Crazy, Hazy, Not-So-Lazy Days of Summer

We have officially hit the stretch run of summer--we seem to be through the worst of the heat, we've apparently hit the monsoon season of our drought-filled summer, camp is over (though Carter's stint ended a week early), and we're just trying to maintain sanity until vacation on Monday.  It's been a wacky week, with both kids home and both of us working between home and the office here and there to try to maintain a presence with the boys as much as possible.  They haven't killed each other yet, so that might be a win, but they're driving us nuts anyway.  If that wasn't enough, Craig is in the midst of a Thursday through Sunday trip to Toronto for a lacrosse tournament, and then we leave Monday morning.  How I'm going to manage possible school supply buying, packing, and kid wrangling all weekend, I have no idea.  I'm trying to get laundry done and start some early prep, but evenings weren't long enough this week for me to make much progress.  It's going to be a lot.  I just kept waiting for 5pm today, and while I feel like I did a reasonably good job wrapping up work, there is now so much left to do at home.

Before this crazy week, Carter and I had some business to attend to--I had promised him a trip to Darien Lake to make up for missing his Seabreeze field trip for camp (since we pulled him out a week early to avoid COVID ahead of our trip), and Saturday was really the best/only day to do it.  My work schedule got crazy complicated for these last two weeks, so weekdays didn't work.  The 9pm closing time on Saturday seemed like it would offset any additional busyness, so we picked that day--and bonus, we found out it was a Bills preseason home game, which I think kept crowds down a bit, too.  Carter was so excited about it that I could barely get him to stop bragging about it to other kids.  Oy.

But before that, we had a gorgeous, warm Friday night with nothing to do, so I suggested we go to the cool playground near Seabreeze and watch the sunset from the beach.  It was predictably busy, but at least we didn't have to be jealous of the folks across the street since we had an amusement park adventure of our own the next day. 

View from the top of the playground - you can just see a single car going up the hill on the Whirlwind in the distance.

We climbed around a bit but there were a lot of kids so I mostly hung around and picked my spots to climb on the equipment when it was clear.  Carter really wanted to ride that round swing thing (like amusement park swings but only three seats), but it was pretty hard to grab a spot.  When he finally did, he realized that another girl on there was in his group at camp!  They adorably chatted back and forth for a bit before it was time for her to leave and us to walk to the beach for sunset.  We walked down the sidewalk on the strip of land between the lake and the bay, past two grill-and-custard spots, past Marge's (the best hole-in-the-wall beachfront bar ever), past the Irondequoit Bay boat launch, and down to the beach.  Before we hit the sand we changed from our shoes into our water shoes.  We came unprepared last year and did the beach in bare feet, which wasn't the most comfortable because of rocks and shells but also meant a lengthy clean-up and dry-off at the end.  This time we brought a towel as well, which helped a lot.

Anyway, the sunset looked promising as we got down to the water, and it was indeed a great one.  The oranges and the wispy and billowing clouds were gorgeous.  It was so peaceful just hanging out with our feet in the water, watching it evolve.

The one "volcano" cloud, as Carter called it, was all billowy and only got taller as we stood there.  It's hard to see the detail in it, but it was neat.

The wispy clouds off to the side were just as pretty.
 

The water felt cold initially but we adjusted soon enough and enjoyed the waves and sinking into the sand.  

Always a selfie with my boy!

Carter liked playing a game trying to avoid the waves.  I deemed it impossible and just enjoyed the lapping water.

The colors continued to get more vivid, and I soaked in every bit of the beachy mood courtesy of the music from Marge's and the bonfire and parties at beach houses along the shore.  It's quite the life down there.

If you zoom in on this picture, I think you can see that the tip-top of the volcano is blocking the sunlight and created what looks like a couple reverse (shadow) sun rays in the clouds above it.

It was incredibly gorgeous but I figured we needed to head back to the playground before it got too dark, just because I promised Carter we'd go back for a bit so he could get more swing time.  

We headed back off the beach leaving this view behind...

It still took a few minutes to clean off our feet, and it was pretty dark by the time we got back.  But the playground was still busy, maybe busier than before!  After killing some time on other equipment, Carter finally got a spot on the swing again, but the two other girls on it literally refused to get off.  I get that it's cool but their insistence to stay on until they had to leave was jerky, especially since it was clear there were other kids waiting.  I will say the one girl was a master at spinning it hard and hopping back on.  Eventually I pulled Carter off because someone needed to give other kids a chance.  It was getting late anyway, and we had a full day ahead!

