An American Horror Story

Tuesday started as a pretty good day.  It was sunny and pleasant outside, work was chugging along, Craig got a nice, unexpected raise, and Carter came bounding in the door after school, complaining about homework but eager to get it done.  And then I made the mistake of checking the internet and seeing the horrific news headline that kids had been shot and killed at an elementary school in Texas.  The first count in the headline was two, but the story itself had already been updated with another total: 14.  My heart just dropped.  As of today that total is 19 kids and two teachers.  Absolutely devastating.  All I could think was that it was Sandy Hook: The Sequel, and I just couldn't fathom that this had happened again.  

The kids were in fourth grade, so this hits far too close to home.  The school itself was second to fourth grades.  Carter's is third to fifth.  It truly felt like Sandy Hook all over again, when Jacob was just a couple years younger than the kids who were killed there, but it was a little different since he was not in school yet.  This time Carter is just one year younger.  I blogged about Sandy Hook a couple years later when Jacob reached their same age, and you can read that here.  I said in that post, "And while the odds of something like that ever happening again are slim, sometimes I can't help but wonder, 'Why couldn't it happen here?  No one there ever thought it could happen there, so why should here be any different?  What's stopping someone from doing the same sort of thing here?'"  I guess those odds were slim, but 9-1/2 years later, here we are again--it happened.  Not here, but somewhere else--a small town, no less--so it's just more validation that it could absolutely happen here.  And now we know the odds aren't as slim as we thought.

I still remember watching the news when Columbine happened and school shootings were still unheard of.  I was a junior in college and the news update popped up during our daily General Hospital/Oprah/Rosie O'Donnell afternoon TV block.  We just couldn't fathom that someone shot up a high school.  We were only a few years removed from high school at the time, and it was unthinkable.  But since then it's been such a frequent occurrence, whether it's a high school or a college or a place of business.  But Sandy Hook in Newtown and Robb Elementary in Uvalde will always stand out for the fact that they were full of completely innocent children who had absolutely ZERO to do with whatever the gunmen had on their minds.  In a high school, sure, you have bullying and love triangles that lead to these sorts of things.  Heck, even my high school had a love triangle stabbing two years before I got there.  But in the case of the elementary school kids, you know they had absolutely no connection to the perpetrator and it's absolutely just senseless. 

The thought of an entire classroom getting gunned down, what those kids and teachers saw before they died, what other kids in the building heard as it happened and saw as they exited, it's just so horrific.  I can't even let myself imagine what every parent went through waiting for updates, though particularly the ones who waited 10 hours only to find out they lost their kids.  The agony of that wait had to be bad enough, and to have it be bad news in the end is just heart-wrenching.  The thought of sending either of my kids to school and having them not come home is just unthinkable, but obviously Carter comes to mind more right now since these kids were around his age.  I know Carter is such a bright light in my life--he gives me all the hugs and "I love yous" that I can possibly handle (and then some) and he is my little adventure buddy, the kind of big kid relationship I could only dream of when Jacob was a high-maintenance baby or a mischievous toddler and I longed for something a little easier and less one-sided.  I'm not sure how I would survive if I lost either child, but my day-to-day joy alone would take a deathly hit without Carter around.  I mourn for those parents who likely had the same relationship with their children.  It's just unspeakably tragic.  And yesterday the news came out that the husband of one of the teachers passed away from a fatal heart attack two days after she died.  It's a romantic notion that he died of a broken heart, but the reality is that they leave behind four kids and this tragedy just got worse.

Of course, politics had to get involved.  And that is almost equally as disgusting because one side will not let anyone touch their precious gun rights even though they could make a difference.  The right is pushing the mental health aspect of this SO heavily, while the left is stuck on the gun legislation argument.  Both are huge issues, and both contribute, but one can have a more immediate impact.  This cannot be a one trick pony solution.  That said, here are some things that piss me off about the whole thing:

• This shooter clearly had issues but there was no documented mental health history on this one so how would mental health treatment or flagging have helped here?  I still want it to happen because it will catch some people, but why emphasize it here when it's irrelevant?
  
• The shooter was allowed to legally purchase a gun when he turned 18.  In fact, it was apparently the first thing he did.  How is it OK for an 18-year-old to buy a freaking semi-automatic weapon?  We don't even let 18-year-olds buy alcohol at that age because their brains are still very deficient in impulse control and logical decision-making.  But a gun that's main purpose is to kill?  SURE!
• If mental health is so important, then we should really have universal federal health care that makes it fully available to everyone.  But wait, that would be socialism.  Never mind that the Texas governor was talking about expanding care but he already recently cut hundreds of millions worth of funding for mental health care.  What kind of double talk is this?
  
• Mental health treatment is a great thing--we have used it, clearly--but you know what you need for it to work?  A willing participant.  I don't understand how they think we can rehabilitate people who have mass shooter tendencies when they see nothing wrong with their line of thinking.  So what are we going to do?  We have to identify them, first and foremost, and then either have to incarcerate them (under what charges?) or we have to force them into treatment...so how does that happen?
• If they really want the mental health treatment to work on kids who could become shooters in the future, that's a really long timeline and we have a lot of dangerous people floating around now.  And per my previous point, how are we supposed to find them and treat them?  And even if we could flip that treatment switch today, healing won't happen quickly anyway.  We need something sooner.
• I've seen all of these things saying that "we can't legislate away evil" and clearly gun laws don't work because cities like Chicago have the worst gun violence amidst the strongest laws.  Well...here's the thing.  We may not be able to legislate away evil, but 19 dead kids and two dead teachers makes me think we should certainly f***ing try.  What we're doing (or not doing) isn't working.  Something has to change, and the mental health aspect isn't going to impact things quickly enough.  The other irony of this is that abortion isn't going away either, but they sure don't have any issue trying to eliminate that through legislation!
  
