thisoldblog.net

well it snowed over the weekend here in our area. yeah, I know, not really a *big deal*. BUT to us in the southeast, IT IS. significant snow events aren’t a regular occurrence around here so the kids take full advantage of these snow days. they played in the snow practically all day saturday and sunday.

we have a sloped backyard so the kids had a blast with their sleds. we even purchased a zipfy mini luge a while back just in case we had snow like this and so the lil’ sled came in handy. it worked pretty well in the snow but it turned out that a cheap $8 plastic sled actually performed better.
Read more…

the kids and I recently visited the Dinosaur Trail at the local life and science museum. The kids loved seeing the life-sized representations of these long-gone creatures.

The boys’ favorite spot turned out to be the fossil dig area. I suppose that’s no surprise since boys and big piles of dirt have a long history together

meh. It’s too bad none of the dinosaurs were animatronic.

We took the kids to Carowinds over the weekend. We opted to do the park during the fall since it’s less crowded and the weather is nice and cool. And it turned out great – no long lines and no sweating profusely under a blazing hot sun. Here’s my quick sum-up of what we experienced during our visit to the amusement park.

The Good
- Carowinds had an october special that discounted the adult ticket prices by almost 50%. awesome!

- Afterburn is a great coaster. Nighthawk made me disoriented. and the “Drop Tower” almost made the wife pee her pants.

- the younger set LOVED Danny Phantom’s Flyers. I think they rode that particular ride the most out of all the rides. but it’s a bit scary to think about the amount of wear and tear the riders must have on these cables that hold the individual carts. if a cable goes snap, that rider is a goner! yikes!

- found an ultra clean men’s bathroom in the park. it’s located at the far end of the park near the Jukebox Diner. some of the other bathrooms were a bit dingy and old. but for some reason, the bathroom near the Diner was clean and almost looked brand-new.

- the kids give thumbs up to the following: Flying Dutchman’s Revenge, Fairly Odd Coaster, Rugrants Runaway Reptar, Hurler, Carolina Cobra, Vortex, Afterburn and Danny Phantom’s Flyers

The Bad
- they have a go-cart track and a bungee/flying contraption thing-y but they both cost extra. harumph. they should be included with admission if you ask me!

-the following were pretty darn lame: Scooby-Doo’s Haunted Mansion, the Dora the Explorer train ride, the LazyTown Sporticopters.

- the “age factor” reared its ugly head again. man, I can’t keep up with my oldest son any more. He was having a blast riding all the thrill rides and after the fourth or fifth coaster, I was pretty much done for the day. ouch.

- most of the newer steel coasters were too short for my tastes. since it wasn’t crowded, we had the opportunity to re-ride ‘em multiple times if we wanted to. but man, if I had to stand in long lines for some of those coasters, I’d feel gypped afterwards.

- ugh, the food/refreshment prices are high. yeah, it’s pretty standard for amusement parks but still, feeding the family put the hurt on my wallet. ouch.

- the park closes at 5:30pm in the fall.

The Ugly
- what in the world possessed me to eat their BBQ pork sandwich for lunch? ugh. bad choice. it felt like I had a bowling ball in my stomach for the rest of the afternoon. avoid the BBQ at all costs!

- I’m guessing Carowinds is still in a “transitional phase”. From what I understand, Paramount is no longer running the park. The park is now with the Cedar Fair Entertainment Company. All the Paramount movie references are gone and the rides now have generic names like “Hurler”, “Afterburn” and “Vortex”. Surprisingly, the Nicktoons portion (the lil’ kids section) of the park is still around. but for how long? who knows. This might be the last year we’ll get to see the Nickelodeon characters in the park. sadly, most of the attractions in Carowinds are in need of a facelift. lots of rides showing their age. lots of faded colors and we saw a couple rides malfunction during our visit. yikes. hopefully things will improve with the new owners.
Read more…

We recently took the kids to Wet ‘N Wild at Emerald Pointe in Greensboro. It had been quite some time since my last visit to a water park. I guess now that our youngest child is old enough to handle himself in a pool setting, we figured it was finally time for a visit. Wet ‘N Wild has expanded quite a bit over the years and is now the largest water park in the Carolinas and the 12th largest overall in the United States.

Like most amusement parks it has the usual downsides – inflated food prices, questionable restroom cleanliness and some obnoxious teens here and there but for the most part, Wet ‘N Wild is still a fun visit for the whole family. There are a variety of rides and a new section specifically for the younger set which was great for our younger ones. Even though we went on a weekday we still ended up enduring some relatively long wait times for the newer rides like “Dr. Von Dark’s Tunnel of Terror” and “Dragon’s Den”. But if waiting in line on hard concrete in a wet swim suit isn’t your thing, there’s always easy access to the huge wave pool (Thunder Bay Wave Pool), Leisure Lagoon (for the younger kids) and Shipwreck Cove (a pool for older kids).

Oh there is one ride that didn’t have long lines at least from what I saw. It’s the “Daredevil Drop” which is the slide with a straight 76-foot drop. I guess the height and the near vertical drop scares off most riders but you have to try it at least once. Once was good enough for me, thank you. whew!

The only snafu that occurred during our visit was losing my locker key. I had my wallet and car keys in the locker and was sort of freaked out when I couldn’t find the locker key. Like a dork, kept the key in a velcro’ed side pocket of my swimming shorts thinking it’d be secure but after a couple rides, it was gone. Thankfully the park staff was quick to help retrieve my items out of the locker before anything *happened* to them. what a relief! I’m definitely going to be more mindful of the key the next time I rent a locker that’s for sure. Again kudos to the helpful staff and also to the lifeguards who all seemed very attentive to the folks in the pool.

This Old Man gives Wet ‘N Wild a big thumbs up!

We’ll be heading back there real soon!
Read more…