June 30th HERSHEY PARK

In honor and celebration of Ali completing her first decade, we spent the day at HERSHEY Park. They let us camper-types in an hour early in return for spending so much money on the campground entrance fee. What they didn't tell us is that only a very few select rides but all of the pay-to-play stuff (face painting, whack-a-mole, food court, etc.) is actually open at that hour. Our first ride together as a family was on the Comet, a old-school wooden roller-coaster. On the first drop I turned to see how Sara was holding up (this was her first ride on a big kid coaster) and instinctively reached out for the stop-this-train chord. She looked like she might be in cardiac arrest or at the very least that her large intestine had come unglued and was slowly corkscrewing its way out her back side. Her cherubic little face was gripped with a look of sheer joy-terror-pain-wtf, I couldn't decide if I should laugh or try to console her. She soon loosened up and enjoyed the ride that she never wants to go on again.

Ali and I went on the Claw. Can't really describe this to you. Kinda like the pirate ship on mushrooms. You know you are in for a good time when the floor drops out from under you after everyone is safely chained in. It swings, wicked high, while spinning and teetering, and such. Ali and I had an absolute blast while Sara cried in Shannon's arms, worried that Ali and I were going to get hurt or worse.

We ended our park day by taking in a show. Imagine the greatness of Blue Man Group combined with really bad broadway shtick and pseudo broadway vocals. Add Velveeta. Stir to mix. Let ferment in the afternoon sun. Yields 1 big serving of poop.

We went back to the trailer park with all or our rowdy friends for a dinner of kettle corn and cider. We turned the fan on full blast to drown out the neighborly noises and turned in for the night.