We did what?! - Cedar Point, Part 1

As I had mentioned, I desperately wanted to get Carter to a good amusement park this summer.  We had a few different thoughts, from Cedar Point to Hersheypark to Canada's Wonderland to other Six Flags parks.  We discounted the Cedar Point idea because their new (refurbished, upgraded) coaster would be ready next year and we preferred to go when that was an option.  The original plan had been to go around the last couple weeks of summer when most schools were back in session, but then that became the Disney timeframe.  We had one last weekend to figure something out, and it just so happened that Craig and Jacob would be gone, so of course a Carter-mom trip sounded ideal!  My first thought was to do a combo of Hersheypark and Knoebel's (which I have never been to but have heard is great) and swing through Binghamton to see my godson and his mama!  But in order to make it work, we'd need to leave late Thursday after Carter's baseball night to get close to Hershey the next morning and have all day Friday there, then swing to Knoebel's Saturday and Binghamton Sunday.  But it also happened to be the Little League World Series so every hotel in the area I could feasibly drive to in 2-3 hours was booked or super expensive.  Ugh.  Then I thought maybe we could tag along with Craig and Jacob up to Canada where Craig had to work, but I started realizing one day would never be enough to get through the crazy lines at Canada's Wonderland, so we'd end up disappointed not being able to ride everything.  I considered going to Six Flags New England and/or Six Flags Great Escape, both of which we could go to free with our Darien Lake passes.  But that seemed like a lot of driving for only a few decent coasters.  I will say I'm now a little sad Great Escape didn't work because one of two coasters I wanted to ride there is going away after this season.  Boo.  Anyway, I felt stumped.  As I was thinking about the five-hour drive to Massachusetts, I realized that I wouldn't care so much about a five-hour drive if I knew that what was at the end was worth it...which was the exact scenario that we'd have with Cedar Point.  Hmmmmm.  I looked at their site again and noticed that their season pass sale was going, and it was similar to what I had taken advantage of with Darien Lake last year--buy the pass and go the rest of this year plus all next summer, for the cost of only two park days, which we'd likely need for one trip anyway.  And if we were going to go there next year anyway...wouldn't it just make sense to buy it now?  And if we bought it now, we might as well get another use out of it now, right?  But we still needed a hotel and still needed to decide if this was wise with Disney looming in another week.  God forbid we got sick or hurt or whatever, but with things being pretty much entirely outside and purposely avoiding the presumably-more-accident-prone water park, what were the odds of something happening?  I agonized for days, and time was running out.  Heck, I was so torn and asking God for a little sign that I even wondered if a rainbow on Thursday was my sign to go!  By Friday morning I decided I needed to take the day off anyway to get a few things in order, primarily going to Lowe's to check out a new fridge since ours seems to be going a bit (new noise and softer ice cream, on top of the long-broken ice and water dispensers).  I got that looked at and ordered, and I was running out of time to decide anything for the trip.  On one hand I was nervous, and on the other I was worried about missing out on the experience of a lifetime.  

I don't know what clicked (maybe Craig's encouragement), but I finally couldn't resist and booked it.  I grabbed a cheap but decent-looking hotel and bought the passes.  I packed us up in about 20 minutes, made us a quick lunch, and we headed out around 1pm!  That was a quick turnaround!  The trip actually went pretty smoothly.  A stop for gas/bathrooms, dinner at Raising Cane's outside Cleveland (yum), and we got to Cedar Point by about 7pm!  The cutest thing is that Carter remembered that we had talked about playing this one song en route, whenever we finally got to go to Cedar Point.  It's by a band called Relient K and it has a bunch of Ohio references in it.  I played it for him on our Kennywood trip, telling him we needed it for Cedar Point because there's a line in the song saying, "Sandusky summertime is 45 minutes away!"  He reminded me to bring the CD, and when we were 45 minutes away, we absolutely played it!  It felt poetic when we finally got to the road to the park and another song on the same CD played and had this upbeat, almost ethereal line that said, "Nothing but the sun in your eyes," and this was our view at that moment:

Nothing but the sun...and a whole lot of coasters!

I mean...it felt like something out of a movie.  I was just so happy in that moment, like everything had just come together and we were on the cusp of the time of our lives!  That skyline is one of the greatest ever--so many coasters, so much potential!  It was surreal and amazing, and we were SO excited!  Since I hadn't been to Cedar Point in 22 years, there was so much new stuff, but I was excited about the old stuff too!  Not to mention that the park is full of Peanuts stuff, which is always so much fun for us.  Heck, that's the only way I got Craig to go to Knott's Berry Farm on our honeymoon!  Look at the cuties that greeted us upon arrival!

One of the new coasters was GateKeeper, which goes right over the entry plaza!

We got in so smoothly--the season pass made the parking and entry so quick and easy.  We waltzed right in and it was immediately so beautiful.

The sun was also starting to set, so it was rapidly becoming the golden hour, which made every picture prettier than the last.

Corkscrew and Power Tower

Our first coaster was Iron Dragon, which was one of my absolute favorites as a kid.  It was the first suspended coaster I was ever on, and Carter loved how it swung out!

While we were in line I took this picture.  Next time we're there, those gray supports will be holding up a giant spike for Top Thrill 2, which is the new version of the original coaster, which was the tallest and fastest in the park.  It had an incident and has been closed for a couple years, but is being reworked and will reopen even better next year.  

Next up was Rougarou, which used to be a stand-up coaster but was reworked to be a floorless coaster.  This was our view looking toward my beloved Millennium Force as the sun set.

Rougarou was maybe a little rougher than I expected but still super fun.  But even with that, right away Carter understood the difference between all that we've dealt with at Darien Lake with rough coasters, and how much better coasters can be!  We decided to hit up Millennium Force after that, just to make sure we got on it.  The line was only about 45 minutes so we figured that was reasonable.  This is the big one, 300 feet tall and over 90mph!  I fell in love 22 years ago and it has reigned supreme in my mind ever since.  The wait was long, maybe even an hour, but we chatted with a sweet family of three with a kid about Carter's age as we waited.  We finally got up to the station and had our first ride in the dark, which was a little crazy in its own right, let alone on a coaster like this.  Carter was nervous but very excited!  This is how I looked after my first ride...

...and here we after after Carter's!

We loved it so much!  It was so fun and fast!

Looking up at that first hill!

We wandered through the rest of the park trying to figure out what else we could ride in the hour or so before the night was over.  A couple big ones in the back still had long lines and we didn't want to waste all of our short line time waiting on those, so we wandered back around the bend.  We snuck a glimpse of the future Top Thrill 2, which has a more-than-400 foot-tall hill.  The new ride will launch halfway up, roll back then launch backward at around 90mph up a spike, and then launch forward at 120mph to get over this hill.  I never got to ride the original, but I can tell it's going to be incredible.  I appreciated that they left it lit despite being closed to remind us of what's coming.