• I had someone else in my Facebook feed upset that the guns are such a focus.  He admits there's an issue but still thinks mental health should get more attention.  The reason guns are such a focus is because a) something like 90% of Americans (gun owners or not) think there should be background checks and other precautions in order to own a gun.  Congress has been sitting on legislation for years that would make it a reality, but they won't vote it in because the right's ties to the NRA are too strong.  It matters not that their constituents seem to want it.  But it's one thing that could happen that could make a difference and make it quickly, so of course people are fixated on it.  It's the lowest hanging fruit; and b) if we can do anything to get the guns out of the hands of these psychos, they can't shoot people.  Yes, they could use a knife or a bat or in some cases a van, but generally those people don't succeed in killing as many people as these shooters do.  Any amount of limitations could stop a shooting, and even one less shooting is worth it to those who were saved.
• All countries across the world have mental health issues.  And yes, they do have their psychos who use the aforementioned knives, bats, and vans to kill people.  But all of it--particularly the gun violence--happens far less often.  So something is different.  Is there a chance part of that is the stricter gun laws?  Worth a shot at trying, isn't it?
• I understand a lot of people will say that you can't stop a criminal--they will still get an illegal gun and do their thing, hence the Chicago argument.  And to some degree they're right.  But, first, oddly, why I don't hear calls for mental health treatment in Chicago?  Second, my thinking is that if you create lots of obstacles for someone to get a gun, to the point they need to get it illegally, you're creating some additional opportunities for them to get caught.  It might take longer, they'll need to talk to different people, they might need to go somewhere out of the ordinary.  And perhaps over that process they will be intercepted by law enforcement or their family and friends will pick up on something being off and call them on it.  And, if what they're doing is illegal, then prosecute the heck out of them.  Make it hard, either way.
• The thing is, I don't really care as much about your hunting rifles or personal protection pistols.  If you go through the proper steps, then fine.  Have them, but keep them secure.  There are far more responsible gun owners out there than bad ones.  But there is no need for anything like an AR-15 to be in the hands of a civilian.  They are killing machines, end of story, and your entertainment shooting one should never rank higher than someone else's safety.  They should not be available at all due to the potential danger they pose out in public in the wrong hands.  We've seen it over and over--it's not an isolated problem anymore.  Legislate and limit the hell out of them.  Make it financially prohibitive too, if you can, so at least we're making a good buck off it that can fund something important.  Make many hoops for someone to jump through to get one. If we can regulate cars, do it with guns--testing, training, licensing, insuring, registering and re-registering.  And again, if they deviate from that plan, make the penalties severe.  It's a serious gun and it needs serious treatment.
• Speaking of responsible gun owners, why are they so resistant to common sense gun laws and background checks?  If they're so responsible, they should pass through all of those, correct?  I would think they'd want their exclusive club to be just that--exclusive and full of like-minded, safe gun owners.  So why put up such resistance to something that could make gun ownership more accepted and trusted?  All I can figure (aside from the financial NRA connection) is that they think there's going to be a slippery slope of different legislation that will eventually exclude everyone.  But that's a big leap and it's unfair to block everything because you're assuming the worst.  And if I'm honest, I don't really want someone with documented issues with mental health, heavy medication, domestic violence or other violent crimes to have any gun, let alone one that is capable of such carnage.  So if you have any of those on your record, my apologies, but maybe you're better off without.  Or maybe you'll need to settle for something less to accomplish your gun needs.
• There's talk about adding armed resource officers and even arming teachers.  If teachers want to be armed, that's fine, but what about when a student accesses their gun or they accidentally shoot someone in the crossfire?  Teachers who don't want to be armed should definitely not have to be--they have enough to worry about without that level of life-and-death decision making.  I'm fine with armed resource officers as long as there is an incredible background check process to make sure psychos don't do it just to get access to schools.  But we've seen that even having that level of protection doesn't always work because real-life shooters bring out a desire for self-preservation in some of those officers, so once again, that's just one area for improvement.  Even in this case, it came out that cops wouldn't go in the building for an hour because they were waiting for the SWAT team.  Ridiculous.  Ironically, a woman with a pistol just shot dead a guy who tried to shoot up a party with an AR-15.  Everyone's hailing her as a hero, of course, and the "good guy with a gun" narrative is making the rounds, but a) she (and everyone at that party) was lucky his aim wasn't better; and b) wouldn't it have been better if that gun wasn't around for him to access in the first place?

Earlier today I read an account from one of the students who was a survivor of one of the classrooms.  The details she shared, from how the teacher was shot, to how the kids found the teacher's cell phone to call 911, to how she ended up smearing herself in her friend's blood and laying among her dead friends to play dead herself and ultimately save her life, absolutely broke my heart.  The scars of this incident will last forever--from the kids who experienced, it to the families who lost loved ones, to the town that will have one class that's a lot smaller than the others for the next eight years.  It took a while to compose myself after reading that, because the thought of any kid having to do those things or recover from those memories made me so sad and sick.  It's just unfathomable that accounts like that don't make politicians act.  

Here's the thing--the fact that the right so vehemently shuts down the idea that additional gun legislation could help, even in the face of clear examples around the world, just shows me that it's completely forced by their blind allegiance to the gun lobby and their party.  This is NOT what the second amendment was talking about, and none of these other solutions could more quickly set the stage to decrease the likelihood of this happening again.  We won't get the guns off the street quickly (although Australia did one heck of a buyback program after a tragedy there years ago), but stopping even one purchase today could stop a shooting tomorrow.  Anyway, their straight-up denial despite evidence to the contrary and an urgency to find anything that will help is so robotic and shockingly illogical.  That's not even taking into consideration that most of their constituents are in favor of more regulations, and they're choosing to completely ignore it.  There's no room for compromise or discussion--they simply insist it won't work.

Even if changing gun laws won't work instantly, it could have another impact in the long run.  Our entire country has grown up with guns being pervasive.  While many of us have more moderate views of gun rights and laws, there are lots of people who strongly believe their right to own a gun is part of being a citizen of a free country.  They will put that right above all else because it's patriotic, but I'm starting to think it has just enhanced the "me" culture in this country.  We've come to a point (with a lot of things) where we believe that what works for us is our God-given right, common good be damned.  Even abortion falls into that category, so it's happening on all sides.  But in this case, someone else's right is creating a potentially dangerous situation for the general public.  But maybe if more kids grow up with the understanding that guns aren't a right above all others, maybe it will start changing public perception to one that more accurately reflects other countries that don't have this problem.  Maybe guns will be seen more as a privilege--and a serious one at that.  I know it's literally a "right to bear arms", but that doesn't mean you have a right to take it to an extreme.  Protect yourself and hunt, but having guns that can shred children so badly that DNA is needed to identify them?  That is unnecessary and not what the founding fathers envisioned.  I saw a meme yesterday that pondered whether a vague statement from a bunch of 18th century men who were also slaveholders was really meant to be relevant for perpetuity.  I think their slaveholder status alone brings that into question, but they had no way to know what society would look like 250 years later.  

I want to live in a society where even gun owners recognize that war-grade weapons have no practical purpose and protecting the innocents that may be hurt by the bad guy with a gun outweighs their right to own it.  Changing the culture seems like such a small thing, but I've read accounts from other countries how they see guns so differently--even in areas heavy with farms and hunting--and I think that perspective both stems from AND works with their gun laws to create a different atmosphere.  Maybe this is one small step that could start changing the culture here.

