We started going to this amusement park in the summer of 1989, when I was only a few months older than my daughter is now. This little amusement park holds onto the traditional family values and still hasn't sold out to the big corporate world. The park is free to park and to enter and you could either pay as you ride, or buy an all day pass. But even if you pay as you ride, the kiddie rides average $1.00 and the roller coasters are only $3.00.
The rides remain nostalgic with their antique cars, pedal cars, carousel, and famous wooden roller coasters that were bought from closed parks and reassembled here.
This park will forever have my heart as it remains a destination of fun and adventure that you can attend with a big family, multiple times a season, and not go into debt.
As a child, I remember running from our car and my brother and I rattling off all the rides we wanted to go on. Which ones we would start with and how many times we would ride each. I'll always remember the smell of cotton candy, the sounds of bells ringing, the children laughing, and the wonderful lights glistening in the night.
I could remember riding the tea cups until my head spun. Or riding the carousel with my family to see who could obtain the most rings. Or riding the log ride and seeing who could get wet the most by trying to shift our weight.
When I was younger, I was always scared of roller coasters. So my mom and brother rode them together, while my dad and I stuck to the kiddie coaster. I was grateful that my dad shoved himself into those small seats, so I could feel like a big deal too, by riding my own version of the "coaster."
And when I was a teenager, I finally rode my first ever roller coaster here...
Fast forward 25+ years later, and I'm lucky enough to relieve the experiences through my children. As soon as I arrive, I'm immediately transported back to my kid days. I feel the eagerness to go from ride to ride and eat greasy food and laugh until my belly hurts.
I was the one in the splash pool, on my belly, playing around with my children, as the other adults played on their phones and barely watched their kids. I was the one who swam around in the big pool, racing my children from side to side. I was the one who squeezed into the smaller rides and held my hands up in the air with my children and shrieked around turns. And I was the rare adult, who walked up the Helter Skelter slide so many times, breathing became difficult.
Our camping adventures only begun last year, but it totally added to the experience. There's nothing like waking up, jumping in the pool, hanging around the picnic table, then walking back to the cabin, through a dark, closed park at night.
My husband and I started taking my daughter here when she was 20 months old and I was 6 months pregnant with my son. She was a daredevil at a young age and it only grew from there. But sadly, as she is approaching 7 years old, she has taken a back seat to rides. She now stays more on the kiddie rides and leaves the bigger rides to her little brother. And due to the new safety standards in our state, they lowered the max height of the kiddie rides and starting next year, she won't be able to ride some of her most prized rides anymore.
...Sadly, she'll be stuck in that "in-between" phase, where she's too big for kiddie rides, but too scared to ride the bigger rides. And it breaks my heart, because I remember that phase too.
But the good part is, she likes to try new things. And this year, she wanted to try the log ride... And I explained, up and down, how it's a big ride and has big hills and we even watched it several times, but she assured me, she could do it. So my daughter, my mom, and myself loaded into the log and set sailed for this new adventure... After the first little drop, my daughter started to panic. So I hugged her tightly and we laughed and told stories, trying to distract her. It worked until the climb to the biggest hill. And at that point, I think she would have swam out of the boat if she could. We couldn't exit and she started to cry. That is, until I remembered the camera... And if I know my daughter, the girl who aspires to be a future famous vlogger, she couldn't resist a camera... So I told her we'll all smile and flash her famous peace sign, as we drop down the hill -and we'll have it as a great memory and a fun story and you'll never have to ride it again... She immediately perked up and braced herself... And as we dropped, she never flashed the peace sign, but she did smile immensely at the bottom. And she was so proud of herself that she did it and even said, she'll try it again next year... *In the picture, I have more of a look of terror and it completely overshadowed my daughter and we still laugh about that today.
My son's favorite ride last year was the kiddie coaster, but sadly, he didn't like it so much this year. He also developed a love for all rides that go in a circle and spin... I cannot ride them, so my dad braved it out and rode them with him. And if my son could have, he would have rode these types of rides repeatedly until he puked.
And this year was the first year in a loooong time that my husband and I rode coasters together. And after the first one, I thought I was back in the saddle and arrogantly hopped onto the second one (which was faster and longer). And now, I own a photo of me clutching so tightly onto my husband that you can see my muscle outlines, as both of us are laughing hysterically... Needless to say, I only rode it once.
With my children being only 6&4 years old, I'm excited to watch their journey at this park unfold over the following years to come. I'm sure we'll have many more experiences of loving rides, then hating rides, and so on and so forth. But the one constant that will remain is all the memories this vintage park holds for us and so many other families. The many firsts, the laughs, and the love that walked these paths will always fill quiet air around the rides. And if I have one hope for this park, it would be for them to stay true to their ancestor's objective, so when I'm a grandparent, I can watch the next generation of memories unfold all over again...
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