I wanna do it again!

I love theme parks. Loved them since I was old enough to go on the good rides. Love the atmosphere, love the adrenaline, love the park food (hello, funnel cakes!), and especially love the people watching. There is some fine people watching to be done at amusement parks.

Yesterday we took the boy to Kings Island where, much to the delight of his father, he proved himself to be a tiny adrenaline junkie. Sure, he liked the kiddie rides, but the one he loved, the one that had him shrieking with glee and begging to do it again, was the giant log flume, rated a 4 out of 5 on the park thrill scale. He started laughing as soon as we rocketed through the first turn and by the final fall was grinning so widely I thought his face might crack. Absolute love-at-first-ride.

On the milder side, he drove cars






and bumper cars. He's quite good at the bumper cars, never getting stuck in a jam like lots of the other kids, but rather deftly maneuvering his steering wheel so he could ram someone else. I think all the jeep driving is paying off.





The kids area is awesome - lots of rides even for the smallest kids, and some pretty good ones for the slightly bigger set. It is Nickelodeon themed with a variety of the television characters roaming about; we saw Spongebob, Little Bill, Pablo from the Backyardigans, and, in a big moment for Matt, Scooby Doo.



Unfortunately, Matt turned out to be absolutely terrified of giant Scooby Doo. Ah well. He did better hanging out in the Mystery Machine,



and, strangely, even better on Scooby's Haunted Mansion ride, where you shoot at "ghouls" with blaster flashlights while you ride through the haunted mansion on mini Mystery Machines. Charles got the high score, of course, but we all had fun shooting the bad guys. This is the official photo they take while you are on the ride - we all look slightly deranged.



Matt also drove jeeps, flew on swings, an airplane and a giant Blue's Clue dog, went on a mini-scrambler type coaster, and a slightly larger kiddie coaster. Half of the fun for me on these trips is watching Charles try to fold himself into the kiddie rides so they can ride together.



Matt missed the height cut-off for the next coaster up by about an inch. I bet he'll have hit it by next summer - can't wait to get back and find out.