A short side-story..........we actually remembered to bring the camera. When they did our "bag check" at the entrance, the full-of-himself power-hungry "guard" said we had too many snacks. "Only one snack per person is allowed". So Hubby had to return to the car with some of the snacks (although many of those snacks made an illicit return trip into the park via his pants pockets) and he inadvertently left the camera with the snacks in the car. Since he'd already gone to the car twice, (he forgot to bring the keys the first time) we decided to just forget the camera. So here's the one photo he took before we went into the park:
The picture quality is not great, but I wanted you to note the snazzy outfit Emily is wearing, including a pink straw hat. She needed a straw hat since "that's what Pepere always wears".
We arrived at the park at 10:54, which I know for sure since we had to check the time and calculate how many minutes until the rides started at 11:00.
We let Emily dictate the day, since it was her special day. Luckily for Pepere and I, she is just under the 48" needed to go on the big, scary rides, which Emily didn't want to go on anyway since "Only crazy people go on those rides!" So we hit the Kiddie Area, where they have some nice intermediate size rides. Not the little boats that just go around in circles ("boring!") but the Dragon Coaster!!! By the end of the day, we'd been on that one 5 times!!
Unbelievably, she was also open to trying some rides she'd never been on before.
One was the Boston Tea Party.
She loved it! We didn't get terribly wet when we hit the bottom, but upon exiting the ride there's a bridge which, if you linger too long, you get hit by a tidal wave of water from the next car coming down.
We lingered too long and I spent the rest of the day with fairly wet shorts.
She loved it! We didn't get terribly wet when we hit the bottom, but upon exiting the ride there's a bridge which, if you linger too long, you get hit by a tidal wave of water from the next car coming down.
We lingered too long and I spent the rest of the day with fairly wet shorts.
Emily, however, loved it!
Another ride called the Wave Bouncer strapped us in, went around in circles while bouncing us up and down. That one she went on twice, once with Pepere and once with Memere.
The Log Flume Ride is a staple at Canobie Lake Park. Another plunge ride that gets you wet at the bottom.
The first time we went on, Emily buried her face in Pepere's back as we started down the big hill, so as not to get her face wet. They snap your photo at that point, and when we went to check our photo, Emily was nowhere to be seen, hidden behind Pepere's back. So the second time we went on, she made sure she leaned out of the log ride, smiled and waved for an instant before ducking safely behind Pepere again.
Throughout the day we wandered around the park, going on whatever rides took our fancy......sometimes once, sometimes twice and occasionally more than that! We got some Italian Ice, some popcorn and ice cream and ate our illegal snacks.
The best part of the day, however, was towards the end of the day. We had negotiated "three more rides" and had checked our map to see which ones we should choose. On the way over to our first choice we saw Bubble Guns in one of the stores, and we decided to buy her one.
The kid in the store set it up for her, and she was off. She spent the rest of the evening capturing my heart with the magic that is Emily. She danced around squirting bubbles around every person she saw, singing her own made-up song about "Bubbles make people happy!" Her beauty and joie de vivre made every single person smile - infants, teenagers and elderly folks. It was such a joy and pleasure for me to see her make everyone's day just a little more special.
We finally left the park at 8pm (although she would have stayed until it closed at 10!). On our last ride, we saw all the lights in the park come on, which was "so pretty!" We ended the adventure with supper at Emily's favorite restaurant, Papa Gino's.
We do these trips with our grandchildren to give them special memories, but this one is a special memory for Memere and Pepere as well.
1 comment:
I love the idea of a special outing for your birthday. My mom and I are going to see a play in NYC for each other's birthdays and Christmas — who needs more stuff, let's do something fun.
I love that she got brave about trying different rides. I have no use for amusement parks personally, but it is fun to watch a kid overcome their hesitations and try a "scary" ride!
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