Cedar Point Visit

One of Bob's favorite memories in Ohio is going to Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio on Lake Erie.  It's rated as the BEST Amusement Park in the world and has the highest, fastest, and best roller coasters and rides you can even imagine.

We just spent a couple of days there with Bob's daughter, Cari, and her husband, Dave, and with Bob's daughter, Rachel, and her two kids, Reagan and Drew.  Cari and Dave drove separately and met us there.  Rachel, Reagan, and Drew rode with us.  They were excellent travelers.  And it's a really loooooong trip to get there.

Here we are at the park.

Reagan is sooo excited.

The first day we spent from 10:00 am till 10:00 pm at the park and still didn't do it ALL, but we did a lot.  Drew, Bob, and I weren't too interested in the big rides, but we still had fun.  Reagan rode rides she never knew she'd be able to and was proud to have done them.  Maybe Dave, Cari, and Rachel felt the same way.  But Dave and Reagan were the only 2 brave ones to do the Dragster, and when you see the picture, you'll understand why no one else wanted to go.  In the picture below, notice the ride in the background.  Cari and Reagan waited 2  hours to go on that ride, but they said it was worth the wait.

The park is so big that riding the gondolas across about half of it helps, and, for me, it's a ride in and of itself.  Notice the pretty flowers.

Bob, Drew, and I rode the horses on the merry-go-round.  Drew rode Tea Biscuit and was the winner in the end.

Then we rode the train to get to the other end of the park.  It's always fun to ride a train to see some of the park leisurely and to get further back into the park.

Drew and Grandpa on the train.

The park is surrounded by Lake Erie and Sandusky Bay.  There were several sailboats out.  That looked like fun too.

There was a "petting zoo" that everyone enjoyed.  There were llamas, pigs, goats, etc.  I heard that Cari has always thought it would be fun to have a "mini farm."  She really loves animals.

Drew and Reagan enjoyed driving the antique cars.  Looks like they're having fun.

I'm not sure if anyone rode this one or not.  It's an older one, but old is OK.

Reagan and I rested here while Charlie Brown and friends entertained.  Lucy is always helpful.  Right?

This is the Dragster that Dave and Reagan rode.  It lasts 17 seconds from beginning to end.  It starts out very fast, 120 mph.  It barely goes over the top which is about 720 ft. high, and then it twists at the top and descends very quickly.  You've got to be brave to do this one.

The bumper cars are a little more tame.

We did manage to go to a couple of shows.  This one was the Extreme Sports Show.  They were on America's Got Talent, and I agree they did have talent.  There were bicycle tricks, roller blade tricks, skate board tricks, scooter tricks, and lots of acrobatics.  Behind the stage is a ride that no one decided to do.  This is one end of it.  It goes up, comes down, and goes to the other side which is just like this side.  It was fun to watch people riding it.

We also saw an ice show that was very impressive.  Lots of talent here too.

We stayed for the 9:30 Luminosity Show to end the evening.  It was spectacular.  They had dancing, singing, competitions, aerial acts, fireworks, pyrotecnic displays, and it all "blew" us away.  It was the perfect ending of a perfect day.    Cari's picture of Luminosity.      

Reagan and Drew still had a little energy for this picture that we took as we left.  

The next day we concentrated on spending time at the Soak City part of Cedar Point.  The weather was perfect for water fun.  Here are Cari, Rachel, and Reagan.  You can see the Lazy River in the background.  I enjoyed that a couple of times around.  It was quite relaxing.  We also enjoyed the Wave Pool.  The water was a little warmer so it was nice to stay there for a while.  We rode the "Family Ride" which is a gentle slide.  I don't think we did too many of the slides, but we still had fun whatever we did.  Dave found an area for adults where it was quieter, and it had a nice hot tub so he enjoyed that.  Something for everyone.

After enjoying the water park, we did a few more rides.  Cari and Reagan stood in line for about 2 hours to ride the GateKeeper, the ride in the background of the second picture above.  It was one of the longest rides and went through a lot of the front part of the park.  It had some very high places and some loops, but in general, they said it was a bit more gentle than some of the other adventurous rides.

While waiting for Cari and Reagan, Bob and I rode this huge ferris wheel.  It overlooks Lake Erie and Sandusky Bay.  And when you're stuck up there for several minutes while they're stopped to change riders, it can be a little scary.  You just have to concentrate on how beautiful it was.

While waiting for Cari and Reagan, Rachel and Drew checked out the Midway area and mostly watched people play the different games.  But look what Drew ended up with, Freddie the gorilla.  He and Rachel were watching this guy play a game, and the guy had been playing a long time without winning.  Then he asked Drew to touch his next ball to give it good luck.  Guess what?  He won.  In fact, he won twice, with Drew's good luck.  Anyway he gave Drew one of the prizes, Freddie, as he calls him, and the guy gave the other prize to his niece who was there too.  You can tell Drew is VERY HAPPY.  He was glad he did NOT go on the GateKeeper or the Ferris Wheel.