Obviously most of this will not happen quickly.  I feel lucky that Carter's school already has a pretty secure front vestibule, but I think both kids' schools (including Jacob's new one) could step up protections around the building.  I hope that this incident is a reminder to stay vigilant.  Apparently a teacher had propped open a door and that's how the shooter got in, so things like that cannot happen.  In the short term there needs to be more security and more attention given to protections because that's the only thing that could happen relatively quickly, as long as districts have budget and manpower to do it.  But the long term stuff needs a multi-pronged effort and these politicians need to be willing to compromise.  Slim chance, but I know everyone's worried about losing whatever advantage they have, so hopefully there are just enough angry Republicans who can put the fear of God and election losses into these politicians that won't give these laws a second thought.

It's discouraging and heartbreaking, and I know my brain has spent the last couple days trying to protect itself from really thinking about how horrible and gut-wrenching these losses are.  It hits too close to home with my third grader, and all of it is just too much to let myself go there.  It's a privilege to be able to do that, mind you, and I realize that.  But I mourn with those families and that community and will hug my kids tighter.  Nineteen kids and two teachers were supposed to start summer vacation today, and instead their families are planning funerals and trying to figure out how to survive their sadness.  It's so senseless, so unnecessary, and a true embodiment of evil.  I can only hope that this somehow spurs people to action, but hope is in short supply based on past experience.  People have remarked how little has changed since Sandy Hook--a few more security measures and kids doing active shooter drills--and it's sickening that even this isn't making any headway.  It's a true American horror story, and I guess it's our right to keep living (and dying) in it.

Divide and Conquer, The Aftermath

When I left off on the last post, we had successfully returned home, late but happy.  But the weekend's story doesn't really end there.  

Once Carter was in bed, I did everything I could to unpack and leave myself as little to do the next morning as possible, since I would be working bright and early.  When I work from home it is very hard to sit at my desk all day and look at something that's sitting undone, so I needed to finish up all that I could.  I was finally satisfied a little before midnight, and after confirming that the lunar eclipse was officially too dark to photograph, I decided to get into my pajamas.  As I pulled off my clothes, I happened to be in front of my mirror, and I noticed a pink spot, at least a half inch wide, on my stomach, right about where my waistband had been.  At first I thought it was a pimple that got inflamed, but it was strange because normally something like that would hurt if it got to that point.  When I looked down at it without the mirror, it looked like there was something stuck on it in the middle.  For half a second I thought it was foliage or something that got caught there somehow (I just had a sliver last week so that was probably the first place my mind went--never mind the odd location), but when it didn't just brush off, suddenly to my horror I realized what it was.  A TICK.  I internally freaked out for a moment and quickly realized I needed to get it out.  By some miracle I was able to grab it with my fingers and not crush it.  It took a good yank.  Luckily I had a tissue right there and managed to contain it while I ran to get a bag, since I knew they sometimes will test them.  It looked like I had gotten it out cleanly, so I don't think it got too far in, but it definitely left behind a mark that's still there almost a week later.  The pink inflammation around it faded within a day or so, but the bite itself has hung in there.  I called my doctor the next morning, and by that evening I had a single dose of 200mg doxycycline in my hands.  They think that should take care of everything, so hopefully that's where it ends.  

I still have no idea how it happened.  I assume it came from the zoo.  It's a rather woodsy zoo, but it's not like I was in the woods themselves or really anywhere close.  I took a couple pictures of flowers that would have been in the foliage along the paths, but nothing that I would have assumed was close enough for one to hitch a ride.  The closest we got to animals unobstructed was probably about 10 feet from the kangaroos since there were no real barriers in their habitat.  I also entertained the possibility that it could have come from the hotel.  I mean, I was wearing a longer shirt, so somehow the tick would have had to crawl under that and then get under the waistband.  So, I guess it's not out of the question that it could have hopped on while my shorts were sitting in the room out of my suitcase for a while before I put them on.  Admittedly, I don't know who stayed in that room before us--maybe they were hiking and brought back a souvenir that they never saw.  It was probably no bigger than a sesame seed, legs and all, so it would be easy for even a diligent cleaner to miss it.  I feel like if that was the case it would have gotten deeper in than it did (12 full hours compared to 10 or less if it was from the zoo), but who knows. 

Craig and Jacob got home maybe 15-20 minutes after that discovery, probably a little after midnight.  It took them a while to settle in, and it took a while to convince Jacob he needed to go to bed rather than lay on the couch and watch TV (he actually tried!).  I don't know what he was thinking, since 6:30 was going to come extra early the next morning!  But between them settling in, Craig looking at things on his phone (like Jacob's combine pictures) and filling me in on their weekend, and me just being generally wound up from the tick (and Googling to make sure it wasn't the one that could give me the red meat allergy), falling asleep was challenging.  I laid there awake to some degree until at least 2am!

In case you're wondering, Jacob's weekend was a bit of a mixed bag.  I think it was a great experience for getting him ready for that stuff.  They had cool professional pictures taken, and he was among kids from all over the country.  He ended up on the same team as a local kid he's played with before, and unfortunately, his team's game plan was to give that kid the ball as much as possible.  He's a pretty good player, but it really didn't give Jacob much of a chance to show what he could do.  He did have a respectable showing, though, and ended up making the All-Star team, which basically meant he was in the top half of the kids there.  I think it was pretty good for his first time, and I'm sure it was eye-opening in many ways.  

The following morning went about as well as you would expect.  We were all tired, although Carter probably rebounded better than the rest of us.  It took a bit to wake him up but by the time he left he said he wasn't tired.  Jacob was a BEAR.  We couldn't get him awake or out of bed, and he ended up being a full half hour late for school.  He was so late that I had to leave Carter home and trust him to get the bus on time, because I couldn't have gotten back from dropping Jacob off in time to drop Carter off on time.  Worst case scenario he could have walked, but I still felt like the bus was safer.  It seemed to go fine...except that he left the front door open and unlocked when he left!  Oy.  I guess we need to work on that.  

I had to try to be functional that morning because I found out I had a last minute interview for a new big boss, and I was supposed to lead it.  Thank goodness a newer member of our team has done a lot of admin stuff previously and had a nice interview agenda to lay out steps and coordinate our questioning efforts.  Whew!  But I'll be honest, after that, I tried to do some work and just couldn't focus.  I ended up taking a two hour nap in the middle of the day (with my boss' blessing).  It helped a lot.

