Keith's Blog

The following is a compilation of the posts I made from my iPhone about my trip to Cedar Point on Thursday June 17 with my friend Rich and his boys Steven and Thomas. I edited or added to some of the posts, but they are pretty close to what I posted from my iPhone.

Ready to Ride!

First time on the Blue Streak for Thomas and Steven. Not for Rich
though. :)

After the Wildcat

Top Thrill Dragster Will Have to Wait

The boys aren't tall enough yet. Maybe next year! It is a great ride
though.

I love this ride. The first time I got to ride it was the year I chaperoned Elaine's 8th grade class to Cedar Point in 2006. I waited in line for about 2 hours. I was by myself and just read my book in line (which is a great time killer if you are not paired up with somebody). I am about 20 people from the front of the line when one of the ride attendants shouts "We need one rider!". I threw up my hand and said "Right here!". I skip right to the front of the line, and they put me in the left front seat of the train. Why? Because the right front seat had yellow CAUTION tape over it! So, my very first ride on Top Thrill I got to ride in the very front all by myself. The ride is so quick and smooth it is unbelievable.

On to Gemini

Bring on the Mine Ride!

Oh, no! It's Skyhawk!

I did not get to ride this one last time I was here because it rained.
Looks awesome!

Ahhhhh!!!! No more Skyhawk!

Still recovering from the scariest swing ever.
My teeth were literally chattering after this ride. It was like being on the biggest swing in the world. The upswing was OK. But when you are at the top of the downswing looking down at the pavement, it is pretty freaky!

A Great Day to be at Cedar Point

The weather has been perfect. Mid 70s and partly cloudy. Hardly anyone
here. Longest line has been 15 minutes. Which is nice with two 10 year
olds.
Since the boys could not ride any of the extreme roller coasters, we just focused on the older coasters that they could ride. They are still really great! And because we were not chewing up two hours at a time waiting for Maverick or Top Thrill, we rode some of the rides multiple times, which was a lot of fun.

Time for the Mean Streak

Sheesh. This one is a real bone-rattler. It is the longest (time-wise) roller coaster, and it is fun, but you feel like you were beat up at the end. You get a great view of Skyhawk from the top of the first hill, too.

My Favorite 'Old' Coaster

Before Millennium Force and Top Thrill, there was the Magnum XL 200.
Still a really fun ride after 20 years.

Yup. I still enjoyed this ride. It is not as smooth as the newer steel coasters, but that first hill is still pretty fast.

Iron Dragon Vanquished

Here's a cool pic of the Iron Dragon with the Corkscrew rails in the
background. Steven and Thomas' review - "AMAZING!"
Rich and I thought the Iron Dragon was, well, boring. But Steven and Thomas LOVED it. They rode it twice with me and Rich, and then I think they rode it twice more by themselves.
Break Time

Rich and I are chillin' in the shade while the boys go ride the
Wildcat again. Good times...

Scored myself a cherry Icee and relaxed in the shade for a while. Nice!

Robert and Katie

It only took 10 hours, but I finally spotted Robert and Katie outside
the Dodgem cars. They were on the way to Millennium Force!

We were just getting off the Blue Streak for the first time on Thursday when I got a text from Robert Steen - "At cedar point but leaving phone in car". I kept my eyes open all day looking for him and Katie, but never saw them. Finally, around 8:20 PM while we were waiting in line for the Dodgem cars, I saw them. It was amazing the number of strangers, that I saw over and over again throughout the day (like the guy with the Mr. T mohawk), but trying to spot Robert was like finding a needle in a haystack!

Riding the Calypso

Steven and Thomas were such big fans of this ride they got right back
on again.

This ride is right next to the Blue Streak. The line was so short for Blue Streak, Rich and I rode it twice before the boys got done with their one ride on Calypso!

Something really cool happened on the first of the two rides. Rich and I are riding with our hands up (because we CAN!). After the first big hill, I see something dark flying at us. I had no idea what it was, but Rich hit it with his hand and it fell to the floor of our car. I didn't want it to fly out of the car or get stepped on, so I picked it up. It turned out to be a pair sunglasses from the woman two cars ahead of us. They had flown off her head, Rich deflected them, and then I rescued them. Pretty cool!

It was getting dark about now and my iPhone was low on juice, so I limited my texts and photos near the end of the day to conserve power. Rich wanted to ride a couple of the rides at night, and it was a lot of fun. The boys were really well behaved and seemed to have a great time. When they are tall enough and old enough to ride all of the rides on their own, they will probably not want to hang around with me and Rich all day, so this was a really nice experience.

Well, it is official. Elaine is now a high school graduate! Congratulations, Elaine!

Today was her commencement ceremony from Arts Academy in the Woods. It was actually a combination commencement ceremony and performance, which is what you would expect from an arts high school. There were dance, instrumental and vocal performances in between the awards and speeches. It was actually much more entertaining than your typical graduation ceremony. After commencements, we went to the Shogun Japanese restaurant in St. Clair Shores for dinner, which was both entertaining and delicious.

Here is our high school graduate! Students with a vocal major had the light blue cord around their necks.

...and here she is again, sans the dorky cap and gown. The caps and gowns are disposable now, which is probably a lot easier than coordinating doling out and retrieving caps and gowns from a bunch of seniors.