We're on Long Island!

Nadia's performance went well on Friday night. I was one of the six parents permitted to attend that performance. The director's attempt to livestream that performance on Facebook was unsuccessful. On Saturday afternoon I took the boys to the swimming pool during Nadia's performance. Paul was able to watch the livestream on Saturday. He was able to hear the performance (which couldn't be said about Friday night's attempt), but the lighting still made it very difficult to tell who you were looking at. The camp was open to teens entering grades 6-11. Nadia is entering 7th grade, but she was the youngest person in the camp. There were a few kids entering 8th grade in the camp. The two lead roles (director and fairy godmother) were played by two teenagers who are going into 11th grade. After the performance on Saturday the director suggested that people bring their own food for a picnic at the larger park in town. The kids and I stayed at the picnic for 90 minutes. We were the first to leave. I am sure Nadia would have liked to stay longer as the teens were off in a field playing a game together, but we had left our home at 12:30, and I knew it would be 7:00 by the time we got home. I was tired and knew I'd be driving for 6+ hours the next day. I had helped the kids pack their clothes in the morning, but I still had packing to do that evening. I went to bed at 8:45 on Saturday night so I would have enough energy for the driving on Sunday.

Originally I had planned to stop at Sagamore Hill on the way here and Thomas Edison's National Park on the way home. Since both parks are still closed due to COVID-19, I asked the kids if they wanted to visit Six Flags in NJ on the way there and/or back. Usually I pick a museum or historical site that only adds a few minutes to the drive. Stopping at Six Flags would add at least 90 minutes to the drive, but considering it typically takes us 6.5 hours round trip to visit Six Flags Great Adventure from our home, the fact it would add less than 2 hours to our driving time made it seem worthwhile. The boys wanted to go on both days. Nadia had repeatedly said she wanted to only go on our way back on Saturday because she didn't want to miss church on Sunday. When we visited Six Flags Great Adventure with Uncle Joe and four of his boys in July, the water park (Hurricane Harbor) wasn't open. The water park opened on July 24. We have never been in that water park before so I made reservations for August 8 for Hurricane Harbor. On Saturday Nadia told me that she had changed her mind and would like to also visit Six Flags on the way to Long Island. It was too late to get a reservation for Hurricane Harbor, but I was able to get reservations for Great Adventure.

We left our house around 7:30 yesterday morning and made one stop for gas on the way to Six Flags. Gas is cheaper in NJ and NY than it is in PA, but I didn't have enough gas to wait until we were in NJ. I was thrilled to see there are gas station's near my aunt's house where the gas is $1.99. I paid that price once in March at the beginning of the pandemic. Not counting the time spent going through the screenings and such, we spent a little more than 4 hours in the park. The kids absolutely loved being with their cousins the last time we were at that park, but Joel is afraid of heights and my boys deferred to his preferences. Last time Ian rode a bigger ride with Uncle Joe, Nadia, Joshua, Andrew, and Joshua one time. Yesterday Oliver and Ian rode several bigger rides that they hadn't ever ridden before. Ian discovered that the Superman rollercoaster is his favorite ride at that park! Oliver isn't tall enough for the Superman because you need to be 54 inches to ride some of the rides. Paul can't wait for us to return to Orlando. My plan has been to wait until Oliver is tall enough to ride every ride. Oliver enjoyed riding El Toro and The Joker. Aunt Janet said she still enjoys metal rollercoasters. She said she'd still enjoy The Joker and Superman, but she doesn't ride wooden rollercoasters any more. El Toro is the wooden rollercoaster in the picture above. Normally we spend more than 4 hours in an amusement park but #1 we had already been to the park last month, #2 we wanted to spend some time with Aunt Janet that evening, and #3 it was really hot out. Even though they reopened Hurricane Harbor, there were still several rides closed due to COVID-19 and two of those included the flume and rapids rides which means no water rides in Great Adventure are open this year. 

This is our fourth trip to spend a week with Aunt Janet. In 2017 we came on a Saturday and attended church with her on Sunday. The last two years we arrived on Sunday evening and left on Saturday morning. All three times we ate dinner with Aunt Janet on the day we arrived. Yesterday I texted her from the park to let her know that because we had eaten an early lunch we wanted to stop at get breakfast sandwiches at Dunkin on the way to her place. Six Flags doesn't let you bring any food into the park so we had eaten the lunches we packed at 10:30, and we wouldn't have arrived at her house until about 6:30. We enjoyed some ice cream at her place before swimming for about an hour prior to putting the boys to bed. Ian is usually the first one up, but Oliver got up really early this morning. Hopefully he'll sleep later tomorrow morning because I got less than 7 hours of sleep last night, and I prefer to get 8-9 hours of sleep. We are very thankful that THIS trip wasn't cancelled. New York has 36 states (well that also includes DC and Puerto Rico so it's actually not just "states") on a list that if you are coming into NJ/NY from any of those states you must quarantine for 2 weeks. Virginia, Maryland, and Illinois are all on the list so if my other family members wanted to visit Aunt Janet they'd have to quarantine for 2 weeks. Aunt Janet knows of people who have been fined $2,000 per person for not following the quarantine regulation. We wouldn't have come if Pennsylvania was on the list. This might be our only vacation in 2020. I'm very thankful we were still able to spend a week with my Aunt. We're headed to the pool shortly and after lunch we'll head to the beach and spend the rest of the day there. Even though they really need rain around here just like we do in Pennsylvania, we're hoping for not too much rain over the next five days so we can enjoy her beach and outdoor swimming pool. The indoor pool is closed due to COVID-19.