When Jacob came home from school that day, I noticed he was sniffling quite a bit.  He said it was probably just allergies but I was less convinced.  After all, he'd just spent a weekend in close contact, unmasked, with a lot of people.  But most areas aren't as heavy with COVID as we are, and we've had every virus under the sun in the last couple months and only once was it COVID.  When he wasn't feeling any better the next morning, I tested him, and literally a minute or two after I walked away from it, Craig looked and said, "Jacob has COVID."  That test turned so quickly and the line was so much darker than even the control line.  It was crazy.  He immediately got sent down to the basement and spent most of his time there through Friday.  He did sleep in his own bed with the door closed, however.  He felt significantly better by Wednesday and even shot hoops out in the driveway Thursday and Friday and went to the Y after that.  He'll need to mask for a few more days, but I guess the good news for him is that his last week and a half of school will be mask-free!  He did have to get some extensions on final projects since they're so close to being done for the year.

It's been a little nervewracking for me.  Initially the biggest concern was that I was supposed to be going to a concert on Wednesday with my college roommate Mary.  It was our first post-pandemic show (Needtobreathe, our favorite), and first and foremost I didn't want to miss out on that or leave her with tickets she couldn't use.  Problem #2 was that she was supposed to stay here that night.  The concert was at Artpark, north of Buffalo, so she was going to drive here, I'd drive to the concert, and then we'd drive back and she'd sleep here and leave first thing in the morning.  Well, obviously that wasn't an option, so assuming I stayed healthy we needed a backup plan.  I initially floated chipping in on a hotel, but we settled for her driving to her brother's house, which is about 15 minutes off the Thruway in Buffalo, me meeting her there (it was an hour drive for me), her driving to the concert and back (40 minutes), and then she stayed there that night.  It was a very short night's sleep for her in the end, and I got home a little after midnight myself, but I think we both deemed it worth the craziness!  The funny thing for me is that it was in the same amphitheater where I graduated high school.  The last time I was on this patio, I was taking pictures with my friends in our gowns after the ceremony!

I walked across that stage to graduate, and watched the ceremony just right of center, probably less than a third of the way back in that middle section.  This was a better show, clearly!

The week went relatively quickly aside from my frustration of having to make all of Jacob's meals and snacks and mask up to deliver them or do anything in the basement.  I knew I'd have to take advantage of this weekend because we didn't have sports and not being around last weekend really set me back on a lot of the outdoor work since everything really exploded over the past couple weeks.  I started by going through Jacob's hand-me-downs for summer and getting them into Carter's wardrobe.  I also finished transitioning most of my seasonal attire to summer and finished putting away the spring decor in favor of summer decor.  But I really needed to do work outside.  Late last week I planted some flower seeds, but my garden needed to be planted, the weeds had taken over everything, and I had more flowers I wanted to get.  The entire weekend ended up rather labor-intensive.  Craig did a lot of work on draining and cleaning the pool, which never got closed and needed a hard-core cleaning even before that because it was never right last year.  In the meantime, I fertilized our fungus-prone plants again, pulled a ton of weeds (like hours, to the point I got sunburn on the small of my back because my top kept riding up), shopped for mulch and plants at two places, refreshed and planted my garden, laid half the mulch, planted flowers around our front tree, and created four hanging baskets.  Most of it was in hot, humid weather, but the temperature dropped drastically this afternoon before I planted the flowers.  It was exhausting and nearly every muscle in my body hurts!  I also ran to Walmart, Wegmans, and Target this afternoon for things we really needed, and part of me is surprised I didn't fall alseep in my chair the second I sat down!

Even though I was super tired on Saturday, Carter and I took a little walk after dinner, right before a thunderstorm passed through.  He wanted me to see the garden at his school.  His class has been working on it.  There was a boy that died nine years ago while attending the school, and Carter's teacher was the boy's 5th grade teacher at the time.  The garden outside the school entrance is dedicated to his memory and the teacher's classes help take care of it.  It's been really sweet this year how she's kept Cory's memory alive through little traditions, and Carter was very proud of the work they've done.  The garden did have a lot of pretty plants.  

The bridge has a plaque with Cory's name on it, and the students have painted rocks to place around it.  The plant the bottom right is appropriately named coreopsis.

Carter knew what a lot of the plants were called, and he loved how soft the coreopsis and lamb's ear are.

It was fun to see all that he's been talking about, but just as we were wrapping up, we heard thunder in the distance and that was our cue to head back home.  We beat the rain, thankfully!

So, as we start another week, Jacob is out of quarantine and back to school tomorrow, but still masked for three more days.  Carter came down with sniffles Friday night and has tested negative twice, but will likely be home for at least another day.  I am trying to be extra careful so I don't catch anything before my cousin's wedding on Saturday.  Carter's first soccer game is Wednesday, and the boys are leaving on Friday for a basketball tournament in Pennsylvania.  While I thought I was missing out on all the fun, apparently we're now going to be back there the following weekend for another tournament!  Never a dull moment around here, especially in the summer.  Jacob just has two four-day weeks left of school, and Carter is done a month from today.  May has gone incredibly fast and I guess that's just the beginning of our speedy-as-usual summer!  I hope I'm ready...

Divide and Conquer, Part 2

Going into the weekend, I was less clear on what our Sunday activity might be.  I wanted it to be something Carter wanted to do.  There were a couple museums I thought he might enjoy, but I was personally pulling for the zoo because we've always loved that zoo and the weather looked cooperative.  In the back of my mind I was thinking that if we ever went back to Pittsburgh again, as it's been a while since our last baseball game, we could save the museums in case the weather was bad.  I also know how long it took us to get through our own less impressive science museum, so I was a little nervous about timing since our window to get home at a reasonable time was a bit tight.  I figured the zoo would be a little less time-intensive, and when Carter asked if the museums had a play area (like the one that used to be at our museum that he was bummed wasn't there anymore), I responded that I wasn't sure, but that I knew the zoo had something with slides and cargo nets.  That made his decision, so off to the zoo we went!

Well, first we needed breakfast, which was actually pretty awesome.  Carter, in true Carter fashion, made himself a crazy sandwich with waffles, a biscuit, an egg round, and sausage!  They had tons of options and we ate well.  Then we packed up and headed out, with a stop at IKEA down the road.  I know, here I am saying I'm worried about time and we're stopping at IKEA, but I promise I was trying to be good.  I really just wanted to get replacement light bulbs for our bedside lights, as the lights came from IKEA and I know they work with them.  We very quickly walked through the showroom floor and then pretty rapidly made it through the marketplace area, as well.  Turns out there just isn't much that I need!  I think we were probably there for 45 minutes, tops.

