lot was packed full already. The website said that September was a less crowded time to go. Liars. Unless it is even more crowded in July, and if that is the case, I will NEVER go mid-summer.

So it was packed, and I'm sorry but that is a real drag. Long lines for everything and stupid people everywhere. Plus tons and tons of kids completely and totally out of control and revved up on sugar or high fructose corn syrup, with no parental supervision in sight.

Our poor little son...he's too little to fight his way up the ladder for the kiddie slides in the water park. But don't think we didn't fight for him, cuz we did. We were yelling at and corralling kids all over the place: "don't run!" "wait your turn!", etc. We were really popular among the kids, but I'm sorry, the parents aren't going to do it, I am.

In one part of the park, two boys, I'd put them at 10 years old, were taking huge handfuls of rocks and throwing them at each other across the playground, the kiddie playground I might add, meant for toddlers. We yelled at them, too. :)

And it was a wicked hot day. I forgot that the weather in the southern part of the state can differ greatly from the northern part.

Still, a good time was had by all and our son loved it. The kiddyland rides were not crowded at all. And, we were able to take him down some of the bigger waterslides (not the very big ones, but slightly bigger than the really little kiddy ones). We even caught a "retro" show featuring 60's-80's music. Our son was exhausted by the end.

We would have left him at the hotel with my mom and come back for bigger rides, but Matt was sick and I wasn't going to force him to fight the crowds and heat again. I was tired myself anyway.

The hotel was quaint and inexpensive. The bad thing about the hotel was that there weren't many eating options. The restaurant had a gross buffet, which looked like school cafeteria food. Bleh. So we wanted to get a delivery from this place across the street. The ad said "free delivery", and they had pizza, sandwiches, chicken fingers, etc.

I called.

"Yes, I'd like to order a delivery..."
"uh...we ain't doin' deliveries today. I dunno why."
"uh...okay"

Whatever.

Matt & I discuss it, and decide to call in a carry out. Matt's turn to try.

"Yes, I'd like to order a carry out"
[he places order]
"wouldju like us to jez bring it to yer room?" (??????)
"uh yeah! that'd be great!"

Okay...so I guess they changed their mind about making deliveries then.

They call us back 1/2 hour later:

"we ain't got no fries no more. We're all out. Is onion rings okay?"
"sure, onion rings are fine"

How can they be out of fries? Oh well. I guess it can happen.

And when the order arrives, we get:

1) not only no fries, but no onion rings
2) cheese on the sandwich that Matt ordered without cheese (he is lactose intolerant), and melted cheese, no less, so he could not just pick it off
3) burnt sandwiches to boot

We were too tired and hungry to fight it.

So the eating situation sucked.

But this amusement park is a great place to take the fam. It's very customer service friendly. You get free drinks all day, even water (sounds lame but you know at some places you are forced to buy bottled water for $1-$5 a bottle!), and you get free life jackets for the kiddies and free sunscreen. The water park there is really, really cool.

Next time though, we will try off-season AND a week day.

The drive back was interesting. It rained the whole time, but not badly. The interesting part is that I'm pretty sure my dad was racing us back, or trying damn hard to keep up with me. Well, if it was a race, I won. :) (without breaking the speed limit, btw...I only went 5 over...It was just my expert driving and maneuvering and passing skills....)

btw...I filled up near the hotel when we left Sunday, at $3.86 a gallon. By the time we got home, it was $4.15 a gallon. The hell?