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Our recent trip to Cedar Point was our second trip this year. The first one did not go so well. Let’s back up about 3 weeks before our successful trip…

I had planned a special father-son trip with Alpha, our oldest. He had never been to Cedar Point. I hadn’t been in over a decade. And I had never stayed at the on-site hotel. Since I was planning the trip, I decided to splurge and stay in the hotel. (Tickets are cheaper that way, and you get into the park 1 hour early. That part is key to this story).

Friday afternoon, June 6 – the big day. He gets home from school and I get home from work. We eat dinner, with the rest of the family of course, then load up the car and head out to Cedar Point. A couple hours later, we are there. We check into the hotel, walk along the shore of Lake Erie, and look into the park from the edge. We go back into the room, watch an episode of Treehouse Masters, see what we can of the Luminosity show (i.e. fireworks) from our window, and go to bed.

Everything’s going fine.

In the morning, we wake up, go downstairs for breakfast, and finish around 9:15. The park opened for early entry at 9:00, so we figure we will check out and go into the park. Back up to our room we go. One last potty break before embarking on our amusement park adventure… and the toilet doesn’t flush. And the sink doesn’t work.

I call the front desk, asking if it’s just our room. She replies that it is the whole hotel. So we check out, put our luggage in the car, and go into the park.

The water in the park isn’t working either. Toilets aren’t flushing. Drinking fountains aren’t fountaining.

But we are there, so we walk around.

I show the rides to Alpha, and he ponders them. He is interested in the water rides, but they aren’t going.

We eventually make our way to the Sky Ride. Alpha hasn’t wanted to ride anything up to that point, so I tell him that we are going to ride the Sky Ride.

So we do.

And that takes us to the front gate.
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I took Alpha on a trip to Cedar Point. I hadn’t been there since 1990-something.

It’s a lot smaller than I remember.

I’m sure it’s the same size – it’s just my perspective has changed. Most of my memories from there are as a grade-schooler and middle-schooler.

Things I’m disappointed aren’t there anymore:

• IMAX – a highlight of the day because of two things: air-conditioning and sitting. Plus that feeling you got when the movie crested the mountain peak and you thought you were going to fall…
• Pirate Ride – I didn’t like roller coasters much, so this flat ride was one I handle.
• Paddlewheel excursion – I didn’t ride this much, but it was a nice diversion. Again, not a roller coaster.
• Jungle Larry’s Animal Safari – I was trying to remember where exactly this was. I think Mantis or Millenium Force is there now.

Things that changed:

• Junior Gemini – It’s still there, just as a Snoopy ride now
• Ferris Wheel – It’s supposed to be by the train station. Although having it right by the shore does provide a nice view now.
• Steam Enginges – I didn’t check, but it seems to me that the trains have been converted from coal power into something else. There’s no smoke, and no nostalgia-inducing smell.

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People often ask us “How do you keep your house clean with 4 boys?”

Answer: we don’t.

Sure, our house gets cleaned, but it doesn’t stay clean.

Exhibit A

Here we have the upstairs landing/play area. If you want to get to the closet (back left, out of the photo), you have to make your way carefully through the Lego minefield.

You’ll notice there are a couple of spots cleared for feet, but not many. And if you are carrying anything large to or from the closet, your best bet is to shuffle your feet to plow through the Legos.

When I visited Cedar Point in early June of 2014, I saw the Slingshot was under construction. When I saw the description, I figured since it is a reverse bungee jump, it would be made of bungee cords.

Nope.

Now I have seen it in action, and it does not use bungee cords. It uses steel cables and springs. Actually, I don’t know that they are steel, just that they are non-elastic.

In case you are curious as to the Slingshot, here’s a summary: one moment you are at ground level, and 3 seconds later you are 300 feet in the air. This GIF might help explain:
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An Open Letter to Restaurants

If I were tasked with making restaurant customers’ lives harder, I would keep the opaque red bottles. And I would add weights to the bottles.

That way, customers could no longer use the coping mechanisms they have found useful – hefting the bottle to assess the weight.

There is a positive correlation between weight and ketchup volume. I would exploit that by making each empty bottle weigh as much as a normal full bottle should.

Gotta stay one step ahead of the customer if you want to stay in business.