Tron Dragon and the Bates Motel - Vacation days 1-2.5

Our Roper family vacation began on the evening of the 16th with a family portrait. These are the first professional family pictures we've had taken since Dad and Susie got married almost two years ago. Lance and I also got some of just the two of us since it was our seven year anniversary that day. (Side note: SEVEN years?!? We rock! I love you, meat!) I think they all turned out really well and will post them as soon as the prints come in.

(Another side note: I had my first allergy attack of the season that afternoon, complete with scratchy throat, faucet face, and swollen nose. Not exactly photo-friendly. Luckily, I was able to get my hands on some Claritin-D in time to look decent for the photo shoot. I was in a drug-induced haze for most of the trip, but at least I could breath!)

The next afternoon my brothers, Kyle & Kevin, Lance and I started our pilgrimage to Cedar Point, Mecca of the roller coaster world. Okay, it was really more of a pilgrimage for Kevin, our resident roller coaster junkie, but Lance and I were really excited just to get out of the house for two nights without the boys! (My dad and Susie offered to not only pay for the entire trip, but also to watch the boys for us. Are they AWESOME or what?)

Anywho, we drove six hours to... scenic... Sandusky, OH. Okay, the parts we saw were pretty ghetto, but I'm sure there are nice parts that we missed. I had booked our rooms at the Comfort Inn; online the pictures and most of the reviews had been decent. Plus, they were pretty pricey rooms, and I had stayed at good Comfort Inns before, so I figured we'd be okay. WRONG!!!! I won't go into the gory details because you can read them all here in the complaint letter I mailed to them this morning. Every word is true!

(Side note the third: I'm all about writing letters of complaint. Even if they don't solve the problem, at least I feel better! Yes, this one is a bit dramatic, but I decided to write it that way for the following reasons:

• I don't expect to get any response from them, and figured I might as well make the letter more interesting blog-wise
• They probably get lots of boring complaint letters; perhaps a more interesting one might get their attention
• I was hopped up on Claritin-D when I wrote it

So now Comfort Inn is on my blackball list, joining such rotgut companies as American Airlines, U-Haul, and Omaha, Nebraska. Boo! Hiss! Okay, Omaha isn't a company, but I still hate it because three years ago while moving to Lafayette I got lost on their crazy freeway we-don't-believe-in-signs-for-out-of-towners road construction while driving a U-Haul. Hell hath no fury...)

Okay, stay on target...

Rather than spend the evening at the Dis-Comfort Inn we went to see The Simpsons Movie, which was pretty good. It won't win any Oscars, but it was definitely entertaining; like a really good Simpson's episode, only longer.The hotel was disappointing - Cedar Point was not. It... was... AWESOME!!! I didn't take my camera, because who wants to lug a camera around a theme park all day? But we all had a great time together. Lots of waiting in line, of course, but the weather was absolutely perfect (low 70's, minimal sun, slight breeze) and the company was good. (Even if Kevin still refuses to admit that Harry would kick Spidey's trash.) Here's my list of highlights:

1. Millennium Force - Best. Coaster. Ever. 310 feet high, 6595 feet of track, 92 mph. Need I say more?
2. Top Thrill Dragster - Scariest. Coaster. Ever. The picture doesn't do it justice. First you go strait up 420 feet, and then you go down, with a barrel roll just for fun. Oh, and by the way, you do it at 120mph. (0 to 120mph in 4 seconds!)
3. Iron Dragon - most entertaining coaster, but only because of my brothers' commentary during the whole (comparatively slow) ride. We all called it the "Tron Dragon" because that's what the font on the sign looked like it said.
4. Cedar Creek Mine Ride - Lamest coaster ever. 'Thanks' again to Kevin for making us ride it. :) The only scary part was when we were stalled on a small hill and the brakes let go for half a second. Lame!
5. maXair - Best thrill ride of the day. It doesn't look that scary until you're on it - way fun!!
6. Wave Swinger - I absolutely love the swings! It's the closest to flying you can get. Too bad it made Lance sick.

Okay, enough of the coaster commentary. I'm sure that's about as fun as watching someone else's vacation slides.

The day was great until the very end. We had been in line for the Raptor for just over an hour when it started sprinkling. Soon we heard the most dreaded announcement in coaster enthusiast culture: the ride was temporarily delayed due to weather. We waited for another 30 minutes hoping and praying that it would open, but we finally (and wisely) gave up and called it a day. Such a sad, sad way to end the day. Poor Kevin didn't get to reach his goal of riding every major coaster in the park. (But now we have a great excuse for another trip!) Realizing that we had forgotten where we had parked added insult to injury, although we found the car in about 5 minutes.

Despite that final heartbreak, we were all quite pleased with the day.

We escaped our hotel early the next morning in order to make it back to Lafayette in time for church.

More to follow...

Current song in my head: the PBS Kids theme song. Urgh!! Get it out!