This past weekend, Carly and I took a four day trip to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. We had been there before four years ago. Ray opted to stay home. He wouldn't be able to keep up with us. We play hardball when it comes to hitting the ground running at the park. I am sure he was lonely when he wasn't at work.
When we were making arrangements for our trip, I decided to look up what event could possibly be taking place the day we were to be at the park. In the past, we have stumbled into parks along with thousands of Scout, Youth, Christian, you name it groups that always wear matching shirts and come by the bus loads to the park. By the end of the day, we are running the other way away from the "yellow shirts" (I remember this color clearly at one of our last visits to Kings Dominion in Doswell, VA). Just get us away from the "yellow shirts". I found that at Cedar Point, Coastermania would be the event of the day. And I found that if I paid a measly $10 to join a coaster club (or up to $60 a year for other clubs), we could partake in the festivities. This meant entering the park at seven am, and we didn't have to leave until one am the next day! OMG! Eighteen hours of riding the coasters, eating the elephant ears (very much like hojaldas in Panama but with cinnamon sugar all over it), and sharing the day with what turned out to be 2,000 Coastermania participants. And while sitting down at our free lunch of bratwurst, BBQ pork, baked ziti, mac and cheese, potato salad, pasta salad and bean salad, soda, water, ice cream and cookies (those went into our pockets for later), in our brand new teal green and gray fleece jackets, Carly nailed it. Her single comment, "We are the yellow shirts" was spot on! How proud I was though to wear that jacket (along with my four other layers and jeans since it was cloudy, chilly and sixty degrees all day) with my Coastermania lanyard hanging around my neck. How sore my feet were. We played arcade games. We drank chai latte (me) and vanilla latte (her) while people watching. People asked us who we were and where did we get the teal green jackets. We pigged out on nachos and a side salad (haha) for dinner later, since we had walked for ten hours so far.
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| We loaded up on those carbs for energy! My ice cream was still on my plate (needed more hands) with cookies in pockets! |
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| Fortunately, we had been told to get to lunch early (we were about 100 in with 1900 behind us). Jackets were being given out--dozens and dozens of huge boxes of them. |
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| Queuing up waiting for freebies and lunch--super orderly. |
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| The only shirt not seen here is the tee shirt Carly made for us to wear--never saw it. I never unwrapped myself.
We made it onto 23 rides multiple times. We calculated eleven hours of riding time with three rides achieved per hour. We watched a show, saw fireworks, people watched, had not more than a 20 minute wait in line and hobbled our way back to the hotel by midnight (we decided to just be done).
We had an amazing day and wonderful road trip. These are the best of times. She is starting her job soon, making new friends, having and living a new life, and still making time for me and the coasters! When in Panama we will zip line and ride ATV's in the jungle. When back in the States, perhaps we can make time for a day in an amusement park. We'll see what happens, but what I know is, near or far, we will always make time for each other and find laughter, joy and happiness in all the decisions we make along the way. (And yes, the decisions we are making as a family and individually are the right one's for all the right reasons! Today, Ray booked us for yet another trip to Panama! This one will be in January--after the holiday-- and SOLELY to work with our attorney obtaining our VISA! Let the paperwork begin!)
The start of our morning (seven am)
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