Day 15 - Adjust Early

We spent today at the Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, OH. The park is situated on an island in Lake Erie off of the main part of Sandusky. It is a beautiful spot, and we had heard a lot of great things about the park. It’s not easy going to an amusement park with the three kids. Ethan likes roller coasters, Brian not so much, and Amanda likes kiddie rides and some faster rides. So it’s not always easy finding a way to keep all, or even two, of them happy at the same time.

To start the day Ethan and I went to one of the “Double Black Diamond” rides near the front of the park. Bad mistake. Like most of the eastern part of the country, today was a scorcher, and since this ride was near the front, everyone stopped to go on it and the line was long and in the baking sun most of the time. We were so hot we bought water along the way. The line took 45 minutes for a 45 second payoff [insert your own joke here]. And it turned out the ride was average at best. It compared to Great Bear at Hershey, but it wasn’t as good. I could spend a lot of time comparing Cedar Point to Hershey in this blog post, as the parks are similar in nature, but I’ll be brief. Both have a lot of rides for all ages, both have water parks, and both have a lot of heavy people walking around.

While Ethan and I were roasting, Debbie and the other kids went on a bunch of kiddie rides. Then we met up and tried to figure a plan where we could stay together for a while. That worked for a bit, but then Ethan and I went off again in search of roller coasters while Debbie, Brian and Amanda stayed with the tamer rides. Ethan and I stumbled onto a ride called Iron Dragon, which we both thought Brian could handle.

Then we went on a ride called Mantis. Now we had stepped it up a notch. For this ride you enter the vehicle standing up. There was an adjustable seat (kind of like a bicycle seat in style, with the place to sit and the protruding end that goes between your legs) that was really to be used more for balance than sitting. The instructions were to get comfortable with the seat while having your feet flat on the ground for more balance. Problem was that in the split second before they locked in all of the seats in their positions, I was a little uncomfortable and went up on my tippy toes to adjust myself. But before I could get back to flat ground, the seats were locked. So, while 40 or so people on the ride were sitting/standing comfortably with their feet flat on the ground (maybe even with knees bent a little like Ethan was for more leverage), I was stuck too high with my toes touching the floor. Then we took off on a series of upside-down loops and corkscrews. Plus, it was a little bumpy. The only good news was that I have had all of the children I am going to have, so I didn’t have to worry about that. The bad news was that the ride “beat me” and afterwards I was pretty lightheaded and had a headache. After getting some water and resting for a bit, I recovered, but as a tip if you ever go on that ride, adjust early.

The rest of the day was pretty typical of an amusement park (some good rides, overpriced lunch and bottled waters, etc.), and I will not give you a ride by ride description. However, I will tell you about one ride I went on alone, because Ethan didn’t want to go (don’t really blame him). It’s called Dragster, and it is basically a drag car that goes from 0 to 120 MPH in about 2 seconds, then climbs 420 feet straight up an “reverse U” filled with corkscrews and then comes basically straight down to the ground, before it flattens out just in time for the ride to end. The whole ride literally takes 17 seconds. But what a rush. For those Hershey veterans, it takes Storm Runner and speeds it up by 40-50 MPH, and then throws in Fahrenheit, but going down instead of up at maybe 100 MPH.

Also, along the way Amanda was feeling brave and wanted to go on some of the faster rides. But she inevitably fell about 2 inches too short for them, which resulted in tears. Brian got up the nerve to go on Iron Dragon, and liked it a lot. We even thought Amanda would like it, and for this ride she just made the height. She was thrilled and away we went. I rode with her, and the whole time she was screaming “I love this!” and she did. She went again with Ethan alone, and would have gone again but it was getting time for dinner. We opted for the oh so fancy Johnny Rockets, then headed out of the park a little before closing time at 8:30-8:45. We had an hour drive to Cleveland, and got to the hotel around 10:00 (had to stop for gas along the way). We are staying at an Embassy Suites (in the nicest room we have stayed in so far) not far from Progressive Field (where the Indians play) and we will probably walk to the game tomorrow. The Indians are playing the White Sox and noon, and we have tickets that I bought on StubHub for $6 each before we left. I haven’t checked the box score for today’s game, but I believe that it will be the first game that Manny Ramirez starts for the White Sox since being traded from the Dodgers. After the game we will visit the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame. Other than that, not sure what else we will do in Cleveland tomorrow.