Marzolf Summer Trip

[From Bret]

We got off to kind of a late start, trying to leave home at 8 Am and instead leaving at 8:30 Pm. Once we got to the airport everything went pretty smoothly.

We checked our bags at the skycap which sped things up. I never know how much you're supposed to tip for things like that. According to tipping.org, it's $1 or more a bag which is basically what we left. Grandma was gracious enough to give us some small bills that we didn't have at the time $4.

The security checkpoint went fast but dealing with a stroller, a laptop, and the many other carry-on items was a hassle - but that's fine...none of it was unreasonable.

The flight went smoothly for most of the family.

Allison passed out as soon as we were up in the air.  She slept for about an hour and half until the flight staff came by with lunch. After that she was slightly challenging but we were able to keep her occupied with toys and signing times videos.

Griffin, as suspected was pretty easy. Once we were up high in the air they started the movies (Firehouse Dog and The little mitsy or something like that). Griffin initially wanted to watch the movie (having also to borrow Dad's new headphones), but quickly lost interest. After some lunch (cheeseburger, chips, kit kat bar, and brownie), he was plaving his beloved DS and would continue to do so until shortly before we landed.

Mom was the lucky one, she got the seat between Allison on the window and Griffin on the aisle, so she had her hands full most of the time. While Allison was sleeping, Mom was able to watch the Firehouse Dog moview for a little bit. I haven't asked yet but I'm guessing she would say that the flight went better than expected.

I was miserable most of the flight. I started getting a painful headache just before we boarded the plane. When lunch was served and I ate a little of the cheeseburger, my stomach started feeling upset. Throughout the flight I was battling both the head and stomach pain, while entertaining Allison for a very short bit and changing her diaper. Do you know how challenging it is to change a 18-months old diaper in an airplan bathroom? Try doing it while your ill :) Eventually, I felt so quesy I was vomitting - luckily I was able to wait until I got to the bathroom on the plane. Fun fun fun. I'm not sure why I was sick - I didn't feel anything coming on...perhaps I was sick from the flight but I've never had a problem with air travel sickness...perhaps it was the sever lack of sleep from the previous night trying to get everything packed and ready to go...I don't know...

Once the plain landed about 15 mins ahead of chedule (6:45 PM), we got our baggage and changed Allison - her clothes were wet probably due to the awkward diaper change Dad performed on the plane. We rented a cart for $3 and rolled our 8 items or so out to the ground transportation pickup area where a white minivan from Dial 7 car service arrived - we didn't have to wait long (5-10 mins). The minivan seemed quite small and the driver was going to make us hold the kids in our lap in order to get the bags in but we got it worked out to where everyone had their own seat and the bags fit just fine. The driver, having somewhat of an Indian accent, was courteous and professional and was a pleasant conversationalist. He got us to our destination safely and securely. After all was said and done we wound up spending $82 to get from Newark airport to our hotel.

When we arrived at our hotel at a little after 8 PM, the Shelburne Murray Hill hotel, we were informed that they didn't have the room we requested but would upgrade us to a 1-bedroom suite which was just fine by us. Upon arrival to our room we were quite pleased. A few minutes a crib arrived as requested.

The next thing to figure out was where to eat dinner. We looked at some info the hotel provided and did a little research on the internet (internet access costs $10 per 24 hours). Our first idea was to go to a spooky/horror-themed restaurant called Jekyll & Hyde's but decided against it because we thought Allison might be too scared of the surroundings there (Griffin would've loved it). We still hadn't figured out where to eat and I started to get sick again. I thought I could "tough it out" but I just couldn't. Mom finally made a command decision and ordered room service while Dad went out to a nearby convenience store to get some ibuprofen and drinks. After taking some ibuprofen, I was still feeling bad and finally succumbed to sleep. Mom was flying solo the rest of the night putting the kids to bed. Griffin slept in between Mom and Dad and Allison slept in her crib.

Today, we traveled to New York City on a direct flight on Continental from Seattle to Newark airport. We took a cab to our hotel the Shelburne Murray Hotel on Lexington between 37th and 38th. We were delighted when the hotel attendant upgraded our room to a 1 bedroom suite:


































with a nice view of surrounding Manhattan

















I was sick most of the evening so we all stayed in our hotel room and ordered room service/

We started our day in NYC by getting some breakfast at a local shop and taking a quick break to eat.









Then we were off to the Build-a-Bear workship, the largets Build-A-Bear in the country. Griffin and Allison (with help from mom and dad) picked out a bear.


The Build-A-Bear workers gave us a little pep talk at the stuffing machine, getting us prepared for bringing the bears to life.










Griffin and Allison each part a teddy bear heart inside each of their bears. Then, we stuffed the bears with fluff by pressing on the pedal to activate the stuffing machine.










Then, the worker stitched up each bear and the bears were born.











Of course with newborn bears, you have to give them a bath. So, we all took turns giving the bears an air bath and brushing them.













Then, we picked out some outfits and dressed each of the bears. Griffinpicked out a karate uniform and we picked out a pink summery casual outfit for Allison's bear.










Finally, we named the bears and printed out a special "born in NYC" birth certificate. Griffin named his bear Zach (off of some tv show...I forgot which one) and we named Allison's bear Carly (our second choice for a girl's name).

After getting out of the Build-A-Bear store, we went to the Nintendo World store. We bought Griffin a blue shirt with a M inside a circle representing his favoritre video game character, Mario and we also got him a cool 3-D puzzle with characters from the Mario Party games. Later, we'd come to find out that he would play with this puzzle almost every day on our trip. We didn't take any pictures of the place mainly because it was croded and hot and we were eager to get out as soon as possible.

Next we were off to the M&M's store.











while Allison snoozed a little...
















I was bored while waiting for Griffin and Mommy to do some shopping, so I decided to take some pics of the Times Square area outside the window.










Allison woke up and we all headed to the third floor, where they had every color of M&Ms imaginable. Of course, we had to get some - we let Griffin pick out all the colors. He enjoyed this.










Also on the third floor, was this station with a tv screen that attempted to guess your personality represented by a particular color of M&M. I didn't try it, but thought it was a cute gimmick to entertain people.










Next, we decided to have a late lunch/early dinner at an alien/mars-themed restaurant called "Mars 2010" (or something like that).

Before you eat, you get to ride this 3-D ride that simulates you leaving Earth and going to Mars. Allison was too little go inside the indoor ride, so she and I had some fun letting her walk around while waiting.













Then we ate some food. The food wasn't that great but that's kind of what you would expect at a theme restaurant.











The decor around the restaurant attempted to give yo the impression that you were on Mars...









When we were just about done, the Aliens starting dancing for everyone in the restaurant. A bunch of kids from nearby tables joined in the fun.










We encouraged Griffin to go and join all the Aliens but by the time he got up there the song was over. A girl alien was nice enough to dance with Griffin anyways after the song was over.












