This was probably the most stealth week off ever. It definitely didn't feel like a week. Monday was split between hanging out with my family and coming back home after our weekend and getting settled. Tuesday was the 4th of July, so there was at least a little more effort to make it interesting. Wednesday morning I had to hop online for about an hour and a half of work (for some year-end reporting and an interview), then immediately left for two hours to take Jacob to a training session, shop a little during it, and then drive home, which killed half the day. We did some pool time both afternoons, which was nice but probably shorter-lived than should be the case, but between flat-out laziness and the pool not being as warm as would be ideal, it just wasn't as fun as it should have been. Not to mention that the basketballs get shot out of the pool constantly so someone either has to be outside or get out every couple minutes. Let's just say my gardening efforts were a little interrupted! For the most part, I spent a lot of my free time either tired/lazy or puttering around the house and yard taking care of things. Thursday was a different story--that was a full day at Darien Lake. And Friday was back to some lazy, but I gave blood around lunchtime and then stopped at Wegmans, at which point my car battery died out of nowhere. That killed an unexpected extra hour or so of what was supposed to be a "free" day. And by the time I ate some lunch once I got home, it was already mid-afternoon. It seemed like all week I was looking at the clock and it was already 4pm. Don't get me wrong--I needed this week, but in the end it barely feels like I had a week. It was like an extended long weekend, but with very little down time. I never really had the chance to get bored or be extra productive.
As I mentioned, we tried to make the Fourth of July a little more interesting, but in the end it got a little out of whack. There was a slow start to the day and eventually we got into the pool mid-afternoon, but then we had to figure out some dinner. We'd had burgers and hot dogs at my parents' the previous day so I didn't want to do that. I was actually craving a steak kabob, so I offered to run to Wegmans and grab kabobs for Carter and me and some sort of steak for Craig and Jacob. I was going to do potatoes for the adults and rice for the kids, and picked up corn on the cob while I was at the store. Just as I was about to start cooking, the power went out! For no apparent reason other than maybe the grid was overloaded due to super hot weather. At least we were planning on grilling, but still...it was not ideal. We did the meat and the corn on the grill and left it at that. We were planning on doing tabletop s'mores that night anyway, so we ate plenty, but it was a bit of a bummer to have a fancy dinner and have it be less fabulous than expected. But what we had was delicious. We went out as it started to get dark to do our s'mores just as the neighborhood fireworks were ramping up, and the power came on somewhere in the middle of that. I ended up on the porch for a while to watch the craziness coming from a backyard across the street (and later at both ends of neighborhood).
Thursday at Darien Lake was fun but terribly hot. I had planned on taking Carter there one way or another during the week off to get another use of our season passes, but it worked out to go with my mom, brother, and his kids, much like we did two years ago. We ended up meeting them at the park-and-ride with the van (once Craig brought it home at the last minute because he forgot I needed it!) so they didn't have to pay the ridiculous $25 parking fee. It was great to see the kids for the first time since our last trip there together. Max didn't ride much last time but my brother said he'd done a bunch at Great Wolf Lodge since then and was prepared to ride more stuff. He started big, as we decided to hit up Ride of Steel first before the lines got longer. I'm not sure he loved it--he didn't do it again later when we did--but he did it! Even my mom rode, which was pretty impressive. She always loved rides, but she's 72 now so it's not quite as easy! We all had a good time and a good laugh getting them both through it, though. A few of us rode the drop tower, and then we headed to a big target--Shipwreck Falls. It seemed like a good day for the big splash boat ride. We came prepared in our suits, and the super hot weather made it a must. Well...for some reason it wasn't splashing big! We got splashed, much like an old school flume, but it didn't even reach the big bridge! The front row was blocked, so maybe that wasn't creating the same kind of splashdown? It was a little disappointing, but whatever...we were off to the waterpark anyway.
In retrospect, we probably should have eaten lunch before going there, because it was super hot and humid and we probably should have fueled up ahead of that. The pavement in the waterpark was scorching hot. Some paths were better than others, but it hurt. We did the racing slides all together, which was super fun, and Max in particular loved it! We did the lazy river, which we hadn't ever seen open. Two years ago it was closed during COVID and even last year when Carter and I went, it was drained. Earlier this year we noticed it was filled but it wasn't open, but this time it was! Of course, they were also now charging for the waterpark separately (not us) and checking tickets at the entrance, which was weird since it wasn't like that a few weeks ago. Anyway, the lazy river was pretty fantastic. My brother said he just needed a beer and could have been in there all day. My mom agreed! We then went to the quad slides. Since our favorite Tornado was closed, as was Carter's beloved Brain Drain, we ended up riding the quads twice. The line was moving well and we just ended up taking whatever tubes were available, which meant singles on the first run and doubles for most of us on the second. Kate and I shared a tube on the second run and decided to do the toilet bowl one, which ended up being crazy! We flew into the bowl and just missed the exit opening, so we got an extra swirl around but that involved getting pelted by the water jets the whole way. Then we went backward down the tunnel and I tipped out! Luckily I didn't take in too much water, but it was a bit more than we bargained for! We were laughing for a while, though! We decided to walk over to Wahoo Wave next since we wanted a thrill with Tornado being closed, but it was SO hot while we waited and suddenly Kate was getting heat exhaustion. They ushered her out of line quickly and got her to the nearby wave pool to cool down. Carter initially didn't want to leave the line but eventually relented, but then we couldn't see them at the wave pool and wandered around a couple times before finally heading back to the locker, grabbing shoes and my phone, and eventually finding them. Kate was doing much better by then. We changed into regular clothes and our beloved sneakers (ahhhhhh) before heading to get some (overpriced) lunch. The clouds rolled in around that time, which helped a little with the heat, but luckily there wasn't any rain with it.