We've been to the Pittsburgh Zoo at least a couple times with Craig's family and once with just us, but the last time we went, I think Carter was just an infant so he had no memory of it.  It's a nice-sized zoo--big but not overwhelming in size like Cleveland or Toronto.  They have a great variety of animals, and they also have a really impressive aquarium that's usually my favorite part.  As usual, it was a hot day, but luckily the animals were still pretty active.

The red panda was so perfectly posed taking a snooze as we walked up, but I didn't get a picture quickly enough.  The walking stuffed animal look was pretty cute, too, though!

Kudos to Carter for knowing that the komodo dragon is poisonous.  The plaque on the display confirmed it!

Carter sitting on a (fake) termite mound!

Up close view of the leopard...

Much to everyone's delight, the elephant started cooling itself off with the water.  It was pretty awesome.

Carter put himself in the elephant shipping crate!

One sad thing was that the poor flamingoes had to be inside this building in a very unfriendly looking room.  Bird flu is still running rampant and they don't want to let them be outside right now. 

Ok, so this is where things get a little racy.  Below you see two giraffes.  What you can't see unless you click on the photo is that the male is...shall we say, excited?  It was one of those classic zoo moments where all the parents noticed something was amiss and were trying to not laugh or tip their kids off.  I didn't tell Carter the first time it happened, but then mentioned it after the fact.  And when it happened again, I let him know to look.  It was awkward and crazy, and yes, it's probably weird I took a picture (and I zoomed in on one--haha), but I mean, how often do you see that?  It might almost beat the tortoise sex I've caught on video before as the weirdest thing ever at a zoo.

The cheetahs were definitely fans of the shade.

Off to the monkey house we went, and while most of them were pretty quiet that day, we did see a nursing gorilla!

After that, we stopped for lunch and had a quick slice of pizza out on the restaurant patio while watching the giraffes.  It was nice to be in the shade at least!

I didn't realize this until we got to this point, but there were two completely new sections of the zoo, "The Islands" and "Jungle Odyssey".  There were lots of new animals and cool habitats.  Is it just me, or is this crocodile smirking at me?

This felt like a pretty cool up-close view of a warty pig.

I love that Carter is almost always willing to pose!

This is one of the new spaces.  We were so confused why the monkey in the adjacent building was not out in this space, particularly in the water.  It looked so nice and cool!  Beyond this there was a beachy area to relax in, too.

This was the lazy monkey.  I guess this was more comfortable?

We were fascinated watching the anteaters wrestle each other.  They had such long claws on a couple of their fingers and I was convinced one was going to gouge the other's eye out!

This was one of our favorite animals.  This pigmy hippo was so cute as it swam through its habitat, back and forth in front of the windows.  It reminded me of Fiona, the slightly smaller-than-normal regular hippo that got famous at the Cincinnati Zoo.  So cute and little!

Is this ocelot not the prettiest kitty?  I feel like if an animator needed a cat to base an anthropomorphic female cat on, it would use this one as a model.

I'm mostly including this photo because Carter sacrificed his leg skin to sit on it.  It was HOT!

We finally made it to the aquarium, which was doubly exciting--first that we could see all the marine life, and second that we could go into air conditioning for a bit!  I had to get a picture of Carter in front of the statue outside because we've always taken pictures there.  You can see Jacob alone here and the whole group of kids including a baby Carter here.

Inside there was a lot to see, and imagine my delight that my phone does much better with the hard-to-photograph tanks than my camera used to--I could finally take some good pictures here!  There were lots of tanks of cool water dwellers.  I loved the orange and blue ones here.

This blue lobster was gigantic and very rare!  Carter wanted me to share that it can live 100 years!  I think he's been there for a while.  I had a picture of him in the same nook from years ago!

The penguins weren't super active, but they're always cute!

Jellyfish are the coolest!

The underside of a starfish!

Seahorses are fascinating.  Their little fins move so fast and they are so odd looking.

I loved the look of this fish!

Who knew there were upside-down jellyfish that lay on their backs and like to be lazy?  Carter noticed that there were tons of tiny babies on the walls.  You can see a bigger one here on the wall that was smaller than a dime, but there were ones about the size of the head of a pin that you could still see moving!

There's a giant two story aquarium, and you can see the shark swimming by above Carter's head.

The pattern on this stingray was so intricate.  It looked like an optical illusion or a work of art or something.

Carter tried to do the touch tank but it was way emptier than it used to be and nothing wanted to swim to the top.  I think I remember some over-eager sting rays back in the day, but not this time.  Oh well!

Back outside, we passed the polar bear (who kept going in and out quickly), the seals, and finally the sea otters.  They're so cute!

I took a video because I thought Craig might enjoy seeing how playful they were.  Our zoo's river otters are the laziest ever (but Buffalo's are great), so watching these guys was a treat!

As usual, I couldn't help but take pictures of flowers, too.

There is a cool underwater tunnel where you can see everything from underneath!

They used to have sharks in one of the tanks, but I think the seals were there now.  Still fun to walk through!

All along, Carter was very eager to get to the kid play area.  Finally we arrived, and he immediately started up the cargo net.

Unfortunately, when he got up to the top he discovered that the awesome looking slides were closed, and presumably that ruled out most of what was happening up there.  He came back down dejected, almost to the point of tears, because he purposely picked the zoo for this and it wasn't happening.  I felt so bad for him.  At that point he just wanted to leave but I knew we still had a little bit of zoo left so I encouraged him to keep going.  He was quite grumpy, though.  We forged ahead and saw a few more animals like beavers and kangaroos, and then we finally got to another play area.  There was a smaller regular playground...

...and also this maze of tunnels that were supposed to be like a naked mole rat habitat.

He did crawl around in there for a while but came out dejected again because no one wanted to play with him the way he wanted to play (hide-and-seek, maybe?).  Poor kid.  He was pretty bummed and still rather grumpy, but we pushed through the last building, which mostly had some snakes and bats.  But there was also a meerkat habitat.

Carter liked that he could crawl through to the viewing bubble!

 

We wrapped things up after that and hopped back in the car.  We had two stops to make before leaving town, one to a store we don't have at home that had something I wanted for Craig's Father's Day gift, and the other to a gas station--for both gas and a slushie treat for the ride home.  After that, we got on our way.  It took a couple hours to get to our dinner destination.  I decided we should go to Primanti Bros., which is a Pittsburgh thing, but timing didn't work to eat there while we were in Pittsburgh so we settled for the Erie location.  I figured Carter would appreciate the restaurant because he stacks weird things into sandwiches all the time (hence his crazy breakfast concoction), and Primanti Bros. embraces that philosophy by putting fries (among other things) on their sandwiches!  Carter's favorite creation is a KFC biscuit with chicken strips and fries, so I figured this was right up his alley.  As hoped, he loved it! 