They also had a small arcade at the restaurant and we let the kids have a little bit of fun.














Finally, we headed back to our hotel, stopping for a few small diversions along the way.








After, a brief stop at our hotel, we decided to take a taxi down and catch the Staten Island ferry to get a quick look at the Statue of Liberty.

We all had lots of fun on the ferry ride.















and we took a ton of pictures















of the Statue of Liberty












as well as of some other interesting things to see.

[from Bret]

After staying up for a little the night before, we set the alarm for 9 AM EST and spent the next 2 and a half hours getting everything packed up, getting cleaned up, and eating a little food in our room.

I headed out to go pick up the rental car at 11:30 (a half hour later than when we were supposed to be at the place).  As I was walking, I started wondering where I would park the car to pick up the family and the lugage. The day before we were warned that they were closing off Lexington Ave (the street our hotel was on) for a street festival and that no one would be able to park in front of the hotel. They said I could park anywhere on 37th and 38th (the east-west streets that run perpendicular to Lexington) but I saw no empty spaces.

When I got there, at the 43rd street Budget car rental location, after a sweaty 15-30 minute walk,  the counter person was somewhat less than friendly. I was the only person in line at the time and I thought I was going to be able to get out of there with a car quickly. Unfortunately that was not the case. The  person that took care of me intially gave me no indication of how long it was going to take and she wound up asking for my credit card and driver's license twice (what happened the first time I don't know). The second time she took my information she said they would bring my car out soon. Meanwhile, it seems like everyone in NYC was dropping off their car and there was a mega-backlog of cars in front of the Budget rental location.

While I was waiting, it was interesting listening to a native New Yorker speak in his slow-but-fluent spanish to a family vacationing from Spain. I could actually pick up certain pieces of their conversation with the little spanish I knew and the similar-sounding romance-language words that French and Spanish seem to share, having studied French for several years in high school and college. The native New Yorker was telling the father in the family something about being in Puerto Rico and the father was telling the native New Yorker what part of Spain he was from. The other interesting thing, was that the spanish family was as white as can be - they looked like your typical American family but they naturally spoke Spanish. My limited-world perception of Spaniards is that they have a darker complexion then most Europeans, so their appearance came as a surprise to me.

Thirty minutes later, they finally pulled up the white Chevy Uplander minivan and off I drove towards the hotel. It was quite fun (heavy sarcasm here) navigating the one-way streets around the hotel several times before I finally found an open parking spot on 38th near the next cross-street up from Lexington (I forget the name) - one block up and one block over from where the hotel was.

I parked the car and found the family waiting in the hotel lobby (after searching for a few minutes and communicating with Laura via cell phone). The doorman had all of our luggage and car seats loaded up in the baggage carts ready to go. I told him where I parked and he didn't want to haul the luggage that far, so we devised a game plan. Laura and I said we'd take the car seats and the kids and go walk to the car. Then the plan, was that we would pull up to the corner of 38th and Lexington and he would bring the baggage cart over and load up our luggage there. The doorman was a little perturbed that we just didn't load up everything at the corner but we really didn't want the hassle/pressure of installing the car seats and loading up all the luggage and kids while blocking the rightmost lane on 38th.

So, we took the kids to the car, changed Allison's diaper in the car, installed the car seats and got the kids situated. While doing all this Griffin helped us discover the disgusting condition of our rental car. He found already-chewed chewing gum and an empty Red Bull container in one of the back compartments of the minivan. We found some used napkins upfront. I wonder if they cleaned the thing at all before we got it.

As planned, we drove to the corner of 38th and Lexington. To my displeasure, the doorman was nowhere in sight - he wasn't even in fron of the hotel entrance! So, I hopped out of my parked car that was taking up a lane, jogged to the hotel entrance and started taking bags off the baggage cart. Before I did this though, I took a quick peek to see if I could find where the doorman was at. I found him perusing the yummy-smelling grilled foods at one of the street-festival booths. On my second trip back to the hotel entrance, the doorman spotted me and exclaimed in his spanish(?)-accent, "Hey! I am going to help you! What are you doing!". "Yah, sure you are", I thought to myself. We both took some bags off the luggage cart and loaded up the car. Whew! Everyone and everything was packed up in the rental car and ready to go. There was an awkward silent exchange between the doorman and myself just before he was ready to go back to the hotel. He was expecting some sort of tip and I was prepared to give him something before my ordeal of having to get the luggage myself. I didn't have anything smaller than a $10 but figured since he was going to have to work to load us up (had everything gone smoothly), I wouldn't mind over-tipping somewhat. So, I had to make a spot-decision - do I send him a message and not give him a tip or do I give him the $10 even though he obviously didn't deserve it (he barely desrved a buck or two in my mind)? What would you do? I wound him giving him the $10 - call me a sucker.

After that massive ordeal, with the kids cuddling their new bears, we were finally on the road, about 2 hours after I had went to go get the rental car. Sheesh! In my frantic state to pick up the family at the hotel, I did manage to plug our GPS navigation system in but I never got it to "acquire a signal". Once we were on the road, Laura started manning the GPS and she, too, had troubles getting a signal, so we just decided to wing it and head in a direction (towards the eastern-most part of Manhattan which in hidsight was the wrong idea...we needed to head west). Eventually after a couple of blocks, we got a singal and the GPS unit directed us to head west on 42nd street heading towards ninth ave on the other side of Manhattan. "Piece of cake!",  we thought. However, the GPS sattellite signals just seem to be bouncing off of many of the tall buildings in NYC and we were constantly losing our signal. Through all of that we decided to stick with the original plan and head west on 42nd street. I knew driving through NYC was going to be no fun at all and I was right - driving on 42nd street meant that we were going to have to pass through the heart of Times Square with lots of people and lots of cars. We spent a lot of time stopped at lights and waiting for buses/taxis/cars to get out of the way. Once we got out of the Times Square area, the GPS, with its intermittent signal, had us heading towards the Lincoln Tunnel to get out of NYC and into NJ. Unfortunately the directions it gave led to a blocked path once and then twice. However, the street signs were clear enough to direct us to the Lincoln Tunnel. In the tunnel, I could feel myself wanting to scream, "I'm so glad I'm leaving this city!". I love visiting New York City, don't get me wrong, but I'd rather be doing just about anything then driving through the streets of New York. Alas, it was a necessary evil.

As we got out of NYC into NJ, we came across many many toolbooths. The nice thing about our rental car was that it had an "EZPass" sticker housed in a plastic case with a slide-out tray that was mounted just below the windshield mirror. The EZPass sticker let us get through tool booths quicker since we didn't have to pay a human cash to get through the tool booth. Our initial naive thought was that the car rental company was going to pick up all of our toll charges. However, we woke up to reality when we started reading the documentation on the plastic case. Apparrently, not only do we have to pay all cash tool charges, but we also have to pay the rental company for th privelege of using the EZPass sticker. If I remember it had a daily or weekly usage rate - I seem to remember something like 2 or 3 dollars a day. What is unclear is whether they charge you on just the days you use it or the entire duration of your rental period regardless of whether you use it or not.  hope it's the former - we'll eventually find out.