We hopped on Gemini, which is one of my old favorites.  It's a wooden coaster with metal tracks, which I have always been convinced is the best of both worlds.  It's still lots of airtime and feels like it's going to chop off your head on the supports, but it's smoother than a real wood coaster.  And Gemini is a twin racing coaster, which is even more fun.  Carter loves the race concept!  We walked right on and had a great ride but sadly lost the race!  Next up was Magnum XL-200, which is the first coaster to ever top 200 feet.  Magnum has always been a bit on the rougher side, and we had been warned it got worse.  Riding in the dark is also an experience because it goes out toward the lake, which is just black and very dark at night so it's hard to see what's coming.  As fun as the big hill is and the fun little airtime hills used to be at the end, this one was rough.  Those little humps jolted you and crashed your legs into the lap restraint really hard.  It was super uncomfortable and at that point most of the train wass laughing while saying some form of "ouch!" for that whole series of hills.  It's really too bad because that was such a fun part of the ride.  I still prefer that to getting my head rocked, so I'll deal with it, but it was a bummer.

There was nearly no line for Power Tower, so we decided to hop on and do both options back to back.  One part shoots you up fast, and the other one takes you up slower and lets you freefall.  I still remember riding this with my mom in 1998 when it was pretty new and thinking it was the coolest thing ever because it was so smooth (unlike Demon Drop, its freefall predecessor).  My mom was so nervous but we ended up loving it!  Carter has been slowly working up to this.  He rode the one at the Jersey Shore, then Darien Lake's was about half its height taller, and this one was about half Darien's height taller.  We loved both versions.  The drop was crazy long, and the shot up was so fast.  Both had amazing views, too!

We also rode Corkscrew, which is probably my least favorite in the park.  It's like a crappy version of the Viper--short hill and just a bunch of head-banging inversions.  It looks cool in the park but is actually pretty rough and rather boring.  Carter was amused, though, because the ride op made some weird, haunting noises that came through the speaker at the top of the lift hill, which felt particularly creepy in the dark.

We seemed to have time for one more ride on our way out, and it looked like Valravn, another newer one, would be it.  That was a dive coaster, which holds you at the top of the straight-down hill for an agonizing few seconds before letting you go.  It's also eight seats across in three rows, which was different.  The dive was pretty insane, but I was a little surprised how rough it was.  There were a couple spots that just rocked me a bit, and I was definitely cringing during the on-ride photo.  That was a bummer (but don't worry, that's not the end of the story for this ride!).  That was it for the night.  It was 11pm so we needed to get to the hotel to rest up for day two, but we had already accomplished a lot!

The hotel was about 20 minutes away.  It wasn't the best place, but the price was right and the approval rating was fine.  Not as high as I would usually get if Jacob was with us, but I knew Carter was less picky, and we'd barely be there anyway.  Everything would have been fine except that a few minutes after we got in to the room, Carter said he brushed a bug off his leg.  I was worried about bed bugs or something, but instead, I realized there was a swarm of tiny ants all over the floor between the beds.  I had seen one earlier but figured it was just a fluke, but then I noticed a bunch.  The call to the front desk was initially unhelpful (literally the guy that answered was like, "So what do you want me to do?") before the woman took the phone, changed our room to next door, and took some Raid into the other room.  Oy.  I don't really hold it against them--I know things can happen and if there's one missed spill or crumb, it's not hard to end up with that.  Ants are probably the least creepy bug you can find, I suppose.  Our new room was fine but it was so late by then, and for whatever reason I had a heck of a time sleeping.  I just sort of laid there comfortable and resting but awake for what seemed like half the night.  I heard the ice machine and loud people and doors, and then at 3am there was some sort of alarm for about five seconds.  I realized it might be a fire alarm, but then it stopped and no announcement came and no mad rush began, so I just assumed it was a fire door or something like that.  It was not ideal and I knew I'd be tired, but eventually I did get a little light sleep.  My watch thought I slept, but I'm not sure I really did.  Thank the Lord for adrenaline, though.  We had a little slower start as a result, but we grabbed a quick but uninspiring breakfast at the hotel and were off for day two!

Here was the Snoopy topiary outside the gates:

We decided to ride Raptor first because I had talked it up to Carter as so much better than the Mind Eraser.  It's the same sort of suspended floorless style, but four across and a much better manufacturer who created a much smoother ride.  The wait turned out to be a lot longer than the app said it was, but it ended up being better than it was most of the day, so I guess we chose well.  We both loved it so much and wished Mind Eraser could get its act together!  After that we hopped on the Sky Ride to get some nice views of the park.  It brought back memories of our Skyliner experience at Disney, for sure, but Carter was a little thrown off by the open air cars!  I just think they're so happy-looking going along the main midway.

The new Boardwalk section that got totally redone over the winter looked amazing, and we were excited to get over there at some point to check it out.

Midday was a bit of a blur.  Lines were starting to get a little long so we did a lot of wandering trying to figure out what to do.  The app was helpful for understanding wait times, even though it wasn't always accurate.  But it usually gave us an idea of our options in any given area.  We stopped for a quick pretzel lunch and caught this view of Magnum from our table.  I think it was right before this that we rode it a second time, against my better judgement.  Despite the pain, I did want Carter to ride it in daylight, since the lake view is amazing.  The line was short, so I relented.  That was likely a bit of a mistake on my part (though one I guess I had to make) because the repeat battering of my legs on the restraint actually seemed to injure them this time.  One of my quads in particular felt like it had a bit of a charley horse the rest of the day.  I was constantly trying to rub the soreness out, and I have to say, by the end of the night I could barely walk between tired feet and super sore quads.  I have no idea what happened, but owwww.  It definitely gave me a Disney flashback!

After we ate, we walked around Camp Snoopy, which is one of three kiddie sections of the park.  All the rides are Peanuts themed, which was super cute.

I had seen this one before, but it's one of the best!

We decided to ride Woodstock Express, which is a smaller family coaster.  Yeah, it was in the kiddie section, but it looked pretty fun and swirly, and the first hill was decently high.  It was a quick ride and I think Carter was a little bored by this point because he wanted other bigger rides, but it wasn't a bad way to kill some time until we figured out what to do during the peak of the day.  

Across from the ride was Lucy's booth, so of course we needed a picture!

We wandered past Gemini in hopes we could ride, but it had a much longer line by this point and we figured we'd wait until it got short again at night. 

We rode the Cedar Creek Mine Ride, which was a small, western-themed mine ride coaster.  It wasn't particularly exciting--the biggest hill is small--but it was still fun and a little whippy (in a good way).  

At that point we figured all of the other lines were long so we might as well tackle our other biggest target, Steel Vengeance.  Steel Vengeance was once upon a time one of the biggest and fastest wooden coasters I've ever ridden, but like so many others it had gotten rather rough.  It was an incredible layout, but ouch.  So, a number of years back, they shut down Mean Streak and brought in the angel that is Rocky Mountain Coasters, and they completely reimagined it.  They used most of the structure but added steel track that can even do inline rolls and all sorts of crazy stuff.  The videos I had seen looked incredible, so we were excited!  It was one of our longer waits, probably close to an hour but in the end a little shorter than expected.  I should probably add here that my one crankiness about Cedar Point is that some coasters do not have bins for bags and other loose articles.  Most older ones do, but others don't, and for those you need to rent a locker.  They are $3 for two hours or $5 for 3, or you can spend $12 and transfer it around the park, but only for three hours.  It was a bit frustrating to have to do that all over the park when you got to a coaster without bins, though I learned to ask at the entrance each time at least.  Steel Vengeance went to the extreme of not allowing even fanny packs on the ride, so they have free tiny lockers and metal detectors in the middle of the queue for that stuff.  I had to get a big one anyway, so at least we got to bypass all the people that needed to stop there!  When we got up to the platform we happened to be first in line for a new set of seat assignments, and sure enough, we got assigned to the front car!  It was a little intimidating but I think the couple we were chatting with in line, who were huge fans of the ride, were thrilled for us and a tiny bit jealous.  But they loved watching us, I think!  The ride was absolutely beyond words amazing.  I will always love Millennium Force for its height, speed, and feeling of flying, but this was so much FUN.  There's a 200-foot, 90-degree drop, and it goes 74 mph.  You're up and down hills, through a number of upside-down rolls, and it's so fast and crazy but so exciting.  We couldn't believe how fun it was!