After that, we strapped in for the final push.  It was about three hours from that point, but at least the second half of that was our usual path home from Buffalo.  We did have to make one bathroom stop--thankfully before we entered into the rest stop desert due to the reconstruction of a bunch of the stops.  But the drive was pretty routine, aside from keeping an eye on the giant full moon, which was entering into a lunar eclipse!  This is how it looked when we finally pulled into our driveway at 10:45.

Carter napped a little near the end of the ride and eagerly came in the house, got ready for bed, and dropped off quickly.  Aside from a couple hiccups, I felt like it had been a very successful trip.  So many things could have gone wrong or made it more difficult, and I really can't complain because it was pretty darn smooth for being planned a day or two in advance!  It was so great to have that time away with Carter, and he had a blast.  He thanked me and hugged me so many times, so I know he appreciated it.  I really just wanted to make some memories with him and nurture his interest in amusement park rides.  We definitely accomplished that and more!

Divide and Conquer, Part 1

A couple weeks ago Jacob got invited to an exclusive basketball combine in New Jersey.  His trainer that he's worked with a while now asked him to go.  It would involve him missing a day of school, and the commitment was basically full time from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon.  It left very little time for anything else, and one parent needed to be present all the time.  As such, it didn't seem like it would work out for Carter and me to tag along and make it a family affair, and then that was confirmed when it turned out that the trainer and his brother were going to be riding along with Craig and Jacob in the van.  Given that I'm already missing out on the one long trip of the season to stay back for my cousin's wedding in a couple weeks, I was bummed that this was not an opportunity to make up for that.  But then Craig suggested Carter and I do something ourselves.  I don't know that he expected me to take that to an extreme, but I figured, go big or stay home.  And I didn't really want to stay home.  So, we definitely divided and conquered with our respective kids for the weekend!

The thing is, Carter gets dragged around a lot.  I mean, yes, we go to playgrounds when we can, but most of those trips coincide with something else that we need to do, whether it's killing time in between tournament games or as a bribe for him getting dragged with me to Wegmans again because Craig and Jacob have something going on.  It's rare that he gets to do something that is all for him with no other purpose.  So, I decided I wanted to do a real trip--not just a day trip, not just something local--that was based on what he would like.  I wasn't sure what that should be, but one morning that week I looked at the pants he was wearing and realized that one of his longer pairs of pants was looking shorter than I remembered.  I measured him and it looked like he was at least 52 inches, if not taller.  He was only 51-1/2 at his last appointment in February, so anything above 52 seemed pretty impressive.  On a whim, I checked the height restrictions at Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh.  Much to my surprise, every single ride there was okay for 52" or taller!  That's two full inches less than Cedar Point, which we're hoping he's ready for next summer.  He had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday and they measured him at 52-1/2" in sneakers so I figured we officially had to be good on that front.  That definitely got me seriously considering a trip to Kennywood.  The complication, however, was the weather.  The forecast was warm but with a high probability of thunderstorms.  I decided to just play it by ear for as long as I could, but then as time ticked down I figured that even though Kennywood was the sure-fire best option, we could still plan to go and just find other things to do in and around the weather, like the science or history museum, or the zoo.  I knew we'd make memories no matter what, and that's what was important.  But by Friday, the weather looked a little better, and I figured that we'd probably still get in a lot of coasters in and around the storms, especially if lines were short due to the forecast.  So, I spent Thursday night starting to pack, took off work a little early on Friday and finished the prep--including last minute hotel booking and ticket buying--and off we went!

Our first leg was to my parents' house on Friday night, which would cut more than an hour off our Saturday drive.  The goal was to get a good night's sleep and leave around 7am so we'd arrive at Kennywood close to the 11am opening.  We were treated to a lovely sunset on the way to Buffalo.

Once we got there, I had to tell Carter where we were actually going.  He knew we were going somewhere but I didn't want to tell him where because a) I wasn't sure if weather (or something else) would mess it up and I didn't want to disappoint him if we couldn't go; and b) I didn't want to endure and endless string of "how much longer" questions from my very excited child who has zero concept of time.  But by the time we got there, the curiosity was driving him pretty nuts and I figured it would likely be as detrimental to his sleep as the excitement, so I told him:

The terrible camera work there was when he was hugging me!  Clearly a happy kid!

The morning drive was a longer one than Carter was accustomed to, particularly without the van's DVD player.  We got breakfast on the road which helped (although my Dunkin' Frozen Coffee tasted off so I did not have the benefit of much caffeine--a bummer since I woke up sometime after 3am and never really got back to a sound sleep!).  I also copied a couple movies from our DVD collection to my computer and figured my battery would last just long enough for at least one each way.  Carter definitely didn't love the drive and repeatedly mentioned that it felt like "seven hours", but in reality it was more like four.  The drive was mostly rural, but started to get a little more interesting closer to Pittsburgh, especially once we got to the city and Carter could see the skyline and all the cool yellow bridges.  I also pointed out the incline railway up the hillside, which I had tried to explain to him earlier in the trip.  Eventually we crossed a bridge and could see coasters in the distance, and ahead of us was the famous Kennywood arrow (which has been a magnet on my fridge for over 20 years, though it's pretty faded now)!

I've been to Kennywood twice before.  Once was in 2001 when my college friend Lois and I took our first coaster-based trip, starting at Kennywood and going to the now-defunct Six Flags Ohio and Cedar Point.  I loved Kennywood so much that I dragged Craig back there in 2005 when we took a trip to Pittsburgh for a Pirates game (and quite possibly a trip to IKEA) right around the time we bought our first house.  He's not really a ride guy but I did get him on a few things.

Carter was pumped when he saw the giant coasters from the road and the parking lot!

One of our first stops inside the park was at the Cowboy Joe photo spot.  Carter knew it because I showed him a silly picture of myself there from 2001.

  

What a difference 21 years makes!

The plan was to start with the Racer, which I recalled being pretty tame, to the point even Craig didn't mind it.  Even though Carter was excited to ride everything, I had to remind myself that he really only started riding bigger coasters last year, and even then it was only a few!  So starting small and working our way up sounded like the best route.  The Racer (with the fun facade in the picture below) is now dwarfed by an incredible new coaster called the Steel Curtain, but more on that later.

Part of what makes Kennywood so great is that it still has that old-timey, not-too-huge feel, but still has some amazing rides.  It's like if Seabreeze and Darien Lake had a baby, this would be it.  Carter was nervous going in, but as suspected, the Racer was a perfect first ride and he loved it!  It's a twin coaster on a single mobius track, one of only three in the world, which means that your ride finishes on the other side of the track from where you start.  Carter loved the racing aspect as much as the ride itself, I think!