Eventually we got away from all the hustle and bustle of the big city and tool booths and were on a stretch of flat, straight, highway (I think this was the NJ Turnpike). Once we were off the main highway we got on one of the these 50-mph 4 to 6 lane divided roads that had occasional stop lights. As soon as we got on this road, we decided we would stop somewhere so that Griffin (and the rest of us) could go to the bathroom. We were hungry as well. As luke would have it, the first thing we came across was a Burger King. So, we scarfed down some food and got back on the road. Not too long after (under 30 minutes), Allison vomited all over herself and the car seat. As we've been doing throughout the trip, we "rolled with the punches" and got her cleaned up and then went on our way.

Finally we made it to Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ at about 4 PM. The park was scheduled to be open until 11 PM. Parking was outrageous at $15 a car, but what choice did we have?! All 3 parks (Great Adventure, the amusement park, Hurrican Harbor, the water park, and Wild Safari, the animal park) were in the same but seperate areas and the road structures and parking areas for the whole complex were quite large.

We parked the car and getting ourselves ready to go into the park. As were putting sunblock on, we had the wonderful privilege of listening to a black man arguing with park security about whether he did or didn't do something (i think he might have scraped/brushed up against another car???). But the whole exchange was unpleasant, because the man was belligerent and using plenty of colorful language. As Laura and I have done in other situations similar to this, we tried to ignore the heated discussion and not call attention to the situation in front of the kids. So far this has worked for Laura and I...I'm not sure how much longer this will be true. Finally, we were ready to go into the park.

Since we had season passes at the Six Flags-affiliated them park in Washington (Wild Waves & Enchanted village), we were able to get in free at Great Adventure. As we entered the park, we realized we had forgot the camera. So, I jogged back to the car in the mid-90 degree heat, got the camera and came back. After a couple minutes of searching I found everyone else, and I was pleased to see that Laura was having the kids face painted while they were waiting for me. Allison got a small, pretty butterfly on her cheek while Griffin got a large green and black snake across his forehead and temples.

The first area we went into the park was Wiggle's world and we immediately found something for both of the kids to play on - it was a pirate-ship play area with stairs going up onto the deck of the ship and 2 closed-tube slides leading down the bow of the ship and another slide coming off the side of the ship. There were various gizmos to play with on the ship and lots of soft stuff to play on in the "sea" around the ship. Allison was having a lot of fun in this area, so Mom decided to take Griffin on some rides. I forget exactly all they did while I watched Allison on the ship but they seemed to have fun. The pirate ship was tricky for Allison and me. I had to help her up the stairs, then run back down to get her at the bottom of the slide. I wouldn't have been able to do this but for the help of a park staff attendent at the top of the slide. She was a very nice, older black woman who helped me out a lot.

Next up was a ride in some nice slow-moving old cars. I took the back seat while Griffin and Allison drove me around town - well just around the short loop on the ride. Then, we were off to find more rides. As we were doing that, a Wiggles stage show was starting. A couple of costumed-guys were signing songs with all of the Wiggles characters singing all the typical Wiggles songs. We decided to stop a let Allison watch for a little bit and she seemed fairly interested and attentive, even dancing a little bit while I was holding her. Meanwhile Griffin was pouting heavily because we were forcing him to sit through some of the show (poor guy... I can't blame him - the Wiggles do have some annoying qualities in my opinion).

We did a couple more uneventful rides and finally we came across The Bugs Bunny Fun Factory. Both Allison and Griffin loved this place. It's a two-story round structure about 50-75 feet wide with a bunch of lightweight foam balls on the ground. When you enter the fun factory you take a mesh bag from the attendant and start gathering up balls and put them in your bag. Then you walk up the stairs with your bag full of balls and load them into this drum. Loading the balls enables you to fire one of these ball-blaster cannons that are mounted to the railing of the second floor. There's all sorts of Looney Tunes-themed decorations in the upper center of the structure to shoot with your blaster cannon and there's about 10 blaster cannons to shoot from (some working and some not). Some of the decorations have buttons on them - I was trying to hit them to see if they would do anything but I couldn't hit any of them. There are lots of other things to do in the fun factory on the first floor as well. There are vacuum machines that can suck up the balls and put them in your bag automatically. There's a chamber you can throw balls into that sucks the balls up and into the second floor where they get spit out into a boat where Elmer Fudd is sleeping. When the boat gets full, a massive amount of balls rains down on everyone. There's another cannon on the first floor than you can load balls into and it will shoot the balls up in the air. There's a table with holes in it where air is blowing up from underneath - you can put balls over the holes and they will levitate. There were just so many interesting things for both of the kids to play with here and I had a good time myself :)

We finally got the kids out of the fun factory and discovered that the snake painted on Griffin's face was smeared all over the place from all of the sweat. So, we got him cleaned up and went to search for more rides. Griffin and I went on a really fun smaller roller coaster - much better than the one back home. Griffin was playfully-screaming and laughing the whole time. After we were done, he said "Can we go on it again?" But we moved on to another ride. In this ride, people enter a circular cage-like structure. Everyone stands up on the floor with their backs against the back of the ride. A chain is fastened to the area where you're standing to keep you in (not that it really needs to be there). Then the ride starts and starts spinning the whole structure in a great big circle. It gets going faster and faster until the ride starts tilting upward at an angle to where forces are plastering you against the back of the ride and your almost going up and down in a spinning motion. If you try to move your neck/head while the ride is in motion, forces will suck you back. After we were done, Griffin again asked "Can we go on it again?".

Griffin and I did a couple of other rides, a Jolly Roger ride that was a spin-you around ride, and a Skull Mountain ride that was an indoor roller coaster that was completely dark inside so that you had no idea where you were going. I thought Griffin would enjoy Skull Mountain more than he actually did. 

We were finally all getting tired at about 9 PM, so Griffin and mommy decided to go on the gigantic ferris wheel while Allison and I hung out at a park bench. When Griffin and mommy were done, the Looney Tunes parade starting coming through the section of the park we were in. All of the Looney Tunes characters where waving at us and the tune "Celebration" was playing in the background. Allison was bopping along and smiling at all of the characters. She really enjoyed the parade as did Griffin.

Finally, we headed back to the hotel at around 10:30 PM. We were hungry, so I dropped everyone off at the hotel and went out in search of food. Many places were closed and the only thing I could find was a McDonalds with a limited late-night menu available (no happy meals...what a bummer).

That was it for the day.