Ah, Darien Lake.  Carter still refers to last year's trip as one of his favorite days ever, even with our awesome Kennywood day in the meantime.  He was so excited to go back.  He'd been asking all summer and while I was hoping to find a day, it wasn't looking good.  But given his Seabreeze sacrifice, I had no choice but to make it work, and if we wanted to do the water park (we did) we had to go in August.  We had an open Saturday, so off we went!  It was going to be a hot day but the weather forecast looked good.  I was definitely looking at this as a trial run for Disney, both in my planning and how the day would unfold.  I carefully thought through what would be in my backpack, what would go in the locker, and what would be in my fanny pack.  I tried to think through timing and how we might fit everything in.  It was giving me anxiety but I guess I was grateful for the chance to think through some things before the bigger deal next week.  In truth, almost everything will be different but it helped to get in the preparedness mindset.

We didn't get on the road quite as quickly as I hoped.  I wanted to get there right at opening, but due to a number of factors--including sleeping well past my normal Saturday morning wakeup time and some Thruway traffic--we were a little late.  We ate sandwiches on the last 10 minutes of our trip to tide us over for a bit and avoid the expensive food in the park.  Despite a long security line, we made it in pretty quickly, and we were off!

Carter wanted to hit up the Boomerang first.  I wasn't excited to knock my brain around first thing (even with Dramamine) but I knew that was his favorite.  We nearly walked on, which was helpful.  I think it got some ride jitters out of his system and it definitely got the adrenaline flowing! 

We tried to ride the drop tower, which would have been an upgrade for him (slightly bigger than the one in Ocean City last year), but they had to bring in maintenance while we were waiting, so we moved on.  We did the awesome Motocoaster, where you ride on a motorcycle-style seat for a fast and twisty launched coaster ride, and loved it just as much as last year.  The tall swings were right next to it and the line was reasonable, so I asked Carter if he wanted to go.  He's not a fan of heights but I told him this was the best way to keep conquering that.  We had to wait one ride cycle, but it was a lovely ride up high.

We moved on to the Viper, which was my first "real" coaster post-Disney, and Carter was excited to do it again.  It's definitely not my favorite these days but I love that I still know the track by heart--it was the peak of my coaster world for quite a few years, after all--until Cedar Point.  I told Carter that he should enjoy all of these sub-par coasters at Darien Lake now, because once we get to Cedar Point, hopefully next year, he will realize just how awesome coasters can be, and these won't seem as great.

Next it was on to the Tantrum!  We got shut out of this one last year because it was closed--probably a staffing shortage--so we were excited to ride it!  The completely vertical lift hill was a new one for me, and the beyond-vertical drop was also something I haven't done much of.

You can see the car going up the hill--you're literally flat on your back!

It was a short but super fun ride!  Lots of twists and turns but smooth and fun!  I wish we had time to ride it again!  We grabbed a pretzel before our next ride, since we knew we were heading toward the water park soon and would need some sustenance to get us through hours of fun there!

Our last ride pre-water park was one we skipped last time--Shipwreck Falls!  Once upon a time, Darien Lake had two water rides--a flume and a round raft.  The flume was my nemesis as a kid, as I hated getting wet, and then they built Grizzly Run, which was even worse.  As I got older I would bargain to ride the flume so I could avoid Grizzly Run, which usually worked.  Funny to think my family would leave me alone at the overlook to watch rafts while they rode!  They added Shipwreck Falls in the early 2000s, but luckily by that point I rarely visited so I didn't need to do much to avoid it.  The log flume was replaced by Tantrum a few years back, and Grizzly Run is no more, either, though that just sort of sits mostly intact out of sight if Google's satellite view is any indication.  As we waited for both Tantrum and Shipwreck Falls, I noticed some odd remaining concrete structures which I think came from the log flume channel.  Looking at old maps, I couldn't help but wonder if Shipwreck Falls' one spot was part of the old water park that used to be in that section.  Anyway, I made sure we prepared for this ride--I had my bathing suit with a skirt bottom and flip flops, and Carter changed into his suit and water shoes.  We needed it--we were so wet!  And Carter stood on the bridge for an extra splash, too!  It was a good day for it, but I was grateful we were on our way to the water park.