  

Look at that drop!

After that we tried to strategize our night.  Lines were still crazy long.  This one, Maverick, was such a long line and we were only holding out hope it would ease up that night or that we could catch it first thing the next morning if we had to.  

We wound back around past Millennium Force, which also had too long of a wait to consider.

We walked past Rougarou, the second one we rode the night before.  Look at that giant loop!

I wanted to get a better picture of Valravn's dive.  They hold you at the top before you go straight down, and then there's another one like that later in the ride, but they fake you out and send you right over it!

We finally managed to find one coaster with a reasonable line, but even that was about 25 minutes, I think.  Blue Streak is the oldest coaster in the park, and it's a nice, classic out and back wooden coaster.  A little rattle-y like most, but still super fun.  Carter was a little offended that I said I like Seabreeze's Jack Rabbit better, but they're very similar and the Jack Rabbit has a tunnel and plays more with the terrain, which makes it more unique.  They're all probably dwarfed by Kennywood's Jack Rabbit, Racer and Thunderbolt, so there's that...but Carter still hasn't ridden the Seabreeze Jack Rabbit, so we'll see next year when he goes there with school!

I think this post is long enough at this point, so stay tuned for part two of our crazy whirlwind of a trip!

Disney Mental Health Post, Part Two

I've had this post in progress for weeks, and now that we're officially a week out, I figured I should probably wrap it up!  Here's another round of random things pertaining to the Disney trip.  Some dig into some details of our plans, and some are just super random things I'm thinking about and clearly needed to write out so I could stop fixating on them!

• The good news for Jacob is that the entire structure of this trip will be different.  He and Craig will have significantly more resort time, and hopefully Carter and I can join for some additional time as well.  They were originally only going to join us for Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, but then Jacob decided he liked some Animal Kingdom rides too much to skip it, so now they're on board for three parks, but still aiming to make them shorter days.  I was originally hoping Carter and I would only need 2-3 days to do the parks, but then we saw a four-day ticket special that was a better value than a couple days of park hoppers and I started envisioning what four potentially shorter, more flexible days might look like.  We would have only saved about $50 over the 2-day park hopper, so it didn't really make sense to force ourselves to cram for that little money anyway.  Buuuut....then I discovered that the ticket special had blackout dates that fell within our trip--darn you Labor Day weekend.  But the park hoppers were still not worth it and our hearts were set on four days, so we're sticking with four.  Our tickets are a bit more expensive than initially planned, which stinks, but the four days will hopefully let us structure our days totally differently since we have a better idea of what we need to cover.  If we want to stay at one park all day, we can.  If we want to go in morning, take a break, and go back in the evening, or even have a free morning and go later, any of those are fine because we don't have to worry about cramming in two parks per day.  I don't love that four of the five non-travel days will once again be park days for the two of us, but I think we can still be a bit more leisurely.  Not to mention that our travel days are actually really short (if all goes well) and we leave later on the last day, so we actually have significant parts of those days that we didn't have last time to do resort stuff.  I wanted to schedule one of the park days for my birthday so we can all be together and I can maximize my birthday wishes, but Jacob was angling for a resort day.  I think it's more fun to be in the parks and get birthday wishes (and more chances for pixie dusting (special treatment)) all day long.  Right now we only have Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios reservations set because Magic Kingdom has extra hours one day (which Carter and I loved) and Hollywood Studios will keep everyone happy on my birthday.  I'm struggling a bit with the rest because it looks like 3-4 days straight of resorts for Carter and me, and I worry we won't be able to do it!
  
  
• One interesting wrinkle in this trip is we'll get a taste of another resort for a change.  When we finally found flights that worked for us, Craig went back to book the resort and the last day of Old Key West had booked up.  We booked the rest of it there, but had to pick something else for that last day.  Originally we had talked about staying at Animal Kingdom, which also had a basketball court and would have been a cool change of pace, but we settled on Saratoga Springs mostly because it's close to the food at Disney Springs and Port Orleans, and the pools look really nice.  It's funny, though, because Jacob had been so hardcore about Old Key West, and I think all of this resort research has piqued his curiosity enough that he's now suggesting he'd be open to a split stay somewhere else if we ever go back.  Part of my struggle with scheduling park days is that we'd like to make our last day a resort day, if only to let ourselves experience a different resort for a little more time than we'd have if it was a park day (even a shorter park day).  But that means four straight park days for Carter and me, so that's a little scary!  If it gets desperate we'd probably just shift our Animal Kingdom day to the last day and make it a shorter day, which it was last time anyway.
  

• We've been considering renting a car for this trip, but it looked like cost was going to torpedo that idea.  We were hoping to make grocery shopping, dinners off-property, and other basic sightseeing a bit easier.  It would make it easier to keep up our stash of snacks and breakfasts, and give us another option when on-property food options were exhausted or expensive.  We felt like we would have offset some of the cost since we wouldn't have to pay for delivery upcharges, off-property meals would likely be cheaper, and we wouldn't have to pay for the airport shuttle.  Carter now counts as an adult for the airport shuttle, and while that's not a big deal, it all adds up.  Jacob and Craig will likely have more free time outside parks, so it could give them a few more options to fill that time.  Mind you, Jacob is adamantly against it because he wants us to stay in the "Disney Bubble" all week, but in the end he may not get a vote...and would probably actually be grateful when he got to enjoy Chipotle after five straight days of nothing but chicken tenders, pizza, and burgers.  I haven't given up hope yet, especially since some $300 ones just came available with a good company, but we need to decide soon!
  
  
• I've been thinking lately how it cracks me up to think about how my dad stayed home from Disney when I was nine because he didn't think we should be going there again so soon--six years after our first trip.  Never mind that there was a new park to visit or that we were at great ages for it.  We honestly never really went anywhere else super exciting (i.e., having to fly on a plane) during my childhood aside from Disney twice.  We did some roadtrips like D.C., Cedar Point, Toronto, and Wisconsin, but it never really got very exotic.  Not that I'm complaining, but the point is that if we didn't go then, there's no guarantee we would have gone later, so I'm grateful we went when we did.  I absolutely loved it, geeking out over EPCOT especially, but also beginning my love affair with roller coasters as well.  But knowing how my dad reacted then after six years, the fact that I'm going two years in a row now sounds absolutely insane.  It's funny because last year being my fifth trip sounded like a lot--and for some people it is, I know--but it never seemed excessive because each visit was in such a different phase of life--toddlerhood, tweenhood, married but no kids, little kids, big kids.  But this...yeah, it's probably excessive.  But again, if your teenager gets excited about doing something as a family, jump on it.  My co-worker who has a 15-year-old literally finished that sentence for me a few weeks ago when I was explaining why we're going back, so I know it's a valid point.  But suffice it to say, this does seem moderately insane and I think my aversion to planning this all over again is just my brain's way of saying, "Again?!  Are you crazy?!"
  