I went and got our rental car and we had a stressful time getting out of New York. About an hour or so later, we made it to Six Flags Great Adventure.

The first thing we did was allow the kids to have their faces painted. I think they both enjoyed this.













The first attraction we visited was this otddler-oriented play area with a pirate ship theme. It had plenty of starfish in the sea around the ship.











and there were some fun slides at the top of the ship.
















Since we were in the "Wiggles World" area of the park, we decided to watch a quick wiggles show. Griffin wasn't very happy about this.












Then, I enjoyed the kids driving me around in their Wiggles car.












Griffin got to ride some more rides.










As well as an indoor roller coaster named Skull Mountain. It was somewhat fun - riding a roller coaster in complete darkness.










One attraction that held both kids interest for a long time was the Bugs Bunny Fun Factory. I describe this a bunch in my other post, but, in short, this is a really fun 2-story building with lots os mini foam balls to play with (fill up bags and shoot balls out of various devices).

We took lots of pictures of this place beacuse it was so much fun...





















































At the end of the day, Mom and Griffin took a ride on a gigantic ferris wheel.















Before we left the park, we were treated to a parade of all the park characters - mostly Looney Tunes and Wiggles characters.

[from Bret]

Today, started off as a lazy day with all of us sleeping in untill 11 AM. We didn't get out the door until closer to 2 PM and the drive was between 30-45 mins. Since the park closed at 7 PM, we know we had a little over 4 hours and we were somewhat worried it wouldn't be enough time to enjoy the park.

Unlike the amusement park, our season passes were no good here at Six Flags Hurricane Harbor so we had to pay full admission price ($35 for the adults and $25 for Griffin). Parking was again the same outrageous price - $16. We decided to stop in eat some lunch at an Arby's before we went to the park to avoid the high prices and mediocre food that amusement parks typically offer.

Once we got there, we walked around a bit - walking across a bridge that went over a gentle river ride with small intertubes. We knew we were going to go on that ride eventually.

Then we came to this large kids swim area. It reminded me a lot of "Hook's Lagoon" at our Wild Waves water park back home. There was a huge bucket up top that would fill with water and dump it on everyone. There were about 3 lengthy twisty body slides for the kids. There were all sorts of handles, wheels, in other play things to play with the water and make it squirt out. There were two straight-down slides. All in all a lot of fun for Griffin and he was excited to go play. Laura took Griffin through the structure, waiting for him at the bottom of the slides (the pool was only 2 feet deep) and generally just keeping an eye on him.

Meanwhile, Allison and I explored parts of the structure that were mean for the more toddler-size folk. In the back of the structure, there was a little wading area with water jets that shoot a quarter-inch stream of water up to various height from the ground - 6 inches, 1 foot, 2 feet. You could step on one and it would make one of the other jets shoot up higher. In the wading area they also had things that were constantly spraying water. Allison was really scared and apprehensive about going near anything sprayed water. As a result, it took her a little while to warm up to the play area. I had to hold her for a little bit until she was more comfortable with things. But, once she was done she seemed content to walk around in the wading area.

Then we went to the river ride. Nothing really special about this ride, but it was nice and relaxing. There was a severe shortage of rafts so we had to wait a short bit until someone gave theirs up. Mommy and Daddy took turns laying on the intertube holding Allison while the rest of us were able to stand up and float/walk down the river.

Next we decided to go walk around to the side of the kids area and found a toddler pool that came up no higher than lower chest area for Allison. In this area there were several smaller slides mounted on a play boat that kids could go on. The kids going down these slides were much older than Allison, so I kept her away from the boat and slides as much as possible. But she was captivated by the slides and gravitated towards it so it was a bit of a struggle. She continued walking around the small kids pool and found the entrance. Then she would stop at the entrance, give me a little grin, sign "go" and start "running" back in to the water. She did this several times and seemed to be having a good time.

We played there for a long time and then we knew Allison was getting tired, so Mommy took Allison and laid her down in her stroller to take a little snooze while Griffin and I ventured off to find some rides we could go on together. Eventually, Griffin and I came across two gigantic slides that you had to ride down in these enormous 4 to 6-man innertubes. This ride was reminiscent of the "Zooma Falls" at Wold Waves back home. The lines didn't look that long, so Griffin and I started walking up the many flights of stairs to get to the top. We got to the back of the line and then the awful wait began. We waited and waited and waited and waited. It was one of those lines that was deceptively short. The line just didn't move fast at all. We were waiting so long, I think Griffin and I were going to fall asleep standing up. Towards the end of our wait we talked to a couple from New York state and they said they came here a couple of years ago and didn't have to wait this long - they had a fairly negative impression of the park and said they wouldn't be coming back. Finally, after what must have been over an hour wait, Griffin and I finally went down the slide. It was a lot of fun and was over quick, but definetly not worth the wait.

Finally, Griffin and I got back to Mommy and Allison who was now awake. She was now playing in the pool and this time she didn't need any warming up. She was giggling and having a good old time through the wading area with the little water jets coming up from the ground. She was running through them and sitting on them and she was just tickled. Griffin went down and a few more slides and that was it.

We were all very tired so we headed back to the hotel. For our $30+ a ticket we used about 3 rides in the whole water park. It was probably not worth the money, but for the scorching heat of the day, it sure was a welcome break.

[from Bret]

Again, we got off to a bit of a late start. It's always amazing how long it takes to get a family of four with young children out the door for the day. Today, we were off to Sesame Place a must shorter drive from our hotel than both Six Flags parks - less than 15 minutes away. I was very impressed with the concept of an amusement park geared towards small children (the 5 and under crowd) and I was eagerly anticipating this leg of the trip. I wasn't dissapointed.

Allison was almost asleep when we arrived, but we tried to keep her awake. We didn't have much luck, so she laid down in her stroller in the parking lot just before we got in the park. She must not have been too far asleep, because she woke up and once she saw all the Sesame Street decor at the park entrance she wanted to sit up in her seat and take in everything. Just before the entrance to the park, they had bronzed foot/paw prints of all the Sesame Street characters, Big Bird, Elmo, Cookie Monster, etc... This was about the time I realized I didn't have a charged battery in the camera (unfortunately I have a proprietary Lithium-ion battery that can only be charged with a Kodak camera dock which I left at home). So, we decided to buy a waterproof camera when we got in the park.

The first thing we decided to do when we entered the park was hit the water rides. We all put on our swimming suits and then started playing in one of the pool areas where there were giant watering cans sprinkling down water on us. Again, Allison didn't like the spraing water but Mommy splashed a little water on her to cool off from the hot sun of the day. As soon as we starting getting cooled off we started to hear thunder. Then, we saw the park staff getting everyone out of the water rides. So we waited a few minutes and started walking around the park.