Next up was another classic, the Jack Rabbit.  This one gets a little more intense, with more airtime and a pretty crazy double drop.  But once again, he loved it!
 

We decided after that to try something a little bigger and more modern, specifically the Sky Rocket.  This was a new coaster I had never ridden.  It's a launch coaster, so I knew the beginning might be intense, but the hill wasn't giant and I knew it would probably be a smooth ride.  It also had inversions, which Carter enjoys.  The line wasn't too bad, and when we got up to the station, we realized the front car line was only one ride longer than every other seat.  That almost never happens, so I decided we should take advantage and give Carter his first front-row experience! 

The end of that hill is nearly straight up, and the down side is pretty much straight down!

The initial launch was pretty intense, and the look on Carter's face when we summited the hill was a cross between awe and terror, and the way down didn't make that any better.  But Carter infamously keeps a complete poker face even if he's loving it, and I somehow knew he was okay, just surprised!  The rest of the ride was really fun and in the end he liked it a lot.  Ironically, Kennywood posted a POV video that was identical to our front-row view the following morning:

At that point it was lunch time and on our way to get a pretzel, we ran into Kenny!  Lois and I got our picture with Kenny, so I decided Carter and I needed to get ours!

Ignore the mom fanny pack--it is the easiest way to keep my phone, car key, ID, and credit card completely safe at all times.  If my bag got stolen when leaving it on the shelves at each ride, we'd lose some stuff, but if anything more important was in there, we'd literally be trapped.  So fanny pack it is!  Definitely not the most flattering photo, but being in your 40s brings comfort with just being practical.

After eating we explored other areas of the park and eventually Carter convinced me we were hot enough to ride the giant flume ride.  But first, we spotted a short line and rode the classic Whip!

I'm not a fan of water rides.  Log flumes tortured me as a kid, and then the round raft, raging rapids ride at Canada's Wonderland that left my sneakers a squishy mess when I was six basically turned me off for good.  I did come to an understanding with the log flume at Darien Lake when we had season passes there, mostly because I needed to concede to riding that one to more easily get myself off the hook from Grizzly Run, Darien's version of the round raft, raging rapids ride.  When I bought a pair of board shorts in 2002, it opened a whole new world.  I could wear those over my suit, throw on flip flops, and quickly change afterward so I wasn't walking around wet.  I still don't love them, but I can tolerate them if I'm dressed appropriately.  So Carter and I changed into our suits and got in line for the giant flume ride.

This ride goes up a hill, goes around a curve, and slides back down, creating a giant wall of water.  We were in the back of the boat so we got the worst of the giant wave that passed over everyone else.  Admittedly, the water felt pretty good on a hot day!  As I tried to dry off and get organized, Carter wanted to wait in the "splash zone" for the next boat to come through, and I think he got wetter doing that than being on the boat in the first place!

As I waited on the much drier bridge to exit the ride, I couldn't help but snap a couple pics.  I love this area of the park.  The old-timey architecture (see the buildings and fountain on the right below) co-mingles so fantastically with giant, modern coaster hills.

Here's an example of what the splash looks like as the boat hits the bottom of the hill.  It's almost as tall as the hill itself and it more than makes it over to where everyone is standing!

We knew there was one other ride that seemed to be water-themed, called the Old Mill, but we weren't actually sure if it was a log flume or just a water-based dark ride.  Just in case, we left our wet stuff on and walked there.  We dried reasonably well waiting in line, but in the end it was just a dark ride where you ride a giant canoe type boat through dark passages featuring black lights and cheesy, glowing, Old West-style skeleton scenes.  It was cute, though!  Once we finished that, we changed back into our regular clothes and headed back on the coaster quest. 

We wanted to hit up the last wooden coaster, Thunderbolt, but just as we got in line they announced they were having some problems and a technician was on his way to check it out.  So back out of line we went...

 

But conveniently, Phantom's Revenge was right next door, so we decided it was time for Carter to have his first hypercoaster experience.  Phantom's Revenge has a drop over 200 feet and goes 80 mph.  I knew it might be a little intense, but if he wants to brave Cedar Point next year, we had to start the big ones somewhere!  This coaster is a little different in that it has a tall but curving first drop, and then the second drop is the big 220-foot one because it follows the terrain and disappears down a hillside.  Near the end of the drop it goes through the supports for the Thunderbolt! 

Looking up the lift hill

I admit I may have forgotten just how intense it was.  It was so fast and had a lot more airtime than you usually get for a coaster like that.  The restraint system isn't my favorite, and I think Carter didn't feel quite as secure as he would have liked.  He wasn't going anywhere, but it just made him nervous.  He definitely had a look of terror for most of it, but he made it through and I was so proud of him!  I enjoyed it, though, and probably would have enjoyed it more had I not been so worried about him!  I think it will grow on him in coming years now that he knows a bit more of what to expect.

Since the Thunderbolt still seemed to be closed, we headed back across the park to the other big coaster, Steel Curtain.  This one just looks crazy, twisting and turning everywhere.  It was in a new section of the park that's themed for the Pittsburgh Steelers.  It looks like they're building some sort of "Steeler Experience" area, and I'll be curious to see what else they add in the coming years.

We knew the wait was going to be long, especially since they were just running one car, but I suppose we underestimated just how long it would feel in the heat.  Each run was a full five minutes, so it took a while.  And about 40 minutes in, Carter had to pee and they wouldn't let him out of the line even though we had easy access for him to get back in.  So, this ended up being the one downside of our day--Carter was very discouraged and grumpy, but I really didn't want to get out of line after waiting so long, in part because we might not have time to get everything accomplished if we needed to wait that long again.  Eventually we got to the last stretch and the women in front of us (an older mother and daughter) confirmed it had been about an hour. 

Looking up the lift hill with the coaster passing by above it

Luckily, there must have been a big group in front of us that all wanted to ride together, because they asked for four people to come up ahead of them and fill the train!  So we probably saved 10 minutes and reduced the risk Carter might pee himself on the ride!  In the end, the ride was totally worth the wait!  We both agreed it was amazing--it was fast but you could enjoy every flip and twist because each element was rather large.  The restraint was more secure which seemed to make a huge difference for Carter, too.  We were pumped by the time we got off--both because it was a great ride and because he could finally go to the bathroom!

We were starving by this point so we went to the Rita's stand and got ourselves some Italian ice with soft serve on top.  It was SO good.  It really hit the spot!