  
• Speaking of planning, as all of that has started to come back into focus, I realized that I've been having little triggers and flashbacks to last year at this time.  It's bringing back a lot of the anxiety and nervous excitement that permeated August last year.  I see my photos from this time last year, or I see the state of my yard, which always takes a turn come August, and apparently those things became deeply associated with the Disney countdown last year.  It's like I was in a very specific mental state/panic/excitement through the entire month, and somehow it became connected to so much of what went on during the month.  When my Facebook memories pop up, or I see my overgrown garden or fading hydrangea blooms, or I think about an activity we did last year at this time, all of a sudden I'm right there again feeling all the feelings--and this time around I've been even more aware of what a fast and exhausting few weeks we're in the midst of--how quick it would go and how much I needed to do to prepare.  August already goes so fast and I didn't want to wish the month away looking forward to the trip, but I also know how much of August was focused on Disney last year and all these little memories have brought up those same feelings this year.  It's overwhelming and exhausting in the midst of the excitement...because I also look at my pictures and remember the joy of the palm trees and the little magic moments of being on property and I can't wait.  It's so conflicting...worth the work, but yeah, it's a lot.
  
  
• A couple weeks ago I was working from home and the boys started watching random Disney YouTube videos on the TV.  First it was rankings of the resorts, then it was ride rankings.  It was rather entertaining watching their joint indignance over our two resorts being at the bottom of the deluxe resort list, or debating over where some of the rides were ranked.  Admittedly it was fun seeing all the rides we'll get to do again, or jokingly complaining about the ones that weren't big winners for us, and thinking about all the fun we have coming.  For all the struggles we did have, it's still magical and we still had a good time and made lots of good memories.  I feel lucky to have the chance to do it again, even if I might have ultimately preferred a new setting and new memorable activities.  Another video showed people walking around EPCOT in the pouring rain, and on one hand it made me recall the extremely rainy day we endured there 10 years ago and hope that doesn't happen again, and on the other, the simplicity of that person's walk through the park brought back to mind the bliss of how it felt to be there and live in that world for a bit.  The break from real life and the change of scenery is nice and quite magical.  But it comes with a lot of effort and my brain knows it.  I definitely had dreams obsessing over planning and needing to get tickets bought and reservations booked.  One night I irrationally dreamed that Jacob had some sort of basketball tournament happening while we were there and panicked because I knew we didn't have time for that and Jacob would never want to come out of the Disney bubble to play basketball.  What on earth, Brain?!  Part of my efforts over these few weeks were to stay as calm and organized as possible so my brain doesn't go into overload thinking about things I might be overlooking.  Lots of lists, for sure.
  
  
• After I re-read my trip posts from last year, I made the mistake of reading the one about the week after we got back--the rush of getting ready for school and the exhaustion of getting back to reality so quickly--and it was just another reminder of how much we had to do in the next few weeks and how quickly the busy start of the school year will be here...not to mention how quickly the summer weather might be disappearing.  So that was all a little depressing.  And I knew the key was really making the most of the next few weeks, but that felt overwhelming too, with so much work to accomplish, back-to-school prep, another week of soccer camp, twice-a-week baseball, and still wanting to squeeze in a coaster trip with Carter.  It all felt very impossible, but here we are a week out, and I think we managed pretty well.  The thing is, I'd kick myself for not front-loading more into July, but to be honest, so much of July is just recovering from the school year, getting ahead at work, and settling into a summer groove.  You're just trying to get a handle on things and finally settle into a rhythm, and once you do, you get a couple weeks to enjoy the groove before you're slammed with the reality of August.  I never thought I'd say this as a parent, but I feel like summer is just a little too short right now.

Now that we're in the home stretch, I'm down to real thoughts about packing and planning and what happens if we get sick.  As it is, Jacob was extra sniffly last week (which I thought he caught from me), and Carter came down with a mild cold on Friday, and now I'm sniffly (probably because I spent all weekend in close proximity to him--more on that soon).  I'm hoping mine is just my body fighting off a touch of Carter's germs and either way it'll all pass soon enough and not impact anything.  I'm still worried about COVID too, if only because I read two random posts over the weekend talking about having or getting COVID at Disney.  One person was complaining about how horribly uncomfortable the bed was, and eventually realized it was COVID causing aches, and the other said her whole family came back with it.  With school starting the following week, that would not be ideal.  I'm planning on masking on the plane and hope the boys will too, especially going there.  

Honestly, I overthink everything at this stage.  I always run into the situation where I should be planning and packing at this point but wait because of last-minute laundry, things we're still using, and not wanting piles all over the house.  Sometimes I do better anyway with a marathon packing session followed by an extra day to continue to think through anything I might be overlooking.  Doing it a little at a time seems too disjointed to me, even with a list.  The problem is that I get distracted by the busyness of the week because normal life is enough--work, sports, dinners, cleaning, errands--and then all of a sudden I have a couple days (thankfully a weekend both years) to get everything together.  This time we need to do it a little early because we're flying out of Buffalo and need to go the night before, so I will need to be as organized as possible as soon as it makes sense.  I did not set myself up for success, I suppose, since Carter and I had a crazy, exhausting weekend and this week we're getting a new fridge delivered.  I think ours is dying a slow death since it just started making a new noise and the ice cream has been a little soft.  The ice/water dispenser has been broken for a while, so we've been wanting to replace it and now made sense to make sure it didn't die while we were gone and while I had an extra 10% off at Lowe's this month for my birthday.  So, that will be a little crazy to close out the week, but at least it will be done.  Maybe it will keep my mind from overthinking everything else?  Ha.  I know everything will slowly come into focus, but this week will be a challenge.

News & Notes, Getting There Edition

It was another relatively quiet but still busy week as we count down to Disney.  It feels a little like the duck floating along the water peacefully but having its feet kicking furiously underneath.  It doesn't look like a lot is going on, but everything still feels a little frantic. There are so many different little details that need to be worked out before the trip, from uniform buying to school supplies to items for the trip, so as we work through the days I'm also trying to check things like that off the list where I can.

I got a little bit of a cold last Sunday, but thankfully seemed to fight it off enough to stay fully functional all week.  It's still hanging in there with periodic waves of sniffles and usually a single sneeze, but all things considered it's not bad, just getting to be a bit of a drag at this point.  Aside from keeping up with Jacob's practices and trainings, Craig's PT appointments for a torn labrum in his shoulder, Carter's week of soccer camp, and a busy week of work meetings for me, there wasn't much else of note, mostly because Carter's baseball ended up canceled both days last week due to weather.  One day it lightly rained all day and must have been just enough to keep the fields wet, and the other there was a downpour later in the afternoon that did us in--but of course it ended up being a gorgeous evening right after that.  Go figure that they didn't cancel one night this week when it was pouring, but we all left after 20 minutes anyway.  The weather has been super frustrating like that lately.  I think Carter's soccer camp gave up for week two because even a couple nicer days ended up indoors despite them intending to be outside as much as possible. 