We noticed everyone lining up along the main thoroughfare of the park which was indeed modeled after Sesame Street. The main way was paved with street markings just like a real street and towards the end of the street (where we were), we saw all of the stores that you see in the Sesame Street tv show - I forget the names of almost all of them except for "My. Hooper's store". Our intuition was that everyone was lining up for a parade and it turns out we were right. It was really crowded and it was challenging finding a place for both of our children to see the parade. Once the parade got going, Allison was really captivated. There were dancers, small floats, lots of popular music, and of course all of the Sesame Street characters. The park did a great job on the costumes. When they had parts where the characters talk, the character's mouths moved in a lifelike manner as if they were really talking. Each character was walking down the crowds lined up on both sides of the street and playfully touching all the kids. Cookie monster came by us and took a stuffed 12-inch Cookie Monster animal from a little girl and started dancing with him. Allison and Griffin didn't get a lot of exposure to the characters which was a bit dissapointing to me, but all in all I thought it was a well-done parade.

The thunder and lightning subsided a bit, so we decided to try our luck at another kiddie pool. This pool wasn't very deep (a foot and a half maybe?). There was a level up top at the entrance and a slightly lower level at the bottom where there was more of a pool. There were stairs and elevated tunnels transitioning from each level of the pool. We played a bit in both levels. There were some chairs at the bottom level that Allison had fun with. They were beach chairs and Allison would sit down in them for a second, get a grin on her face, get up, and start running towards the pool. Very cute. Again, came the thunder and lightning and we had to get out of the pool.

Without going into more detail about the rest of the day at the park, we all had a very fun time. As of the time of this post (Wed night at 11:30 PM), I have no pictures of the day because I forgot to pick up the photo cd at Target. I'll do that tomorrow and upload some photos.

I realize I've been going to an obnoxious and excruciating level of detail which makes these entries lengthy to both write and read, so from here on out I'll try to keep the postings short and to the point.

Today we went to Adventure Aquarium in Camden, New Jersey - just on the other side of the Delware River from Philadelphia. We were having fun for the first few minutes in the aquarium until we realized that a lot of area day camps had decided to take a field trip to the aquarium. Most of the day camps had younger kids who were pushy, rude, and very noisy, so it was not a very enjoyable trip. There were some positive points. Allison was extremely excited at seeing all the fish - in fact she was on "fish overload". Near the end, Griffin was happy because he got to touch a jellyfish (the non-stinging kind of course) and a small shark (how cool is that!).

At the end, a thunderstorm came over and sheets of rain came pouring down as we headed for the car. I was jogging while giving Griffin a piggyback ride and Laura was racing the stroller with Allison in it. In summary, we got drenched.

When we got back to the hotel, we decided to divide and conquer. I took a mound of clothes to a public laundromat while Laura took the kids swimming in the indoor hotel pool. I know it seems like I got the raw end of the deal, but trust me, not having to deal with the kids for a bit was a welcome change.

We had an enjoyable dinner at TGIFridays (we at at a "On the Border" mexican resturant last night and a ruby Tuesday's the night before) and we are now off to bed...

[from Bret]

Once again we got off to a late start and this time we didn't make it to our first destination, the Philadelphia Zoo, until 2 PM. It was a pleasant day weatherwise, sunny and about 80 degrees or so, unlike the super-hot weather in the mid-90's we've experienced the rest of the trip.

We couldn't hold Allison off from a nap, so we laid her down in the stroller as we went into the zoo.  While Allison was asleep, the rest of us saw and some monkeys outside and went to some indoor exhibits with lemurs, tree roos, crocodiles, alligators, and plenty more. We also saw a hippo and some turtles outside as well.

When we got out from the indoor exhibits, we came to this "mining station". Here, kids could take a plastic bag filled with sand and pan/screen it along some water in a structure set to the kids height to find real stone gems. It did cost extra to do this beyond the zoo admission price - $6 for a small bag and $8 for a big bag. It seemed expensive but it looked like a lot of fun so we got Griffin a small bag. With a little help from Mom, he filtered the sand through the screen they provided and found plenty of interesting stone gems. After filtering the sand, the staff members gave us a small plastic bag to put our new-found treasure in. Griffin had a great time doing this.

Soon, Allison woke up and she was treated to seeing some elephants to which she was very interested. Then we went through a "big cat" outdoor exhibit area full of leopards, lions, and tigers. There was one area where there was a glass viewing area right in front of a pond/grassy area where an orange tiger paced back and forth to let everyone know this was his territory. We were literally inches away from the tiger as we was walking right along the glass. Allison again was impressed, pointing at the tiger and doing her high-pitched "uhhh"'s that she does when she's excited about something.

After the big cats, we decided to go stand in line at a food stand to get something to fill our stomachs. As we were waiting,  park worker asked if we were over at the big cat exhibit and mentioned that we might have gotten the wrong stroller because another person was looking for one. He was right - Dad took the wrong stroller. It was an honest mistake - the other stroller was also made by Peg Perego and was red, black, and gray. The guy whose stroller we swiped was holding his daughter who was about the same age as Allison. He said that they would have been happy taking the red and black stroller with Elmo and Zoe in it to which we all got a good chuckle.

After a burger, philly cheesesteak and some corn dog bites (in my opinion, the best park food we've had on our trip), we were off to look at more animals. But first a restroom break. As Griffin and I came out of the restrooms, a peacock came up very close to Allison and Mommy. Then he started coming up very close to Griffin. Griffin and the peacock were actually having a conversation - a perefect opportunity, but we missed it.

Next we hurried through a children's zoo area where there were plenty of roosters, chickens, and what not walking around us. Some zoo staffers had out a bunny that Allison was very interested in. There was also the typical petting zoo animals but we didn't stop to pet any of them.

We finished up our zoo trip looking at some zebras, giraffes and bears and the park was closing so we had to leave.
At night, we decided to go a chain-restaurant called Uno Pizzeria & Chicago Grill. Griffin picked this one out - I don't know if it was because it had the name Uno (one of his favorite games) or if they had pizza which Griffin seemed to have craving for. When we got there we were greeted by a friendly hostess that had a Pennsylvania "accent". She almost reminded me of the way my sister from Lancaster, PA talks. Anyways, Griffin started talking to her talking in his  adorable chatty way that most strangers seem to enjoy. He talked about being from out of town, something he had mentioned to a lot of strangers on our trip and he was asking her about all the green apples they had on a table. Apparently, the apples are a freebie you can take when you leave. The hostess was very smitten with Griffin - she loved him and Griffin enjoyed chatting with her. Griffin requested that we be seated outside. We were seated and given these humongous menus. They seemed to have every food imaginable - mostly the restaurant was focused around chicago-style, deep-dish Pizza but they had every other type of food that a typical American chain resturant like Applebee's or TGIFriday's had. The coolest part was they allow the kids to make their own pizza. While Allison was taking a little snooze on Mommy, they brought out a pre-made pizza dough, a bowl of sauce and some mozarella cheese and some peperoni. Griffin had a fun time making his pizza and kept talking about it. We ate for a bit and the hostess's shift was about to end so of course she had to say goodbye to all of us, especially Griffin. She gave some green apples to Allison and Griffin and she chatted with us for bit.