I should note that my amusement park eating philosophy isn't ideal but has always worked for me.  But forcing that on someone else makes me second guess it a bit.  I used to subsist on soft pretzels and Icees.  Anything heavier than that could hit me wrong, and each of those treats seemed to settle best when heading for another ride.  You never want a full stomach, and I'd rather spend my time riding than sitting down to eat anyway.  On the other hand, it's a long, hot day and water only does so much.  I realized I needed to be aware that he might need more than me, hence why we took this long snack break, but luckily he seemed okay with it the rest of the time.  The pretzel and this treat were the only things we ate during the course of the day (in addition to a lot of water), but I promised we'd get something on the way back to the hotel.  But honestly, we were having so much fun we didn't need a lot more!

While we ate we watched the Steel Curtain from below (luckily a different section than what we could see from the endless runs we watched while in line).  It really was quite the ride!

While we waited to get on the Thunderbolt, we went on some other rides nearby.  One of those was Noah's Ark, which is a classic fun house.  The ark itself rocks back and forth, which makes the dark walk through its halls a little more interesting!  It has the classic shaky floors, optical illusion rooms, and mirrors, plus a few displays of the animals hanging out on the ark.  It was really fun and different!

We also did the Turtle, which is a ride that's been around for nearly 100 years!  It's like a small single-rail roller coaster, but without restraints and in a circular car format.  Carter was really hoping he could spin the car since it had a wheel-style handle in the middle, but no dice--thank goodness for me!

The weather was starting to look a little more concerning by this point, but honestly, we had done so well considering the original forecast looked pretty concerning originally that I couldn't be too upset.  The radar didn't look bad, though, so I was hopeful we could work through it.  The Thunderbolt was back open by this point so we hopped in line in hopes we could get through it before the rain.  Just as we were getting close to the platform, the rain started, but thankfully it didn't seem to be bad enough to shut anything down.  Enough to get you wet but nothing terrible when it's that warm out! 

Carter LOVED the Thunderbolt!  It's a cool coaster because it starts with a drop directly out of the station--no lift hill!  That's where it interacts with the Phantom's Revenge track, and a Phantom's Revenge train passed through just as we hit that spot.  It was so cool!  The ride is really nice and long, too.  Carter liked it so much that he wanted to go again, and since the rain took the line down a bit, we did!  We threw on our hoodies to stay a bit drier, and we hit the line just right to make it into the second row of the first car!  It was definitely a different experience doing it in the rain, but I appreciated not being in the front row for that.  After all, as the announcer said when I went on Millennium Force at Cedar Point back in 2001, "you ARE a human windshield!"  In that case it was about bugs, but I can imagine rain isn't fun either.  We wondered how the rain would feel to the folks going 80mph on Phantom's Revenge!  As we waited in line for the second ride, I captured this view of a coal barge going down the Monongahela River.

The rain stopped shortly after our second ride, and it turned into a pleasant evening.

I waited for this shot while Carter was in the bathroom.  This is actually only about halfway through the ride--still a pretty good sized hill! 

Our last official stop was the Exterminator, which is an indoor spinning wild mouse coaster.  We have a somewhat similar one at Seabreeze that's outside, although Seabreeze's version has seats that sit backward, too!  It was a relatively long wait inside, which wasn't the most enjoyable thing in the COVID era, but Carter was fascinated by the theming.  The wait area had a giant control panel of dials and gauges and switches that I'm pretty sure was pulled out of some defunct factory.  It did not look manufactured to be pretend-old, it looked like a classic 1960s control panel, right down to the dirt and rust and plastic pressed labels under some of the dials (if you lived in the 80s, Google "embossing tape" and you'll recognize it immediately).  The ride was fun as we were spun around sharp corners in the dark, and with that, we completed all of the coasters!  I took this last shot of Carter near Phantom's Revenge as we walked toward the front of the park.

We noticed that while most lines were closed since it was about five minutes before closing time, the line for the Musik Express was still open!  When Carter said that he'd never gone on the one at Seabreeze (I think he was still too short last time), I knew we had to go! 

This is one of the few spinning rides I can still do, and it's definitely a favorite from my childhood.  We giggled as the centrifugal force smooshed everyone together by the end of the ride--you start out nicely spaced in the seat, but eventually everyone migrates outward and squished right up next to one another!  He loved it and while that is about my limit for spinning, I think the Dramamine helped me out just enough because the mild headache I get disappeared quickly!  What a fun way to end our day!

My only regret is that ride put us past closing time, and despite walking into the park a little, we couldn't find an open souvenir stand.  Not that we would have bought much, but it would have been nice to have a little something to commemorate our trip.  Oh, well.  At least we have my old arrow on the fridge!  

One of my favorite things about amusement parks as a kid was when the lights would start coming on.  I've always loved the colors, how they outline the rides, and the dazzling effects as the rides run.  An odd thing about our recent amusement park trips is that we haven't been able to enjoy the park lights very much, either due to leaving early or early closing times.  I remember one good visit to Seabreeze, but otherwise I've been left wondering why they even have them anymore!  This time we got a little glimpse between Musik Express and the Jack Rabbit...

 

It was officially time to leave--and I think we were both tired and ready!  We took a selfie on our way out...

...then headed back out of the park through this adorable tunnel full of mini-murals that takes you under the road to the lots across the street.

There was a lovely pastel sunset on our drive as the rain cleared.  I had tried to get a hotel somewhere between the park and our planned destination for the next day, but unfortunately most of the hotels in that area were expensive.  Our resulting trip was about a half hour, but the good news was that it was just down the road from one of our planned stops the next day--IKEA!  So at least that would cut off some time the next morning.  By the time we got to the hotel we were pretty tired and very hungry, but I figured it might be easier to check into our hotel, get the lay of the land, and then find something nearby to eat.  We walked into the hotel and as I was standing at the desk, I glanced over to the lobby TV.  I saw the headline about 10 people killed at a grocery store, which is horrible and terrible but too run-of-the-mill in our country right now.  But imagine my shock and horror as I read the rest of the headline and saw that it was in BUFFALO.  Of course, I was then very curious about where it was, whether we could have known someone, and what happened, which we eventually got more details on as the night went on.  When we hopped back in the car to get food, I called Craig who told us a bit more, and then back in the room we watched a little bit more coverage.  It's horrifying and sad and completely tragic.  

Our first food stop, Wendy's, was having computer issues (of course) so we went to the McDonald's a minute down the road instead.  The line was long and very slow there, and it was probably close to 10:30 by the time we settled back into our room to have our late dinner and get some sleep, but boy did that burger and fries taste good!  Carter was out in about five minutes once the lights were out.  I had some catching up and decompressing to do (and posting on Instagram!), but I slept pretty well all things considered.  And with that, a very long and productive day one of our adventure was complete!