Today is one of those rainy wet days you’d expect living here in the Seattle region. Luckily, today I’m giving back to the community as an alcoholic drunk. As a volunteer, I’ll be hoisting multiple alcoholic beverages (whisky and scotch are my drinks of choice) and doing my civic duty in the “wet lab” at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission (WSCJTC) in Burien. Basically, I get to drink all day, eat lunch, hang out with other volunteers, and allow the trainees to give me some field sobriety field tests, etc.
I have to drink until I’m drunk or to a mutually agreeable upon level of being trashed. I couldn’t drive myself here and I can’t leave until I am at .03. In Washington State, DUI/DWI is .08. Now, I’m no expert at drinking or DWI/DUI law and I can’t even tell you which crime is worse: a DUI or a DWI. I just know I don’t want to get one!
Anyway, this is my first time doing this type of volunteering. Most of my other volunteering work is on the tamer side where I need to be sober 24/7. This definitely will be a change of pace and an interesting way to start the weekend.
Day 4 of our Roller Coaster Adventure Trip was spent sleeping in (until 8 am) and relaxing. Even in vacation mode, I don’t sleep in. Sleeping in until 8 am is a big deal for me. Please keep in mind, we hit two amusement parks in two days and needed a bit of a break from our adventures in California. Instead of a roller coaster amusement park on Tuesday, we went to the beach in the City of Ventura, had ice cream for lunch, and then met up with my old college friend Julie and her twin three year old sons in Calabasas, California.
Even in California, people love the Seattle Seahawks.
Dig a hole to bury all your secrets in!
This is the first time we have had a chance to meet her twin sons. She is married to my other friend Chris who happened to be out of town working. I’m pretty sure he planned to be out of town on purpose. Chris likes to mess with my head that way.
I do miss that age of youth and discovery with three year old kids. Julie thought that was amusing because sometimes her boys drive her nuts. But honestly, what kids don’t drive their parents a little bit nuts once in a while. My kids drive me nuts all the time. The dog and cat drive me nuts. Heck, I think you have figure out by now that everyone and everything drives me nuts. But I love people, really, I do love them.
Time flies by and it was fun to have a glimpse of the past (when my kids were younger) and I enjoy the three year old twins. We had a great time with Duplos. I discover that I am by far still a lot better at building than some twin crazy three old boys. Ah ha! Old age wins again!
Now, you know what doesn’t drive me nuts? This whole Dad and Daughter Roller Coaster Trip! One of my clients mentioned he did a Dad and Daughter trip and had an awesome time with his daughter to Disneyland. It inspired me to do this trip. I was delighted that I could take my daughter (the only one that really enjoys roller coasters and scary rides) on this trip. I finally had someone in my family that wanted to do the rides with me! I’m selfishly happy she is now 11 years old and likes to ride the scary rides. Roller coasters all the way, everyday!
A safe harbor?
On a brief side note: She has always loved those scary amusement rides since she was a little toddler. For the past two summers, as a family we have gone to Silverwood Amusement Park in Idaho, and she is my thrill ride partner. Silverwood is very affordable and well worth the visit to Idaho if you have the time, that’s my worthless advice for northwest amusement parks.
Ok, back to California and our roller coaster adventure. Julie and I and figured out earlier that we wanted to go to Santa Monica Pier and have dinner down there. We rode the Ferris wheel with the kids, spent some time in the arcade, and had a great pizza dinner. We had a great time (well, at least I had an awesome time!). I forgot how much I miss my friends that have moved out of Washington State. This dinner and catch up session was well worth the flight to California. Plus anytime I can tell other parents how to be a better parent (because I’m an awesome parent role model and everyone wants to learn from the master of worthless parenting advice…..that’s me by the way).
Santa Monica Pier
The twins…one is a bit of a worse driver than the other one.View from the Ferris Wheel.Paradise Park at Santa Monica PierSanta Monica
I liked Paradise Park on Santa Monica Pier. Besides it being a bit windy and cold that evening, the Santa Monica Pier was fun to visit. It has a small amusement ride area, a boardwalk with shops, an arcade, and some food booths. It only has a few homeless people to bother you as you walk around; not too different from over beach towns we have been too. Nothing like the warmth of Southern California to keep you in a reality check of everyday life, am I not speaking the truth?
Overall, Day 4 was a great day to relax and catch our breath. Day 5: Knott’s Berry Farm!
Thanks for reading and pretending to care.
Artwork by the twins….
A drawing by Erb boys. Thank goodness they got the hair on the side of my head correct!
You knew I’d milk this roller coaster trip on forever in my blog posts didn’t you? On our third day of our adventure, we bid farewell to the City of Sacramento and flew on Southwest Airlines to Burbank Airport in the Los Angeles area. I do like flying into the smaller airports because it is easier to get in and out in a timely manner. Both Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines flew into Burbank Airport so this worked out well for us since our return flight back to Seattle was departing from Burbank.When I was planning this trip, I wanted to fly in as close as I could to Six Flag’s Magic Mountain Park and Burbank was the closest major airport for me. My original plan was to fly into Sacramento, rent a car, visit friends in the Sacramento area, do the Six Flag’s Discovery Park, and then drive to Magic Mountain. That plan fell apart when the cheapest rate I could find on any rental car website or kayak or hotwire or anything was close to $800 for a short five or six day rental. It was expensive due to the fact I was picking the rental car up in one city and returning it in another. My original plan also produced a lot more driving and car time that we wanted to do. We are vacation for the rides not to be taken for a ride by the rental car companies.
We used Fox Rent a Car which had some terrible reviews online but we fine for us. It was a short ride from the airport to the rental car company base. We got a sporty little four door Mazda 2 with only 500 miles on it. Not a bad little car for the two of us. I thought about having my daughter drive it but considering she is only 11 years old and it would be her first time in LA traffic, I decided against it.
Now, when you are visiting amusement parks in February Six Flag’s system of parks might not be open seven days a week. So our only window to visit Magic Mountain was on Monday February 17 (President’s Day). The park hours are limited as well from 10:30 am to 6 pm and the water rides are usually shut down.
Since we had purchased season passes at Discovery Kingdom the day before, we merely had to park our car for the outrageous sum of $20 and walk though the main gates of Magic Mountain without purchasing new tickets. I remember passing by Magic Mountain 20 years ago thinking I’d get to it one day. Finally, this day had come. Finally, I had a kid who wanted to ride the big scary rides. Finally, I had a roller coaster ride partner that wouldn’t wimp out on me. I was finally here.
To be honest, I like coming on the off season because the lines are much shorter. The newer rides had the longest rides which ate up a lot of our time. X2 is the latest redesigned ride and it was awesome but the line took forever. When a sign says the wait will be 45 minutes, that is OK. When it turns into 75 minutes, then I get a little pissed off. We didn’t make it to the Full Throttle ride because we ran out of time and the ride looked scary long. In fact, we had to skip some rides due to running out of time and having to ration our time for the rides that we heard were awesome. However, on others we rode it three times just because we could. Goliath, Tatsu, and X2 were my favorites. I tried to look up my daughter’s favorite ride but the Magic Mountain website is down (sorry folks!).
Waiting for X2 – almost there!
Definitely need to have two days at Magic Mountain (even in the off season) to get to all the rides into your schedule. I can’t imagine how it is on a busy summer day with more people wandering the park, trying to get in as much as possible. The lines have to be almost impossible. We didn’t even get to the wooden roller coasters since they aren’t my favorites because we ran out of time. Personally, I like the speed and loops of steel roller coasters so skipping the wooden ones wasn’t an issue for me.
As anyways, your comments and sarcastic witty comments are welcome.
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