It was much the same on Saturday, which was my second family reunion of the summer (at the same place as the last one, except we were over by the cabins where my dad's cousins were staying).  The storms initially came through around midday, making travel to the reunion a little harrowing for some of us.  Then we got a little break, but it was quite breezy and the waves on the lake were pretty high.  Carter and I went down to scope for rocks and glass and the water was so much higher than it had been a couple weeks ago.  The strip of beach where I normally sift through the stones to find the good stuff was completely underwater in most areas.  The water was also significantly colder than it had been after the heat wave two weeks ago!  We didn't spend long down there and still found some fun rocks but just one tiny piece of glass!  Craig and Jacob left early--the yellow jackets were bugging Jacob and there wasn't a lot for him to eat, so they went to get him pizza and hang at Craig's parents' house 20 minutes down the road.  Just as dinner and dessert were ending the rain returned, so that was our cue to have them come pick us up.  Frustrating that it had to end like that, but I suppose the day turned out better than forecasted.  We spent some time back at Craig's parents watching baseball, and headed out around the time this gorgeous sunset was happening over the lake.

Sunday was a little more quiet.  Craig was in Utica for work so it was just the boys and me.  We had gotten Carter's school supplies earlier in the week but the store where we needed to get his headphones was randomly closed early for inventory, so I made a trip out to get those, pick up Jacob's new suitcase, and use my $10 birthday Kohl's cash, which ended up being an extra pair of sunglasses for about $2.  I also drove Jacob nuts agonizing over getting his uniform pants ordered, so now we wait for those to be delivered and hope something fits!  Carter's and my "wet shoes" for Disney have been figured out (yay Target clearance and great Amazon reviews of Teva dupes!), so I'm hoping those work out better this time.  I still can't find a school supply list for Jacob, so that's nagging on me a bit.  Maybe high school doesn't have that?  Jacob's last school had a list by teacher on their website, but I vaguely recall having basic supplies and then scrambling that first week to get whatever my teachers wanted beyond that.  So maybe we're stuck doing that.  Even still, I feel like there are so many little details to work on, not to mention loose ends at work that need tying up, over the next week and a half.  I keep having waves of anxiety just thinking about packing and traveling and the super-extreme heat that Florida has been having.  It was so hot last year, and lately it's been even worse--like 10 extra degrees of an already high heat index.  I don't know how we'll do it if that doesn't ease up a bit.  Oh, and then this morning I saw there's tropical activity in the Gulf.  Cool.

Fortunately, the annoying weather pattern we're in threw me a bit of a bone on Monday.  I was going to Buffalo to meet up with my college roommate Mary and see one of our favorite bands, Needtobreathe, who was playing at the Erie County Fair.  Since our entire region was left off their fall tour, we were thrilled to find out they were coming to the fair, but it was a little odd because it didn't show up on their website until the last minute.  The fair was promoting it so we figured it was fine, but even up until the week of, we were sort of like, "Are we sure this is happening?"  The forecast was iffy (again) and it was an outdoor venue, so we were a tiny bit nervous and came prepared for rain, just in case.  I took a half day from work (which was shortened due to a meeting that ended up having to be scheduled last minute and then went late (of course)), so I got there by around 3:30, saw Mary's parents, toured their new house, and met their new dog, and then we took off.  Her parents just moved to Buffalo last year to be closer to Mary's brother and his kids, which is nice because it may create a couple more opportunities for things like this.  

It was cloudy and on the cool side, still a bit humid but not unpleasant.  After doing a couple attempts to find parking, we finally got in and wandered off to find food.  Never a bad thing to have fair food as your dinner options!  I went with a trio of Buffalo-themed pierogies.  We walked around killing time before the grandstand opened, catching up on life.  Turns out Mary has joined my unfortunate club of disordered taste.  She noticed a change in January after a bout with COVID.  She has an odd taste in her mouth and things just taste differently to her.  She's lost her taste for sweets and certain staples like tomato sauce or Pepsi just don't work for her anymore, which is tough since her palette and texture tolerance were always a bit limited anyway.  It was interesting talking to someone else who deals with something along the lines that I do--having to select foods based on odd criteria and having the overall experience be disappointing.  I feel terrible for her because I know how hard this can be, but maybe even worse than I feel for myself because having things you used to love taste gross has to be so frustrating.  At least for me, things may be disappointing but I can still derive some pleasure from them and they're generally not a negative experience--to the contrary, I can actually eat things I probably couldn't before because I can't actually taste the parts I don't like.  It's definitely not one of the things I ever wanted us to have in common.  We may have had a shared third brain in college (haha--that was the running joke anyway, that we were too smart to have one shared brain so it must be a third one), but this was not something I ever thought we'd share.  Still, we had a nice time catching up on the past year or so (since the last Needtobreathe concert last May) while we walked and waited.

The concert was really great.  Despite it being cloudy the whole time, and possibly feeling a couple drips, it never did rain and the show was amazing as always.  And our seats...well, they were pretty great, too!

Definitely never been this close!

The show was so good--a nice mix of songs even though they have a new album coming out in a few weeks, which can always make things a little precarious!  They always put on a great show and the lead singer, Bear, sounds exactly like he does on albums--such a distinct, awesome voice.  The whole crowd was singing along most of the time, and while it wasn't huge (probably because it wasn't on their site--duh!), it was a very passionate, happy, appreciative group.

At one point Bear came down into the crowd, and before we knew it he was coming up the aisle right next to us!

Mary was on the end and I have the most comical video that I will spare everyone--I was so shocked by what was happening that I quickly started a video but was awestruck by the moment in-person and lost track of what I was filming just as Mary high-fived him!  But I did catch her shocked face afterward, as well as the super happy/shocked/thrilled girl behind us who looked like her life had absolutely been made by that encounter.  It was so great but I couldn't stop laughing at how it all played out!  It was such a fun show--they all are--but that was a first!

They really liked being up on those speakers!

Here's a sampling of my favorite moments:

At the end they did an acoustic encore with just the core band members (minus one guy whose wife is about to give birth), and it was so lovely.  They're so fun to watch but when they strip everything down to the acoustic stuff, which they usually do in some form at most shows (sometimes even without microphones!), it's really moving and beautiful.

I really had some peaceful moments in the midst of the show just taking it all in.  I was there with one of the dearest friends I've ever had, on a pleasant evening, listening to one of our favorite bands singing songs that reflect a deep faith and rich life, with the midway rides lit up in the distance.  It was so beautiful and soul-enriching.  Sometimes we just need those almost-surreal moments in life, away from the daily grind and immersed in a magical moment in time. 

After the show we took a quick walk around the midway.  I love the lights at night, and it's always fun to see what rides they have.  Admittedly, I'm sort of fair-ride-ed-out after the state fair a couple years ago.  I feel like Carter and I got our fill of those types of rides (and I probably picked up fears of a few that didn't feel particularly safe to me), but it was still fun to see. 

One of my sentimental favorites, beautifully lit up!

Always love a good ferris wheel!

As we made our way out of the fairgrounds, we heard fireworks, and sure enough, there they were!

I was sad it was over, but what a great night.  And as I drove home past the Buffalo airport, I couldn't help but remember that two weeks from that day, we'd be taking off from there.  Yikes!

So, here we are, less than two weeks out.  As I mentioned, I'm battling some anxiety and general adulting issues currently.  I think I'm just nervous about all the things and I'm fixated on the stuff that needs to get done, and all of that is so exhausting that other things (like cleaning and clearing up piles throughout the house, and anything else that's happening beyond the first day of school) are taking a back seat.  Oh, and I think our fridge is slowly dying so I'm debating how much of an issue that might be since we can't get the new one until the week we get back.  I sort of want to make sure the noises I'm hearing currently don't indicate that it's going to overheat and/or pose some sort of danger, but I also don't want to spend a couple hundred bucks for someone to shrug their shoulders and not have any answers.  Just one more thing I didn't need.  Of course.