Finally, we left the restaurant and later the whole family got a little ice cream from a nearby convenience store.  We let Griffin play on the in-room game system for an hour and that was our night.

[from Bret]

Today, we checked out from our hotel. Allison gave one last goodbye from the lobby to the stuffed animal Sesame Street characters hanging up on the second floor that she had been so enamored with going into and out of the hotel. We decided to find an IHOP restaurant after leaving the hotel and eat breakfast at a restaurant for once. The one we went to was severely cramped, but the food was decent (though the service wasn't).

Next, we were off to historic Philadelphia. We first stopped at the Independence Visitor Center. As we walked along the wide, airport-like hallway, we saw one gentleman wearing revolutionary-era garb (standard coat and three-quarter hat) playing what looked like a dulcimer (I didn't get a chance to stop and ask him what kind of instrument it was). Also, in the walkway was another costumed man who was manning a display of some revolutionary-era weaponry - a flintlock pistol and some horns. The displayed showed the various inner parts of the pistol and we talked to the man at the display for a bit about it. Griffin asked "what is that?" and the man told him to take his hand and guide him to the part - to that point we didn't really know that he was blind. What's interestings about this gentleman, is that when he asked him where we were from, he said that he had climbed Mt. Rainer twice. Amazing. Then, we picked up our tour tickets for Independence Hall - the only way you can get into the building.

After looking around for a bit we got in line for the tour. As the tour begin, we all gathered into a room (not sure which one it was) and we noticed there was about 80 people or so. Allison was not at all pleased to be in her stroller so she was being embarassingly noisy - I say embarassingly because there were few babies/toddlers and everytime Allison made a noise the lady tour director made a deliberate pause as if to say in silence "control your children"...only if it were that simple. Laura was about ready to take her out of the tour but the tour continued to a different room. Next was a courtroom were colonial Americans were made to stand trial. The tour director said that above the presiding judge at the bench stood a heavy fabric tapestry with the British coat of arms printed on it. Sometime around 1776, the colonials were fed up, took the tapestry out of the courtroom and burned it in the streets and then replaced it with the Pennsylvania coat of arms. Interesting. Next up was the room where both the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were both signed. The tour director spouted off several fascinating historical facts about the room and the signing of these two important documents. We went to a ballroom upstairs but that was really all to the tour there was.

Next, we visited the Liberty Bell right across the street from Indepence Hall. It didn't require a tour so we just went in to the Liberty Bell center. The whole experience of visiting the historic sites in Philadelphia was quite moving - to take in all the events that led to the birth of our great nation. When we first went to the Independence Hall, we picked up a junior ranger activity book for Griffin. He completed five of the activities in the book and then we turned in the park at the National Park Service (that runs all the historic Philadelphia sites) museum shop. In return for the completed book, Griffin got a plastic Junior Ranger badge/pin that he put on his clothes.

Finally, we were ready to leave and travel to my Aunt Grace and Uncle Bill's house. This was around 5 PM right in the middle of rush-hour traffic trying to get out of Philadelphia. The next 2 hours of car time were absolutely miserable - congestion unlike anything I've experienced in the Seattle area. I don't know if it was typical, but it was extremly painful to sit through. Everyone was restless and we finally got clear roads when we got to the King of Prussia/Valley Froger area - suburbs on the northwest side of Philly. We stopped and grabbed a quick bite to eat and were back on the road again. At 9:30 PM we finally got to Aunt Grace/Uncle Bill's house (about 2 hours later than one would expect).

We all stayed up late (Grace and Bill usually go to bed later too) and visited for a bit. As expected, Griffin was instantly impressed with Uncle Bill. Bill introduced Griffin to the game of Parchesi and Bill was chasing him around the house. Allison was intially shy around Grace and Bill but warmed up after awhile. We were all very welcome to be off the road and with family and looking forward to a good night's rest.

 

[from Bret]

Today we woke early in preperation for one of the main reasons for our vacation, the Marzolf family reunion. Grace cooked us all a wonderful breakfast and then we were out the door. On the way to the reunion about an hour and a half away, Allison got sick, something she had been doing a lot of lately. I was a bit dissapointed when I initially got there, I was hoping to meet several reconizable faces but instead found very few. The reunion was held at Herb's house - an old house built in the 1860's that he had done a masterful job of restoring. Upon entering the house we met a whole bunch of people we didn't know. I introduced myself as Bob's son and everyone understood who I was. A couple of people remarked that they met me as a young child at another family reunion when I was much smaller - a reunion that I clearly remember. We continued to meet a bunch of new faces and ate a nice lunch provided by Herb and his family. While walking across the house, I came across Aunt Caddie (sp?) who was one of my grandfather's sisters. She seemed tickle to see me and kept remarking over and over again how pleased and surprised she was to see me and my family. Everyone enjoyed the kids, especially Allison since she was the youngest. In the midst of meeting everyone, we also came across some Marzolf's who live in Lake Stevens, Washington not too far from us (about an hour) - Jeff (not sure whether he was a Marzolf in name or not) lives there. My cousin Jimmy tried to catch me up on how we were related to all of these people towards the end of the reunion and I think I caught most of it. Jeff, I believe is the son of one of Jerry's (my grandfather) sisters (Aunt Jane?). We also met a couple of Aunt Jane's daughters as well. Unfortunately I forgot a lot of names. We didn't get too many pictures but hopefully I'll get some from other folks. Towards the end of the reunion, Herb's wife (forgot her name) took us all on a walk down to the Susquehanna River (it seemed like it might have been a mile away). It was a pleasant walk and we watched as everyone was out on the very wide river (I think the widest east of the Mississippi) doing typically lake activities - boating, skiing, sailing, etc... Allison napped for most of the walk and Griffin took turns getting a piggy-back ride from me and a shoulder ride from Jimmy.

The reunion came to a close, we drove back, and again Allison got sick - I'm sure this was a combination of several factors but I think kids being car sick is a fairly common thing. We came back to Grace & Bill's place, had some dinner, played a 3-way game of Parchesi, tried to catch some lightning bugs (but had no luck), watched a movie (Flubber) and finally went to bed.

 

 

[from Bret]

Today, our destination was Hershey Park. I had visited there a couple of times and this amusement park has a special place in my heart - not so much because it had the best rides or the best food or the best anything really but the overall character of the park and the way it was run was always something that enticed me in previous visits.

The parking area was huge and they had frequent trams going from remote places of the parking area to the park entrance - we were extremely thankful for those trams.