After that, we hit up the bumper cars. John's wouldn't work so they ended up stopping the ride to get him into a working one, and the whole ride after that was just chaos! We went to the Motocoaster, which hadn't been open for us a few weeks ago, and Max was up for riding that one. Again, once was enough for him, but the rest of us went twice since the line was short. It's such a fun one. Four of us did the high swings after that, while Max and John did the antique cars. Then it was time to get over to Tantrum and Mind Eraser to get Kate on the two coasters that weren't open two years ago. Tantrum was so much fun and even impressed John, who'd never been on one like that. He didn't really want to ride Mind Eraser but Kate convinced him, so we did that next. Luckily lines were SO short. Mind Eraser was mildly painful as usual, but at least we skipped the Viper this time. While we were on the coasters, Max rode Sleigh Ride twice, and then he and Carter rode Hornet's Nest, which is a spinning ride where you control your own rudder. Then they rode that silly Moose on the Loose ride we did last time. As we walked back toward a now-open Boomerang that had been closed half the day, we stopped at the Fascination parlor. I showed it to Carter last time we were there and promised we'd play sometime, but Uncle John offered to pay for all of us to play six times ($12 total, for all of us!). We had a good time, and in those six games, Kate and John each won once and my mom won twice! There were about 14 players for most of the games, so that wasn't bad! Carter was lucky enough to get a couple of the tickets to spend, which landed him one of those ice cream cone shooters where the styrofoam "ice cream" ball shoots off the cone. I got one of those as part of the summer reading program when I was a kid, and it lasted until a few years ago when the core of the ice cream ball detached. He was pretty pumped about that, and Max spent most of the rest of the day shooting his rubber band gun!
We headed over to Boomerang and Kate and Carter went to ride it, only to find out someone had just puked. Awesome. We noticed that Predator was also finally open, so I took those two on that. Oddly, I had probably the least jarring ride I'd ever had on there, while theirs was rough. They were in the back of their car and I was in the front row of my car, right behind them. I don't get it, but that was interesting to note. We noticed the Ride of Steel line was short again, so the three of us went on there again. That was a good way to wrap things up. We were all pretty spent by that point. Even with a couple hours of clouds, lots of hydrating after Mind Eraser, and the A/C in Fascination, we were just beat so we were content wrapping up with the two coasters and heading out. I needed to get gas on the way back, which worked out well because everyone got a cool drink--mostly Slurpees. Considering they're about $1.50 and the ones in the park are $11 (giant size only), it seemed like a good deal! We dropped them back off at their car, and that was it! We hit some accident traffic on our way home and I think we dodged a couple raindrops leaving when we did. It was a good but super tiring day. Oh, and I completely fried myself despite putting on sunscreen repeatedly. Most of my exposed torso skin got it bad, along with a bit on my face and arms. Not ideal, but it wasn't like I didn't try! Oh, and I took no pictures. Well, I actually took one but it was more so I had something to make note of the day, and it was just everyone standing at the Fascination counter looking at prizes. Otherwise, I think between the heat and fun, there just wasn't a good moment for it. But when I posted about it on social media, I picked this classic, since this is what it felt like:
On Friday I had a lunchtime appointment to give blood. I was a little slow to get ready in the morning because there was a pretty nasty thunderstorm and I was hesitant to hop in the shower. I finally got up and running and everything went smoothly despite my concerns with being mildly dehydrated from the previous day. I stopped at Wegmans afterward to pick up a prescription and a few other things. When I got back in my car, I turned the key and nothing happened. Literally nothing. No clicking, no dashboard lights, nada. I called AAA and thankfully it didn't take too long for them to get there. I was still a little worried about my frozen and dairy stuff, but most of it still felt cold when I got home. Initially the guy found a ton of corrosion on one of the battery contacts, but testing revealed it was spent. Luckily he had one on hand to install a new one on the spot. I just had to pay for the battery and that was it. It was probably an extra hour or so out of my day, but not as bad as it could have been...like if I had taken my car to Darien Lake, for example.
Friday night we went to the drive-in. We had to wait until Jacob was done at a school basketball scrimmage (he wasn't playing--still nursing a sore knee, but he had to be there), but we picked up our Livingston County Pizza order on the way and headed to the drive-in. We were later than we usually are so we didn't get a prime spot, but we managed. We saw the new Indiana Jones movie--consensus was that it was fine, minor things we might have changed, but still an enjoyable movie. We got home around midnight, but it had been a fun night.
On Saturday we were back to NT for a picnic to bring all of the family over to see John and the kids. Jacob had training in the morning and I made a salad and worked out, and all of a sudden it was time to go! It was nice to see a lot of the family--all my aunts and uncles and a couple cousins on my dad's side, plus a couple close friends of the family, and on my mom's side, my uncle (who I hadn't seen since his stroke in October, but did talk to a couple times as he was planning a trip to Rochester with his grandson for the PGA Championship in May), his girlfriend, and my cousin who starts cancer treatments on Monday and his wife. It was great to get to talk to everyone, some for the first time in a long time. Carter and Max played whiffle ball for hours, with Craig and Jacob joining in at times. It was a fun few hours.
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