CEDAR POINT!
Aug. 1st, 2010 02:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sorcyressWe went to Cedar Point today! YAYAYAAYAYAYAYYA!
For background, I have wanted to go to Cedar Point for *many* years. I like roller coasters a Damn Lot, and the idea of being able to go to...well, the mecca of such rides was deeply appealing to me.
And was it good?
Oh great ghu god YES! I could tell it was going to be a fun trip as we got close enough to see the park, and I found my face glued to the window, a smile brightening the car. I may have giggled madly. Okay, scratch that, I definitely giggled madly, I may have drooled. But only a little! And hey, you would drool too if you saw roller coasters tall enough to require aircraft warning lights.
Once inside, I acquiesced to my sister's request, and we charged to the backmost corner, to try the swings. They were nowhere near as nice as the ones at Navy Pier, but we enjoyed them anyways, and then could get on with the very important business of ROLLER COASTERS YAY! Collecting mom (we had left Nik in the arcade), we did the WildCat (something mom figured Alys, who likes a very soft sort of coaster, could enjoy) and us two wot actually enjoy this madness headed across the way to try the Iron Dragon.
The Iron Dragon was such a delight we had to grab Alys and do it again, assuring her she would not freak. After that, it was time for me to split off. There was a sensationally tall blue structure calling my name, and I would've been fool to ignore it. And so, bravely ignoring the sign declaring a near-two hour wait, I got in line to ride the Millennium Force.
It was indeed 300 feet high, and with an 80 degree sheer drop, and damn if that wasn't fantastic, especially from the front row (There are some things in the world that I have the patience and stubbornness to do right, roller coasters are absolutely one of them). But once I touched ground, I determined that I was ready for shorter lines, and so I refound my mother --"what's good?"
"Well, Blue Streak is a *fun* coaster. It's little, but it packs a whallop."1 And so we prance to the front of the park, and I fell entirely in love.
Seriously. I rode that coaster six times. Three times right then and there with mom, and three more times at the end of the day. It's worth noting that I spent less than ninety minutes total at that ride, and had two or three instances where I ran around, got in line, and got in the first available cart without any waiting. Heavenly short lines? Sure, happens all the times on the wuss coasters. But as it happens, mom was one hundred percent right.
This coaster was *fun!*. Old wood, made in '64, and with drops that made your stomach drop out and sent shivers down my spine. Riding in the very back of the coaster was a special treat --you really did have points where you would swear you were weightless. An amazingly good coaster.
In between riding that one repeatedly, mum and I slunk off to go try the Mantis --my first ever standing up coaster. It was getting late enough that the weight was under an hour (unheard of for one of the big-name coasters) and we had a lovely walk through the line, bonding and chatting and such. The coaster itself was lovely, with lots of big loops and going upsidedown, and a drop half as high as the Millennium --only this time, at dusk, the view for miles was studded with twinkling lights. Beautiful!
It did make me realize that I have Absolutely No Problem with going upsidedown in coasters. This isn't really surprising --anyone who knows me well, has probably realized by now that I like being upside down, hence my concentration on learning how to handswalk better, and my fondness for using patches of grass to practise cartwheels and round-offs and handsprings (and ariels when I feel up to them, which is damnably not often enough). But it was nice to not at all care which direction I was --of course, the logical next test is to find a coaster that hangs you upside down for the majority of the ride --that would be a hoot!
And then was the end, and I drove us to Dennys and a hotel. Tomorrow we eat breakfast with Dad's little sister and her family, and then drive drive drive and somehow end up back in Columbia.
I cannot wait.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: Heavily paraphrased
Postscript: That's day one of the August Challenge down. Good luck to Dog and Sparr and anyone else giving it a go.
For background, I have wanted to go to Cedar Point for *many* years. I like roller coasters a Damn Lot, and the idea of being able to go to...well, the mecca of such rides was deeply appealing to me.
And was it good?
Oh great ghu god YES! I could tell it was going to be a fun trip as we got close enough to see the park, and I found my face glued to the window, a smile brightening the car. I may have giggled madly. Okay, scratch that, I definitely giggled madly, I may have drooled. But only a little! And hey, you would drool too if you saw roller coasters tall enough to require aircraft warning lights.
Once inside, I acquiesced to my sister's request, and we charged to the backmost corner, to try the swings. They were nowhere near as nice as the ones at Navy Pier, but we enjoyed them anyways, and then could get on with the very important business of ROLLER COASTERS YAY! Collecting mom (we had left Nik in the arcade), we did the WildCat (something mom figured Alys, who likes a very soft sort of coaster, could enjoy) and us two wot actually enjoy this madness headed across the way to try the Iron Dragon.
The Iron Dragon was such a delight we had to grab Alys and do it again, assuring her she would not freak. After that, it was time for me to split off. There was a sensationally tall blue structure calling my name, and I would've been fool to ignore it. And so, bravely ignoring the sign declaring a near-two hour wait, I got in line to ride the Millennium Force.
It was indeed 300 feet high, and with an 80 degree sheer drop, and damn if that wasn't fantastic, especially from the front row (There are some things in the world that I have the patience and stubbornness to do right, roller coasters are absolutely one of them). But once I touched ground, I determined that I was ready for shorter lines, and so I refound my mother --"what's good?"
"Well, Blue Streak is a *fun* coaster. It's little, but it packs a whallop."1 And so we prance to the front of the park, and I fell entirely in love.
Seriously. I rode that coaster six times. Three times right then and there with mom, and three more times at the end of the day. It's worth noting that I spent less than ninety minutes total at that ride, and had two or three instances where I ran around, got in line, and got in the first available cart without any waiting. Heavenly short lines? Sure, happens all the times on the wuss coasters. But as it happens, mom was one hundred percent right.
This coaster was *fun!*. Old wood, made in '64, and with drops that made your stomach drop out and sent shivers down my spine. Riding in the very back of the coaster was a special treat --you really did have points where you would swear you were weightless. An amazingly good coaster.
In between riding that one repeatedly, mum and I slunk off to go try the Mantis --my first ever standing up coaster. It was getting late enough that the weight was under an hour (unheard of for one of the big-name coasters) and we had a lovely walk through the line, bonding and chatting and such. The coaster itself was lovely, with lots of big loops and going upsidedown, and a drop half as high as the Millennium --only this time, at dusk, the view for miles was studded with twinkling lights. Beautiful!
It did make me realize that I have Absolutely No Problem with going upsidedown in coasters. This isn't really surprising --anyone who knows me well, has probably realized by now that I like being upside down, hence my concentration on learning how to handswalk better, and my fondness for using patches of grass to practise cartwheels and round-offs and handsprings (and ariels when I feel up to them, which is damnably not often enough). But it was nice to not at all care which direction I was --of course, the logical next test is to find a coaster that hangs you upside down for the majority of the ride --that would be a hoot!
And then was the end, and I drove us to Dennys and a hotel. Tomorrow we eat breakfast with Dad's little sister and her family, and then drive drive drive and somehow end up back in Columbia.
I cannot wait.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: Heavily paraphrased
Postscript: That's day one of the August Challenge down. Good luck to Dog and Sparr and anyone else giving it a go.