Before entering in the park they had these box "height stations" (my term for them). You stood in front of each tall rectangular box and if your head was above the line on that particular box, you knew you could ride rides with that particular designations. Now instead of using 36-inch, 42-inch, or 48-inch height boundary designations for rides, clever Hershey Park uses different candy bars as height designations. The smallest one were designated Hershey minatures, the next was Hershey Kisses, followed by Reese cups (this was the designation Griffin fell into), and finally Hershey bars, Twizllers, and Jolly Ranchers (in that order). How they choose these candy brands, I don't know...I would have picked different ones but I'm sure there's some market research behind the decisions they made.
So, at each ride was a sign with the different candy bar designations that were allowed to ride that ride. The rides Griffin went on, had designations of Jolly Ranchers, Twizzlers, Hershey Bars, and Reese Cups. The signs on every ride were well presented and had a little small cartoon-like depiction of what the ride did above the name of the ride so everyone knew exactly what kind of ride they were getting on.

I was surprised how many rides there were for Griffin to ride on. I'm guessing we didn't make it through all the rides available to Griffin in one day's time. Griffin had lots of fun on several rides that he hadn't experienced in other amusement parks. There was the old Comet rollercoaster that I remember riding on prior visits and really enjoyed (again it's more of a character thing rather than it being one of the highest, fastest, or even most fun to ride) - Griffin and mommy got to experience the coaster this time rather than me. Griffin and I went on the SuperDooperLooper - a one-loop metal rollercoaster that was a very quick ride but fun nonetheless because of the loop - I think that may be the first time Griffin's ever ridden a looping rollercoaster that turned him upside down. Then there were the typiclly family fair-type rides that spun around a lot like the Tilt-a-Whirl and the Scrambler and a newer type spinning ride called the Flying Falcon. In between rides, we ate the park food and Allison took a small nap (under an hour) while we finished eating - this would be her only nap for the day and she was very cranky towards the end of the day as a result. There really wasn't much for Allison to do as far as dry rides go at Hershey park, so Laura had her hands full keeping her entertained while Griffin and I went on the majority of rides.

Towards the evening, we decided to hit the new waterpark area that they built this year that they named "The Boardwalk". Hersheypark is a bit behind other combination amusement/water parks in therms of number of rides, but Hershey's entrance in to the water-park arena is a great initial effort. They have all the typical waterpark stuff - raft rides, a huge kids play pool area with lots of moving parts and great decorations - in fact I think I'd say I like Hersey's kid area more than any other water park. They also have a small kids wave pool and some interesting water rides other's don've have - like this raft ride that empties into this gigantic funnel. I didn't ride it but it sure did look fun.

The evening finally came to a close and we decided to head back to Grace & Bill's house. When we got in, we realized that I had dropped the keys on the floor of the driver's seat of the locked minivan. This was a problem that have to wait for tomorrow...

 

[from Bret]

The problem of keys in the locked car was upon me immediately upon waking up. After showering, I called the Budget roadside assistance number at 8:30 AM. Two and ahlf hours later they finally took action and called a local towing company. A half hour after that, the towing service guy spent less than a minute to unlock the door. Budget's roadside assitance service was bordering on incompetent and I'd hate to say but for that reason plus the hassle in New York City, I can't say I'd recommend going with Budget.

Before leaving, Great Uncle Bill gave Griffin a wonderful gift - the Parcheesi board game that he and Griffin for a lot of the time we had been visiting them. I think that probably made Griffin's day. After that, we said our goodbyes and were off.

On the way to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, we met up with Uncle Chet and Aunt Joanne near Chambersburg at an Iron Skillet restaurant. We had a pleasant time visiting and eating lunch with them - well until Allison was getting real ancy to leave. Again, we said our goodbyes and were on the road.

We left about 1 PM and finally made it to Aunt Kathy and Uncle Mike's house at about 9:30 PM after making a few stops here and there. The long drive wasn't all that bad because we had two very important modern devices - a portable DVD player and a portable Nintendo DS video game system. These two devices kept the kids occupied and made the drive almost stress-free.

Mom Marzolf, Aunt Kathy, & Uncle Mike were all very happy to see us when we arrived. We toured the house and to our surprise, small gifts were waiting for each of the children in their respective bedrooms (each of us got our own room to sleep in - well Laura and I shared one room). Griffin got a Spiderman nerf football and Allison got a cute camoflouge outfit. Mom Marzolf brought over lots of stuff to play with as well.

The kids were wound up from all the new toys and the new place. We finally settled them into bed and went to sleep for the night ourselves.

[from Bret]

Today we woke up and visited a little more with Kathy and Mike. Everyone was ready to go just about the time Grandma came over from a half day of work at around noon. After she ate a quick lunch, we were off to go visit Grandma's coworkers at work. We tried hard to keep Allison on the ride over but weren't all that successfully. We woke her up just in time to go up to the 7th floor of the FirstEnergy building where Grandma worked. There we met many of Granma's coworkers, most of them women. They all enjoyed seeing the kids. Griffin was very friendly with everyone and Allison was a handful, wanting to get down and run around everywhere. After visiting with everyone we got a bite to eat downstairs in the building where Grandma worked. The downstairs area has changed quite a bit since I've been there last.

Next, we headed back to our temporary home. Allison fell asleep immediately on the car ride and we layed he down for a nap when we got home while Griffin got some time to play his DS video game system. Mom and Grandma decided to go out for a quick pedicure and Dad stayed at home.

Around 5 PM everyone started showing up for the family get-together. Lots of familiar faces and people to talk to. Aunt Kathy and Uncle Mike made up several batches of their world-famous Whiskey Sours. Yummm... Grandma invited some friends of hers as well - Valerie (who Laura and I got to meet on one trip out to Seattle) and her husband Bernie and Sandy and Dave who the parents of one of my childhood friends, Brian - who now loves out in Airzona with his wife working on his music PhD. I got to see my two older cousins closest in age - Scott (along with his whole family) and Missy. None of my younger cousins nor my uncle Bill were there but Aunt Margaret was. Everyone had a good time together and we all had a very nice dinner - grilled pork, salad, fruit salad, rice, and other various things. My Uncle Eddie, who couldn't be there because he worked evenings, sent us a lovely Smucker's ice cream toppings gift basket. So, of course, we had all had to have some ice cream. The toppings were great and a few other things were added like chopped M&M's which Griffin requested :) and chopped nuts. It was a very yummy dessert and everyone

[from Bret]

The quick version. Today:

- Laura and I went to a 12 PM Cleveland Indians game vs. the Chicago White Sox. Since most of the weekday parking was taken up by typical weekday workers in downtown Cleveland, we spent close to an hour finding parking in Cleveland. Because of this, we did not make it to the game until the bottom half of the 4th inning.