More Disney overthinking to come...stay tuned!

Disney Mental Health Post, Part One

Since the Disney trip got booked, my brain has once again resumed its obsession with all the things.  It's not as bad as last year, mind you.  I have a better idea of what to expect and don't have to worry so much about buying supplies and that sort of thing, since we already have a lot on hand from last year.  I guess that's the good news about taking trips close together--we can reuse things and everything isn't so foreign.  But it's still a lot, and I usually feel like my brain chills out a little when I write it all out here and can start organizing my thoughts a bit more.  So here we go...

I actually sat down a couple weeks ago and read through my posts leading up to Disney last year.  It was interesting to recall my fears, to realize what came to fruition and what didn't, and then realize that there were things I was worried about then that I hadn't been thinking about now, but actually need to worry about again, even though they never ended up happening last time--like COVID (or other illness) or even worse weather than we had (reminder: there was a hurricane there a month after we went).  Some of the other concerns I had ended up being mostly okay, or at least not as bad as I had envisioned.  For example:

• Food - The food thing was simultaneously better and worse than I feared.  We were usually able to find something for Jacob to eat, and I think the things he had were mostly winners (aside from one of the pizzas, maybe).  But we did have a few really frustrating times, like a lunch at EPCOT, the night that food delivery was a nightmare and I ended up eating an extraordinarily expensive Wawa pretzel for dinner, or the complete lack of options at Midway Airport on the way home.  Eating in general was expensive, but probably not much worse than the meal plan would have been.  For the most part I think we did OK, but those low points are still on my mind for this round.
  
• Park reservation system - Overall I think things worked out OK and I don't think we could have or would have changed anything, but it was definitely a bummer that the one day we picked to do Magic Kingdom had a massive thunderstorm right at fireworks time.  Honestly, the weather as a whole was a challenge--though I would say we did make it work for the most part--so I don't think any shuffling of the days/reservations would have made much of a difference.
• Genie+ - I was overwhelmed by Genie+, and probably rightly so.  But luckily the learning curve was quick and that actually ended up making so much of the trip more doable - from getting on all the rides we wanted to compressing our ride time to allow Craig and Jacob to go back to the resort early most days.  I was really worried about fitting in rides, Genie+ or not, but in the end we did well--and only Carter and I really had to push ourselves to the brink of exhaustion to do it.  But for us, it was worth it.
  
• Ride selection - I think we did a pretty fabulous job of covering the classics without making the kids crazy.  I was worried about them getting annoyed by It's a Small World or the Hall of Presidents, and while things like that were likely not at the top of their lists, they did provide much-needed air conditioning.  And I think we did well hitting up the vast majority of rides--all the must-dos, and most of the like-tos.  And I think it sets us up really well for this return trip, for a few reasons that I'll get into later.
• Ride/activity tolerance - In the end I think Jacob was even less tolerant of our level of activity than I anticipated, but we still managed it well.  No one ended up being completely destroyed by a ride via motion sickness, but the heat and motion did combine to make things a little harder for Craig in particular.  The motion patches definitely didn't work.  While I was disappointed we couldn't do more as a family, I think it taught me a valuable lesson about how we need to vacation, and as long as the people who want to make the most of it do and the other people don't feel like their preferences are being ignored, we're doing okay.
  
• Luggage/travel - I was really worried about travel delays and luggage issues and in the end those were minimal.  I mean, the whole Southwest seating debacle was not ideal and we had one airport rush and another painful (but not too long) delay, but our carry-ons worked well and overall things were very acceptable.
• Screwing up the trip - After previous travel issues, I was very worried about ruining this one for Jacob in particular.  All in all, things went fine, but...then again, here we are going back again.  It's half because Jacob loved it, and half because he was unsatisfied with the experience.  I'm still nervous about his wrath when things don't go well, but this trip will be set up to work with him much better.  The only problem is that his expectations are now sky-high because he thinks this will go better, so I worry about what happens if it doesn't work out the way he expects, for whatever reason.
  

I think most of my worries were valid, but I also think we lucked out that they weren't too bad in the end.  They could have been, though.  And many of them will be on my mind again. 

Part of me is so excited, and the other part of me is slightly terrified of having to figure everything out again.  There was a sense of relief getting through the trip okay and knowing--well, thinking--that I was done with that stuff for a couple years, at least.  And now, here we are a year later figuring it all out again, whether I did it well and need to remember how, or I never did completely figure out and need to do better, like shoes or the extreme heat, for example.  The shoe thing ended up a mess.  Carter and I both had blisters from wearing slides in wet weather (and then my one toe started rubbing weird in my sneakers, too), and it made all the walking much harder by the end.  I need to do better this time.  I will be taking a copious amount of band-aids and moleskin with us (and having it in my bag in the parks for the first sign of trouble), but seeing as I never found a full solution last time, I'm not sure if I can do it better this time.  I have a pair of sandals (cheap but very highly rated Teva dupes) sitting in my Amazon cart currently, but what about Carter?  And what about the heat?  We were pretty miserable last time and I swore last year we'd never go back at this time of year again because it felt so limiting...and yet here we are going the exact same week because it's the one week that works with everyone's schedule.  The water bottles, fans, and cooling towels only did so much and were a lot to carry.  It just wasn't that enjoyable at times, and the rain made it harder.  So how do I make it at least as good as last time, and hopefully make it better?  I don't think the tiny misting fan in my Amazon cart is it, but it's a start.

Among the things we did well pretty well that I need to summon the ability to do again were our carry-ons and how to leave things back at home.  Last year we just fit everything into our carry-ons, and now I have to worry about fitting everything again.  And Jacob actually needs a new one since his crapped out with all of our spring travel.  Even if it went fine last time, I will worry right up to the last minute about packing our carry-ons well and fitting everything in.  I cringed a bit when I realized I'll have to redo my setup for keeping my outside plants watered and coordinate leaving a minimal amount of food in the house for the time we're gone.  I would have probably needed to do those things for any vacation, but it might not have been for as long, nor would I have expected to be doing it among this complex of a trip again so soon.  But here we are, and I guess a year was not quite enough time for me to feel ready to do it all over again.

While I'm still working through how to fix some of the things above, I'm also working on a list of other fun, random things to accomplish.  Some are wrongs I'd like to right from our last trip, or things I never knew about that I want to see or do.  For example, I want to get my blown glass ornament souvenir from Germany that I missed out on last time.  I want to get more family pictures and recreate an old photo on the resort basketball court (we couldn't do it last time since it was closed).  I'd like to ride the Contemporary route of the Monorail that I haven't done since I was a kid, and maybe even visit more resorts, perhaps en route to their gluten-free options.  I didn't find out about the funky free samples in the Coca-Cola place at EPCOT until we were home, so I'd like to do that.  I also never knew there's a brown path in Magic Kingdom in Liberty Square that represents sewage in the streets back in Colonial times, so I'd like to see that.  We also breezed through a lot of the World Showcase last year for various reasons, so maybe we can do that better, too.

