The Dyal Dish: Cedar Point 2008

This week was unseasonably cool. We've actually had a lot of frequent cold fronts come through this past month. Even so, we went through with our plan to go to CEDAR POINT yesterday, which was also a chilly, cold day. The sky was quite dark at times, with threats of rain. Because we knew it might rain, we brought ponchos in our backpack, but thank goodness we never had to use them. The last two years we've gone to Cedar Point, it was always on a stinken' hot day. But with the weather as cool as it was this year, we still weren't prepared enough, and were pretty chilly in the evening as it got dark. But we had a really fun day anyway. Joshua, Spencer, Jessica and I went with Megan and Adam Selthofer, friends from our ward. Alex and Logan stayed with the bishop's family since we'd be riding rollercoasters all day and they weren't tall enough.

We've been going to Cedar Point every year for 3 years. It's one of our favorite amusement parks. The park boasts an unheard of 17 roller coasters, more than any other park in the world! With a lineup that includes three of the top 10 steel roller coasters in the world, Cedar Point is a coaster lover's dream come true, and that's about all we did all day, until the end of the day when we were getting tired. Then, we went on a few low-key rides like bumper cars and the train.

Jessica's favorite rollercoaster was Top Thrill Dragster which is one of the tallest and the 2nd fastest (120 mph) rollercoaster in the world. She also loved the Millennium Force which is this massive, colossal rollercoaster and voted no. 2 of the "Best Steel Rollercoaster in the World" in Amusement Today (Top Thrill Dragster was No. 7). Joshua, Spencer and I love the newest rollercoaster that debuted last year, called the Maverick which has a 95 degree first drop, two separate launches, 10 banked turns and reaches a speed of 70 mph. We were glad to be at the front of the line when the park opened because as soon as it did, everyone reaced for the "Maverick". It was the farthest ride from the front of the park so even though we started out running with the rest of the crowd, Joshua and Jessica ended up race-walking while Spencer and I slowed to a steady jog and saved a spot in line for them when they got to us. We were glad that we rode the Maverick first because the line was horrendous the rest of the day.

Another of my favorite rides was Skyhawk, a gigantic swing that goes back and forth up to 125 feet in the air at a speed of 60 mph. in both directions. I could've ridden that over and over. All four of us also loved the Raptor, an inverted roller coaster that has seats similar to ski lift chairs, suspended below its inverted track. Riders see nothing but the sky and track above them, and nothing but their dangling feet below - just a few feet above the ground! On this ride, we tumbled head over heels six times!

It's nice that Cedar Pointis only 2 hours from our house. We were able to drive there and home in one day. We had a fun day! Alex will probably join us next year. Hopefully he is as much of a roller-coaster junkie as the rest of us! If you are too, come join us next year!! We always go the week after school gets out in June.

Our family next to our favorite ride, the Maverick

Eating lunch in the park -- "Chick-Fil-A"

Getting ready to ride "Skyhawk", with our friend Megan.
Joshua and Adam watched.

Here we go...... Weeeee!!

...On our way back up.... It's really high!!

Spencer and Mom on the "Power Tower" where we dropped 240 feet in 3 seconds at a speed of 50 mph!

Dad and Spencer riding in an antique car

In the evening, we rode the train around the park. Cedar Point in located on the coast of Lake Erie so we got a beautiful view of the sunset over the lake.