Wet kid with a big splash in the background!

We ended up spending a lot of time--too much looking back--in the water park.  We had a blast, but we probably got there around 2:30, maybe, and left just 20 minutes ahead of closing at 6:40.  Lines were long but we were determined to do a few things so we just did it, not really realizing how much of our day it was taking up.  Carter played in the kids zone initially, doing both little slides and climbing through all the water elements.  Next we did the racing slides which Carter did not do last year.  They're not my favorite because of the amount of water in your face, but they are fast and quite thrilling!  Then we got in line for the new ride, Wahoo Wave.  That was a LONG wait.  But it was new and we HAD to do it.  It was basically a four person tube (so hard to carry up the stairs!), a fun little twisty tunnel up top, and then down a steep chute into a wall of water that you rode up pretty high and then slid back down.  I wish we would have swished a bit more in that section, but it was just up and down and right into the exit chute.  It was fun and I'm glad we did it, but I just wish the wait would have been shorter!

The blue and yellow stripes are the wall, outlined in orange.  We probably shot out about halfway up.

Next it was on to the Brain Drain, which only Carter and Kate rode last time.  It's a body slide where the floor drops out from under you to shoot you into the slide.  I promised Carter last year that if we went back I would ride it.  It was time to pay the piper, I guess.  Again, another long line, but we amused ourselves in line talking to the group before us that had no idea what the ride was like.  Carter took great joy in sharing with the very nervous lady in the group how the floor drops out!  We had one extra mechanical issue wait, too, but finally reached the top.  I could see the terror on that woman's face when she went, and I'm sure my face was no different.  You load into that capsule and just have to wait to be plunged into a tube that's nearly vertical at the start.  When that floor dropped, it was literally just a swirling tube of darkness.  Instantly I was plunged into the tube, which was pretty intense since the initial drop was straight down for probably 8-10 feet before swirling in circles for the rest of the descent.  The ride itself wasn't too bad but the end had the usual deluge over the face that those slides always have.  It definitely wasn't my favorite, but I'm glad I did it.  Our line friend survived as well!

Next was the Tornado, which was a favorite last time.  Similar concept to Wahoo Wave except in this one you do a few back-and-forth half-pipe style swoops inside the funnel.  Once again, it was a long wait, but SO much fun.  We always come out hysterically laughing!

  

Our last stop was the complex of four different slides.  Last year we could only do a regular one since that's what was open for a double tube.  This time we were thinking we were going to do the toilet bowl--Carter wasn't tall enough to do the Seabreeze one last time we were there and it had been a while since he went on the one at the indoor waterpark all those years ago.  But then as I was looking at the slides, I realized the toilet bowl one just had a quick tunnel to the bowl, you'd swirl around, and then be done.  But there was another slide called Mr. Twister that seemed to have three little swirly areas interspersed among the rest of the tube slide, and as I could recall, you'd supposedly swish around in those three areas a bit.  So, we decided to try that one since we couldn't do it anywhere else and it felt like it might take longer to go down.  And we picked wisely!  Mr. Twister was so much fun.  We went through the tube, swished into the first spot and up the side wall a bit, just enough to turn us backward.  We swished against the wall in the next one and turned forward, and then swished one more time in the last one and went through the helix at the end of the slide backward.  It was such a fun ride, though!

I was not thrilled when I realized it was nearly 7pm by the time we finished up.  We had to rush to change, and then I wanted to grab food because I was starving.  We split a chicken finger dinner and then realized we were maybe a little too full for a ride.  I suggested we start with Predator, which was right across from us, but when I discovered the line was really short, I suggested we wait in the line for the front car.  It would give us digestion time and probably made the ride a little smoother.  The Predator is one of the coasters I swore off years ago, along with the Mind Eraser, and I wanted to wait until later in the day to ride either of them because they tend to hurt me.  Predator is a rough wooden coaster and Mind Eraser is a suspended coaster, but not the good kind like Cedar Point has.  It's more like the one I swear gave me a mild concussion at Canada's Wonderland when I was a teenager.  But I promised I would ride both later in the day so any head injuries didn't impact the whole day.  They did retrack some parts of Predator with steel track, so I was hopeful.  It was a new coaster style for Carter since this was probably slightly bigger than the woodies he rode at Kennywood.  Unfortunately, the wait was probably a little longer than would have been ideal, even if the digestion was helpful.  But it was a nice spot in the park...
  

