Six Flags America

Yesterday we visited an amusement park for the first time in 2020. Usually our first trip is at the end of April or early May to Knoebels. If WVIA reschedules their day at Knoebels, we will go, but if they don't I doubt we'll visit Knoebels this summer. That is the closest amusement park to our house. The next closest park to us is DelGrosso's, which is not opening this year due to COVID-19. I purchased a membership to Six Flags on January 4, and July 8 was the first we made use of that membership. Two of the three Six Flags parks that are 3-3.5 hours from our house opened on July 1. Nadia has acting class the last two weeks of July so I made reservations to visit Six Flags America (MD) on July 8 and Six Flags Great Adventure (NJ) on July 14. If Six Flags Darien Lake (NY) reopens this summer, I'm planning to take the kids there in August. If it doesn't reopen, I think I'll take the kids back to Six Flags America one more time next month, especially if Hurricane Harbor (the waterpark portion) is fully open at that time.

On Tuesday afternoon I purchased a box of eight donuts at Walmart so the kids could eat breakfast in the van on Wednesday morning. We left a few minutes after 7:00am. It was the first time in at least four months that I woke the kids up in the morning. Oliver liked the crullers; he ate three of them. Nadia and Ian each only had one because they didn't care for them. Paul had eaten two the night before, and I threw away the last one. My phone said the trip would take 3hr 20 minutes, but it took almost exactly four hours including one stop for gas + bathroom break. The GPS had me go a different route than I was anticipating, which included paying one toll. I don't usually pay a toll when driving to MD, but we didn't hit much traffic on the Baltimore beltway, which was appreciated. Our first stop was the membership services building to receive our badges and the drink container that enables us to receive free unlimited drinks at Six Flags parks for years to come. Ian drank a lot of Root Beer yesterday. Nadia had some lemonade and some Powerade. I had a tiny bit of Powerade and lemonade but mostly drank water because I don't like to drink calories. Oliver had a little Hi-C, lemonade, Powerade, and root beer, but mostly he drank water. We had packed our lunches and ate them in the van during the last portion of our drive. I had a coupon for $5 off a funnel cake. We usually have eat a funnel cake on our summer bucket list, which means we usually eat funnel cake once per year. The funnel cake was the only thing I purchased at Six Flags yesterday. Their food prices are ridiculous. Yvonne's family purchased four meal plans as they visit the park regularly since they live about 20 minutes from the park. This means they can receive 8 meals plus 4 snacks for free every time they go to the park. Joe gave one of their meals for Ian and Oliver to share for dinner. Nadia split a meal with two of her cousins. Oliver was full from what he ate in the park. I ended up eating a VERY late dinner as we stopped at a Wendy's around 8pm on our way home. I used a gift card to buy cookies for Nadia and Ian, a burger for Nadia, and a cup of chili for myself. 

The email I had received announcing the park was opening stated that Hurricane Harbor wasn't opening yet, and so we didn't bring any bathing suits. It turned out part of Hurricane Harbor was open, and given how hot it was yesterday, it would have been nice to go on a few water slides. There are two rides that involve water that aren't in the waterpark. One doesn't get you very wet. I rode that one only once because it involved too much spinning around for my stomach. Ian and Joel had an adventure as they got stuck on that ride one of the times they rode it. The other ride gets you VERY wet. I got drenched once. Most of the kids rode it at least once. Julianna and Oliver rode it umpteen times in a row. They weren't strict about wearing a mask on that ride. Maybe that was part of the reason those two rode it so many times. There were VERY few people at the park, which meant most of the time you just had to wait for the people currently on a ride to get off, and then you got on. Many times a ride would operate with just a couple of kids on the entire ride. Very easy to accomplish social distancing! Most of the time we wore our masks. Normally the highlight for me of a trip to an amusement park is taking pictures of the kids on rides. Because of the face mask regulations, I didn't bring my camera. Facial expressions are the main reason I take pictures. As we were about to leave, I took three pictures of seven of the kids. Most of them took off their masks for the picture. Andrew was still at the park when the photo was taken. Yvonne, Jenna, Micah, and Wesley had left around 3pm. Although Wesley is 3 years old, he is a tiny bit shy of 36 inches, which means he can't ride many rides. Julianna and Oliver were buddies for most of the day. Nadia was with Andrew and Joshua almost the whole day. She also rode some rides with Jenna and Nathan. Joel and Ian were buddies. Nathan joined Ian and Joel for part of the day and the older kids for the other part of the day. 

The kids had a great day. They enjoyed the rides and also loved being with their cousins. They are very excited that they will be riding rides with some of their cousins next Tuesday. Uncle Joe plans to spend the day with Andrew, Nathan, Nadia, and Joshua, and I am planning to spend the day with Ian, Oliver, and Joel. I didn't mind that Nadia was with the older kids without an adult in part because Jenna and Andrew have cell phones. Oliver always had adult supervision. I was a bit unnerved that Ian had big chunks of time when he wasn't with an adult or anyone who had a phone. Everything worked out fine, but it was definitely out of my comfort zone. Next Tuesday I'll be sure to stay with my boys. Ian is tall enough to ride everything at Six Flags because once you hit 54 inches you can ride everything. Oliver is 50 inches tall so there were 6 rides he couldn't ride yet. Ian and Joel don't aspire (yet) to ride everything they are allowed to ride which made them a good pair at the park. There are nine rides Oliver won't be able to ride on Tuesday. He's excited to ride the Joker in NJ.

We got home around 10:30pm, which meant we were in the van for 8 hours yesterday in order to spend about 7 hours in the amusement park. I was utterly exhausted when we got home, and I still have a headache and no energy today. The only place we're planning to go today, tomorrow, and Saturday is to the swimming pool. I'm sure I'll recover before our next adventure on Tuesday. We accomplished two things on our summer bucket list yesterday - eat funnel cake and go to Six Flags. I also deleted one  because the church that was still hoping to have VBS announced yesterday that they cancelled their VBS. I've taken kids to VBS every year since 2011, but 2020 is a very unusual year. If we didn't have a membership, I wouldn't be taking the kids to Six Flags this summer because of the requirement to wear masks in the heat, but thankfully the kids still had a good day, and I will bounce back.