As far as rides go, there are a bunch that Carter and I really want to do again.  Of course I'm also super excited to ride Tron since I didn't think I'd get to do that for a long time.  It was so frustrating last year seeing it so close to completion, but knowing we couldn't ride it for a while, so I guess that's one big upside to going back now.  Another benefit is that we can skip the rides we didn't love without much fear that something has changed, and make more time for any lesser priorities, like maybe Country Bear Jamboree or Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor that we skipped last time (or that darn Little Mermaid ride I've missed at least twice).  We could also ride the train in Magic Kingdom that was shut down for construction when we need a walking break.

I just joined a Disney Photography page on Facebook to look for cool angles I could try this time, since I don't want a bunch of duplicate pictures.  I use my pictures as reminders of all the things we did, but we will be at a lot of the same places so I want different ways to visually represent those things.  And if I can get ideas for cool, artistic shots, even better.  I never did get up close to the castle, and I can't wait to take Tron pictures, but I'm sure there are other spots I'm not aware of that I didn't get last time.

I want to try to be at Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios at closing time, since we didn't do night at those parks last time.  It won't really get dark enough by Animal Kingdom's 7pm closing time to see Pandora or the Tree of Life lit up, but maybe there will be just enough to get an idea.  But Star Wars Land looks amazing at night and I'm sure some other Hollywood Studios elements like the Chinese theater or Tower of Terror will look extra cool in the dark.  So hopefully we can get that experience this time.  And yes, I will be back at EPCOT at night trying to get more Spaceship Earth photos, hopefully with slightly more phone battery than last time so I can wait for cool, different patterns and colors.

One downside to going back so soon is that it didn't leave enough time for some construction projects to get done.  Splash Mountain closed in the spring, so its redo is still many months away from completion (although one of the new design elements, a tiara-topped water tower, is visible).  The ride will be missed, especially in that heat.  But even the new Moana walk-through at EPCOT, which was in progress last year, won't be open yet.  It was fully surrounded by construction walls and just looked like a lot of dirt and framing last time, but I believe it's very close to done now.  At the very least a monorail ride could be fun because it gives you a good view of the area, but it's a bummer that we still won't experience that in full.  Even still, there's a handful of things it will be nice to accomplish sooner rather than the much later we previously expected.

There are so many things I'm looking forward to, but also so many things that I'm overwhelmed with thinking about again.  I think this is enough for one post, but stay tuned for part two, because I have a whole other round of random thoughts to share...

Killing Time

I probably shouldn't title this post like I did, but let's face it--a lot of what we're doing right now is simply keeping us occupied while we wait for Disney in less than a month.  In fact, a month from now we'll already be back home (sigh).  I apologize that it's been so long between posts, but I've been composing one going over all my Disney overthinking and it's still not entirely done.  Clearly there's a lot to think about...again.  However, we have plenty to do at home before we go, be it Disney decisions, another reunion, camp, school shopping, work, or sports.  I know how this usually goes, though.  It feels like we're waiting forever and only have a couple exciting things to do in the meantime, but all of a sudden we're a week out and there isn't enough time to get it all done.  But here's what we've been up to in the meantime...

A couple weeks ago Carter went to his first soccer camp.  We accidentally missed all of the big college ones this summer--I just couldn't get my act together, for whatever reason--but there was still one left at the sports facility down the road where both boys first tried out soccer years ago.  I figured it was worth a shot, so we signed up the week prior and off he went!

It turned out he really liked it.  One of the kids from his soccer team last summer was there, which I think helped.  He seemed to settle in pretty quickly and generally had positive things to say at the end of every day.  He also had good feedback on his week-ending report card, which was probably not grading him on a super tough scale, but I think he probably needed the confidence boost.  It's a little different than, say, Jacob doing the basketball camp at UR and getting graded by actual college players who know what it takes.  The weather was a little iffy between rain and extreme heat so they spent more than half the week inside.  I think he preferred that most of the time, but it made for a few dirty days thanks to those black turf pebbles.  He liked it enough that we're doing another week next week.  I think it's good to get him out of the house and away from screens for at least a couple weeks of summer.  He's had plenty of lazy time so he can survive a couple weeks of early mornings and running around all day.  I took a picture of him on the last day, and it's pretty crazy to compare it to his last day of his micro soccer program at this same place, right before he turned five.

Ahhh, look at that little baby face!

The following Sunday was my family reunion at the beach.  I'm a bit more involved with this one now because I've taken over updating the family tree database and also created an organized email list so we can email people correctly rather than just forward (again) to a list used five years ago.  My uncle has been a huge help and my cousin is still the brains behind it all, setting up the reservation and handling some other logistics, so this is the least I can do.  The reunion is dying a bit.  We used to have a ton of people filling one of the shelters at camp, tables upon tables of dishes to pass and everyone at their own set of picnic tables with their KFC or subs or whatever their family's main course was.  We'd eat, sit through the boring family meeting while we digested, and then finally go down to the rocky beach where we'd rough up our feet, get seaweed in our bathing suit, and get the inevitable sunburn that made for a very uncomfortable ride home.  But it's tradition, and I love it.  Unfortunately, as families have grown and moved, earlier generations have passed on, and later generations are losing their close connections, things have gotten pretty slim.  There are a couple dozen hardcore attendees, and beyond that it gets a little sparse.  It's sad, but I'm not sure how you stop that drift if people won't come to firm up those connections.  I did just start a Facebook group for it moving forward, so maybe that will help remind people how fun the event can be, but it's a tall order at this point.  We may also lose the place where it's been held for almost all of the last 60ish years.  It closed for a bit around the pandemic so we skipped one year and did another year elsewhere, but it has now reopened and been rejuvenated, but the cost to rent a spot has gotten pricey and it just may not be worth it anymore.  On the bright side, my dad's family's other reunion, which used to be held in his cousin's backyard in East Aurora, has now shifted to camp because a lot of the cousins come in and rent cottages for the weekend.  So hopefully we'll have that for a few more years, at least.  But despite the challenges, Carter and I still had fun!  For starters, it was a perfect day!

It wasn't too hot, and the clouds were just enough to keep the sun from being oppressive.  The breeze was perfect.  Later on, the rain clouds came in from out on the lake just as we were wrapping up at the beach, but it never rained on us.  But before that we made a fabulous castle and moat, with Carter once again aiming to get the water to stay in the moat for more than a few seconds.

I always love being on that beach, despite the rocks.  I very much enjoyed walking along looking for fun rocks and beach glass.  We found some fun ones, and brought home a few more to line my flower beds.  This is a deceptive angle, but this is the full panorama.  In real life the shoreline in front of me is straight before it curves out just at the ends.  But it's lovely with the lake breeze and gentle lapping of the water.  If you look close in this picture, you can see the rain storms on the other side of the lake.

In the end, Carter was satisfied with our build!

We wrapped up and got changed before heading out.  I had a little plan for the way home--to stop at Darien Lake!  I mean, we have season passes and it wasn't a long detour along our route home, so why not?  We could stop in for as long as we wanted, ride what we could, and go home, all for free.  Of course, we got there and were met with a totally full parking lot because there was a country music festival that day.  That also meant that lines were a lot longer than we had faced so far.  We went to Ride of Steel, Predator, and Tantrum and were met with prohibitively long lines, so we skipped them.  We did see that Shipwreck Falls is once again doing the big splash it didn't do when we went with my family, so that's good to know.  Our favorite waterpark slide was still down, too, unfortunately.  Even though we weren't doing the waterpark, I was hoping it would be a good sign it would be back open for next time.  We finally found shorter lines at two rides we had talked about doing, the Haymaker and Silver Bullet.  I was a little worried about both because they spin.  I hadn't ridden them in over 20 years, so I wasn't sure, but I knew I had to try at some point this summer.  We did Haymaker first.  I felt pretty good about that one since I can survive the swings okay, and sure enough, it was good.  Carter really liked how it felt when you swooped up into the air, and I had forgotten how fun it was.  And it was a nice view!