We were excited!

The ride ended up being pretty awesome--better than I remember.  Maybe it was the retracking that fixed the area I remember bumping heads with my mom on, maybe it was the front car, but I enjoyed it way more than I expected--just a classic newer-generation wooden coaster!
 

After conquering the Predator!

Our next stop was Ride of Steel...well, actually, we had stopped at Ride of Steel before Predator because we wanted to get Carter measured.  We weren't sure he'd be tall enough--he's 53-1/2" right now, but 54" with shoes.  He JUST made it on the measurement!  But again, at that point we had just eaten and this was really a whole different realm of coaster for him, even though he did do a 200-foot hill at Kennywood.  This one just feels different and faster.  The wait wasn't super long at that moment so we figured maybe Predator would be a better starter, and then he'd be primed for Ride of Steel.  As we walked back over, the sunset was looking lovely.

You can see the Predator cresting the hill in the distance

We waited for maybe 10 minutes and then all of a sudden the people ahead of us felt a couple raindrops.  And then we did too--big ones.  Just as we reached the station, it started pouring!  We were hopeful it would be a short-lived cell since the sky didn't look that bad and the radar didn't either, but alas, then some lightning hit and all hell broke loose as people took off.  I figured we were dry so we'd stick around and see how it went.  But the longer we waited, the more it became apparent this wasn't going to go well.  

Sad faces...sort of...not sure what mine is!

When the lightning continued to hit and we were only a half hour from closing, we knew we were screwed.  Eventually the closing call came to the station and we had no choice but to brave the rain (much lighter) and go.  Luckily I had kept my fanny pack with my phone with us (the worker at the entrance wanted it off but I hid it because I knew it would be above the restraint) because the bag storage area wasn't the best and our bag was a little wet from the downpour.  I would have been panicked if my phone had been out there!

We walked back through the park dejected, but the lights were pretty so I took a couple pics.  

Carter loved the colors in the swing tower in the background.

I liked the reflections in this one.

It was dark but still pretty.

As we walked, Carter went from sad to grumpy, just like when things didn't go well at the end of Zoomagination a few weeks ago.  He was just writing off the whole day because one (big) thing didn't go right.  He missed Ride of Steel, the drop tower, and Mind Eraser, all of which we planned on hitting up at the end of the night after Ride of Steel, even if it meant waiting in line past 9pm.  And trust me, I get it--we were so excited for him to ride and it was a disappointment that it didn't work out.  I explained we had almost no way of knowing because the thunderstorm came out of nowhere.  It had been a lovely day and it came on so quickly that not even my weather app notified me ahead like it normally does.  Had we known we would have structured a couple things differently, but we just didn't.  I was sad for him and bummed we couldn't finish off a great day the way we would have liked, but I reminded him we did a lot of great stuff and that this was a much easier fix over the next couple years than, say, if things don't go well at Disney.  But just because a couple things didn't work out didn't mean the whole day had to be deemed terrible.  It was a wet walk back to the car, but I did stop to get this picture after we grabbed our other bag from the water park locker.

On the bright side, when we got home, these were there waiting for us!

On to bigger and better things, we hope!

We also got a few of the items we ordered to make Disney a bit more comfortable, so it was making everything a bit more real...even if I've spent all week terrified of something going wrong.

 

On Sunday we went to Buffalo for some outlet shopping and to visit Craig's parents.  We did pretty well--Jacob got new sneakers (of course), Carter and I got BOGO slides (did you know a women's size 7 = a kid size 5?), Jacob got Crocs (ugh) and Craig got Crocs flip flops, and I got new black Rockstar pants for work since my other ones are getting a bit faded.  Everyone got a little something.  We had a nice visit after that--luckily Craig's dad is doing a bit better--and I caught this cool picture on the way home of the sun just poking through the clouds over the lake.  See that little dot near the horizon?

And so ended the weekend before the final stretch heading into Disney.  The busy couple days had me wondering how we'd all hold out with long, hot days at Disney, but hopefully adrenaline (and Genie+) gets us through.  But before we could get to that, we had a marathon of a week to get through first!