This is the guy who won the gorilla for Drew.  Or this is Drew with the guy whom he helped win.

Here we are carrying Freddie out of the park.  Will he fit in the van?  That was the question.  The answer,  YES!!!!!  Yea!!!!!

 This was the room we had.  It was a pretty nice Motel 6  It even had an indoor swimming pool and work out room.  It would have been perfect if it hadn't been for the trains that went by every hour and for the bug a boo with one of the rooms.  Actually the night after we left, I woke up every hour. I guess I had been programmed for hourly train noise.  It really wasn't that much of a problem, but ;it could be a concern for some people.  When  you're really tired, you can sleep no matter what.

Cari and Rachel were reminiscing that when they traveled as kids, their dad would buy them a quick breakfast of doughnuts and hot chocolate.  So when we left the motel to go to Columbus, Bob bought everyone doughnuts.  That's always fine with me.

Here's proof that Freddie the Gorilla fit in the back of the van.  Drew was VERY HAPPY!!!!

Sunday, we drove to Columbus, OH to go to COSI, the wonderful Science Museum there.  Outside there was an AG exhibit, and  you could get into the cab of this one.  There was also a simulation you could do on screen.

One of the  main attractions of the museum is this unicycle ride across a tightrope wire.  Can you fall.  NO!!! Do  you think you might?  YES.  You have to be brave to do this one.  Bob, Reagan, Cari, and Rachel all did it.  And no one fell.  It's all based on the principles of center of gravity.  It's SCIENCE.

To do the ride, you had to wear good shoes so Cari used Dave's shoes, and Rachel used Bob's shoes.

Another one of Bob's favorites is the RAT BASKETBALL.  They have trained rats to play basketball so they display that they can do it.  Before the "game" the "Ref" explained how we learn so we understand how they trained the rats.

The "ref" asked, what is something you have learned.  She asked if anyone remembers how they learned how to ride a bicycle.  Reagan raised her hand.  So she got to go up and help demonstrate how we learned how to ride a bike.

Then it was time for the Rat Basketball.  They could take a little ball and make "baskets" and then go back and forth from one side to the other.  Of course they stopped for a treat after every basket.  That's how it works.  It was fun to watch.

Afterwards, there was a question/answer session up close and personal.

Outside the museum, there was an exhibit where you can lift a car.  Here they are doing it.

This was in the OCEAN area.  There was an underwater mini sub you could go into.  Reagan, Drew, and Rachel did it.

There were several really neat exhibits in the OCEAN area.  Here, Drew is operating an underwater camera.  You could see what the camera saw on the moniter in front of him.

Making balls balance on a stream of water.

Building a pipe system for water to travel from place to place.  Good training for public water works engineers.

Sand table to show how water moves sand.

A challenge to make a ball go all the way up to the ceiling where it hit a target.  Reagan did it.  

Visiting a park while waiting for eating at a nearby local restaurant.  Notice the blue "flubber" on Reagan's leg.  While at the Science Museum, we spent about an hour at a "lab" where Reagan and Drew did a variety of science experiments, one of them being making "flubber."  

Time to eat at Thurman's Cafe where the food was great, but we had to wait.  I guess we were used to that.

After eating, we drove to Dayton, OH and found a nice motel.  We got there just in time to get a little swimming in, as long as we were quiet.  It worked thanks to the pool maintenance man who allowed us to swim that last 15 to 20 minutes before closing.  It's amazing how quietly you can swim if  you have to.  Reagan and Drew were super with Cari.

We said good-bye to Cari and Dave and drove Rachel and the kids to Waterloo.  When we got there, we were happy that we could get Freddie into the house and into Drew's room.  I'm not sure if he'll stay there because he does take up a lot of room, but for now, he is there as a fun reminder of our trip.

While we were gone, Craig won a TV and gave it to Drew.  He did pretty well.  He also found a small basketball while at Cedar Point.  He is a lucky guy.

Cari sent me these pictures so I'll share them too.

Cedar Point at night.

Nice picture of Dave, Cari, Rachel, and Reagan.  Are they waiting to go on a ride?

Awwww.

Mmmm good.  Dave comes from an ice cream family.  I had my share of ice cream there too.  Nice treat.

Riding the gondolas.

Fun ride for Drew.

Nice picture of Rachel and Reagan.

Thank you so much to Cari and Dave, Rachel and Craig, Stacy and Curt, and Brian for the Christmas gift of this trip to Cedar Point.  Wish all of you could have been there, but to us, you were all there in spirit.