Silver Bullet worried me a little more because it used to make me a little dizzy even when I was a teenager, and back then I could ride (almost) anything (darn you, Zipper).  But I knew it was a super fun ride, so I had to try it for Carter's sake.  

My favorite ride partner!

It actually went a lot better than I expected.  I felt fine while I was on it--aside from the weird jolts and subsequent wobbles of the cars, which I think probably happens when it stops lifting and starts descending again.  I don't remember that from when I was younger, so it may be age or whatever, but other than that being a bit unnerving, it was fun...and mercifully short.  I had a couple twinges of a headache after, but nothing like I expected could have happened.  So we'll call that a win!  

We didn't do much else because we didn't want to stay too late after an already long day.  We were also planning on hitting up the new Popeye's at the recently reopened Thruway rest area for a late dinner, so we had to keep that timing in mind.  We did get a front-row ride on Motocoaster, which is always a favorite, and when we went back to Ride of Steel the line was just peeking out of the station, so we decided that was fair.  We had a lovely almost-sunset ride.  We were further back this time (by design) because I know that it supposedly always feels faster and more intense when the back cars are getting pulled down the hill by the rest of the train.  I feel like we hadn't tested out that theory much this year, so why not...and sure enough, it felt so much more intense.  I loved it!  Front cars are great, too, but that was fun!

It was a short trip, but with the weather being exceptionally pleasant, it just made for a lovely evening.  I still wish we could have ridden more, but it was a fun use of our pass to just waltz in and waltz out.  It's going to be a tough call for next year if we do it again, but I did tell Carter he could opt to put that on his birthday or Christmas list if he really wanted to do it for another summer.  We headed out and had a bit of a harrowing Popeye's run--it was nearing closing time and they were starting to run out of stuff.  The manager was visibly frustrated, and a lot of people were waiting on chicken sandwiches that were apparently still cooking (probably because the tenders were absurdly expensive).  It took a solid 20+ minutes to get our food, but we were in such a good mood it didn't even matter.  It was Carter's first Popeye's chicken sandwich and he admitted it was pretty great!

Recently Carter has been showing an interest in baseball.  I don't know if it just started because the boys play a bunch of MLB The Show on Xbox, or because we went to Pittsburgh, but lately they've played a bunch in the yard and gone to the diamond a bit.  Jacob has also rekindled his love of baseball in the process, probably because basketball has been frustrating due to his injuries and it's been nice to just play a sport for fun for a change.  I think it's cool that the boys can finally bond over something, though I question why it had to take this long.  Jacob could have been teaching Carter stuff like this for years.  Jacob now regrets giving up baseball for lacrosse and asks us why we let him quit.  As if we had a choice at the time...ha.  He will never admit how into lacrosse he was, but he definitely chose travel lacrosse over baseball at the time.  Had we known we probably would have done things differently, because Jacob was way better at baseball compared to his peers than he was at lacrosse, but he was good at lacrosse and I suppose the attention from a travel program felt important.  He'd definitely have been able to play high school ball if he stuck with it.  In fact, even with barely playing in the last seven years or so, he went out and hit a home run last Sunday at a high school field while Carter and I were at the reunion.  He keeps talking about playing in high school (which would ironically be for Bishop Kearney where he went two schools ago, since they partner in some sports with his current school), but I don't know how that would work with spring travel basketball.  But anyway...

We had talked about Carter doing fall baseball and seeing how he stacked up, but he also wanted to play fall soccer.  I was a little worried that he'd be far behind seasoned players (especially with catching), and I felt like fall soccer was important this year because he'll have to play 13U in the spring and they only offer that age for the fall, so we figured it would be a good preview.  So, as a compromise, we found that our Little League has an August sandlot session.  It was only $60 for twice-a-week sessions throughout the month.  We'll have to miss the last two, but eight sessions isn't half bad.  If it went well, it would be a great starting point, and if it didn't, it was just a month.  At worst, we wouldn't be out much money if we decided it was a disaster worthy of quitting early.  Of course, then he had to get cleats (which in the end he probably didn't really need) and then we had to unearth the baseball pants (which fortunately fit him despite Jacob being done with them a bit younger than Carter is now), but luckily we had most of what he needed already.  

Sandlot is super casual - basically just a couple helpful dads herding squirrels.  It's about eight kids total on any given night right now, so they split up and take turns being in the field and batting.  Usually it's been 4-on-4, but they have thrown all the kids in the field and just switched out one at a time to be batter.  Two hours is long for disorganized baseball, especially when the kids pitch and/or are hesitant to swing.  Kid-pitch was probably the big reason we didn't mind Jacob quitting at the time (so many games called to darkness...in June!), and these kids aren't nearly as good as those kids.  It seems like a lot of parents did the same thing as us--gave their soccer kids a chance to try out baseball for a bit.  I don't think any of these kids have played organized baseball at all, or at least not recently.  It's pretty bad ball--batting is okay but catching and fielding are atrocious--but they're having fun and making it work.  It blows my mind that Carter is already older than Jacob was when he quit, because he seemed pretty big back then and now these kids seem pretty young.  I found this post from his last official season, although I think he played fall ball once after this.  I guess they were pretty little, but I suppose perspective changes after you have a true big kid!  

Overall, Carter did well.  He got hits in all but one of his at-bats, although they weren't doing the standard balls/strikes.  They essentially had a bunch of pitches or swings for something to happen--like 14 pitches or five swings, whichever came first.  He even pitched and didn't do half bad.  All in all it was better than I thought since he had so little experience going in, but it helped that no one could catch and everything was pretty casual.

Pitching!

I'm proud of him for trying something new.  I can't say I'm looking forward to cooking dinner super early twice a week and spending four hours per week of my remaining summer evenings sitting on bleachers watching iffy baseball, but it's fine.  I think next year he could skip fall soccer and do fall ball instead, and maybe we look for a baseball camp or two in addition to soccer camp next year.  

I have to say that it's such a different experience doing sports with a kid who's not looking to make it big.  He can try things out, do what's fun, and just enjoy it with no pressure.  I think if Carter can stick with one sport long enough to play modified, or even high school, that would be fun.  I think music might be a better fit for him in the long run since he did seem to take to it well, but I like the thought of having a well-rounded kid over these next few years!

Anyway, it's on to another week and being only three weeks out from our trip.  Work and sports will keep us busy this week, then my next reunion is next weekend, and I have a concert (yay!) in Buffalo with Mary (double yay!) the following Monday.  Craig has his college league national championship early that week (thankfully just Utica and not California this year), so things could get a little crazy then for a few days.  And I'm still trying to figure out if there's any window of time where Carter and I could get away to ride crazy coasters.  Disney's are fun, but he's ready for some doozies and has been waiting patiently!  I have been frontloading a ton of my work just in case, but either way it's going to be tough.  Sounds like plenty to fill three weeks right there, don't you think?