Grandma took care of the kids at Kathie and Mike's house. Allison slpet a bunch and Griffin got to play a lot with his DS game system

- The kids got to play with neighbor kids on the neighbor's wooden playset. Daddy and Mike got his wireless router up and running, making it easier for me to use the laptop around the house.

That was about it.

[from Bret]

Again, the short version. Today:


I got to see my Dad. Of course, the motivation for me seeing him was to help him run some errands to get a new microwave and fan for his apartment as well as some tobacco for making homemade cigarettes. I didn't mind - it gave us a chance to chat for a bit and frankly I just enjoyed seeing him once again.












When I got back, Allison was asleep and everyone had a little downtime. Griffin and Grandma got to play a new game we just got called Peggle.














Then, Ellen came by for a visit. Ellen is a coworker/friend of Mom's and they've known each other for many years (Ellen is one of the few coworker's of my Mom's I could recognize in a crowd). She enjoyed seeing the children.










Next we were off to get a late night dinner at the Brown Derby Roadhouse restaurant just outside Chapel Hill Mall. There, we met up with our friends Joe and Fran. They too enjoyed seeing the kids. Usually they just get to see the photos Laura sends their way on a monthly basis.







I finally figured out how to include images in my postings, which makes them much more entertaining to read. Who knows, maybe I'll get the motivation, to add postings for each day that look just like this one, but I wouldn't hold your breath...

Today we traveled to our last amusement park on our trip, Cedar Point.

As we headed to the entrance, we eagerly anticipated going on a lot of fun rides.










First up was the carousel right at the entrance of the park. Everyone this classic favorite.






















Next, we headed for some kiddie rides.

Griffin was being a great big brother - he went on some of the smaller rides with Allison even though there were more exciting ones that he would've rather gone on.










I enjoyed the kids driving me a round for a little bit.











Mom took the kids on a relaxing boat ride while Grandma took a seperate boat for spin.











Then, Mom and I went on this huge ride (called the MaxAir) with a swing arm that basically swings back and forth. 50 people sit in a circle facing the outside of the circle kept in with a shoulder harness. The circular seating circle is attached to a swing arm (I'd say somewhere between 50 and 100 feet in length) which swings the whole ride back and forth like a pendulum. While the arm is swinging, the circular seating area is also spinning. The whole contraption goes very fast and the arm basically goes parallel to the ground at its highest point in the swinging motion. All in all, Laura and I both enjoyed the ride very much. It gets your heart pumping as your way up high and you're looking straight down at the ground with the arm is swung to it's highest point. It's tood bad, I didn't get any pictures of the ride...

We found a "grown up" roller coaster that Griffin could ride - the Iron Dragon. Griffin just barely cleared the 46-inch minimum mark required to ride the coaster. This older coaster, which I've ridden several times in the past, is a fun but mild coaster. It's a suspended roller coaster rather than a track-based coaster but it's fun because it's swings you close to the water and through the mist they spray up from the water. Griffin went with Mom the first time and he asked to ride it again (which mean he liked it). I would take him again on the coaster a little later in the day.




We walked around for a bit and got some food here and there and then we decided to split up for a bit - I was going to wait in a big line to ride the Millenium Force roller coaster while everyone else headed towards Camp Snoopy for some more children rides.









I waited over an hour for the Millenium Force but let me tell you every minute spent waiting was worth it. This is easily the best roller coaster I've ridden to date. It's main feature is a gigantic first hill (probably one of the highest for a roller coaster in the world) and it sends you plummetting to the earth at an incredible rate of speed. It was really a fun ride. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of it.

Again, we walked around some more and stopped for some small bites to eat.

While we were sitting down, we were graced with the presence of a small bunny. Allison enjoyed the bunny and pointed at it - here way of saying "Look everyone, it's a bunny!"










It was getting later in the day and we came upon the bumper cars. Griffin could ride the cars but he had to ride with Mom or I. Grandma graciously watched Allison while Mom, Griffin, and I all rode the bumper cars. Griffin and I rode in a car together while Mom rode in a seperate car. Griffin and I had fun chasing Mom around and giving her a hard bump :)







Finally, there was one ride Laura and I wanted to go on - The Top Thrill Dragster. The picture I've included here doesn't show it real well - it's the upside-down U-shaped structure in the far background at the bottom of the picture (not the Power Tower structure in the foreground). Anyways, this ride is something. It's like a roller coaster - you sit in roller coaster cars. There's gigantic "Christmas Tree Lights" in the center of the structure just like on a real drag race track. When the progression of lights goes from yellow to green real fast, you're shot out at an incredible rate of speed on a straight and level track. It feels so fast, you're initial reaction is one of sheer panic. To those watching around the ride, they show how fast your coaster car is going (usually around 120 MPH). As you're accellerating super-fast, the track goes perpendicular to the ground, so you're being sent up towards the sky. Just as you reach the top of the loop, the track twists which does a number on your stomach. Then the coaster car barely clears the loop, and you're sent straight down towards the earth - again at an incredible rate of speed. Finally, the car comes to a stop. Laura and I were both screaming and laughing while we were on the ride. It was one of the most fun rides we've ever been on. For me, both the Millenium Force coaster and the Top Thrill Dragster exceeded any ride in terms of fun for anything I've been on in the past. It was a close call which one I liked better, but I'd have to give the nod to the Millenium Force coaster.

While Laura and I were on the ride, Grandma, Allison, and Griffin were playing in this huge video game arcade inside the park. It was like other arcades in that they had games that spit out tickets that you could redeem for prizes. Grandma only spent $5 and Griffin just got a ton of tickets that he redeemed for several prizes - some lizards and dinosaurs and a wired remote control truck. I think the games and prizes at the end of the day were the highlight of Griffin's trip to Cedar Point.

Then we left the park, got a little food and headed back "home".

Today was our last day on vacation and it was a hectic/streesful one.

When we were all ready for the day, Uncle Eddie came over to visit us at Kathie & Mike's house. As I went to answer the door, Allison had fallen backwards on a really high bar stool. No one (Mom or Grandma) saw her fall, so we weren't sure how bad the fall was. Regardlesss, Allison was very upset. We checked her over for blood or swelling but found nothing. After a little bit she got sick and we were worried about here wondering if we should take her to the hospital but she seemed to return to her usual self so she must have been ok. That event preoccupied all of us for most of Uncle Eddie's visit.

Alas, we did have some time to visit with Uncle Eddie and snapped a few photos.











Then we frantically packed up our stuff, gave Granma lots of hugs and we were off. Of course I had to forget something again - our printed out boarding passes (when we were leaving on the first day of vacation I forgot the diaper bag). I realized I left the boarding passes after 5 minutes - so it wasn't that far to go back.

Finally we made it to the airport and checked in our baggage.






















Then we flew home. Nothing of particular note happened on the flight. Griffin got to play a lot on his DS and Allison slept on Mom for most of the latter part of the flight.

That was the end of our vacation.