Oh, Hi. Ohio – Part LAST!

Alrighty now, the big wrap up.

For our last full day in Ohio, we all went to Cedar Point Amusement Park and then scattered to the four winds.  My parents went to see shows, my sister's family hit the water park, and we struck out for the main amusement park to see what we could see.  One of the first things we saw was this teaser for a dinosaur exhibit inside.

But right inside the gate, we ran into Linus, Charlie Brown, & Sally.  (Cedar Park has an eclectic mix of licensed characters: Peanuts, Hello Kitty, & the Minions from "Despicable Me" to name a few.)  Charlie Brown was happy to see the cute little red haired girl.

Out first ride, starting things out mellow, the Ocean Motion rocking ship.

Well, we thought it was mellow.  There was a teenage girl behind us F-A  R-E-A-K I-N-G O-U-T over it.  We upped the thrill level a little on the next ride, the Ferris wheel.

The Daughter tried stealing a cookie from Snoopy…

But Snoopy doesn't hold a grudge.

Or maybe he didn't, as we ended up in the wood stocks!  ("Woodstock"… get it?)

Let me pause here to talk about Cedar Point.  Aesthetically, it's not Disney World.  Or even Great America.  Closer to the state fair.  While there's some "Camp Snoopy" elements, the "theme" in "theme park" is limited.  The place is about the rides.  Specifically the roller coasters.  If you are a coaster fan, this is your place.  They call it "America's Roller Coast" for a reason.  And you do get to interact with the rides, even while not riding on them.

The Corkscrew corkscrews thru the park…

as the Iron Dragon makes a staffing run.

And we took a ride on the Iron Dragon.  It was a cool coaster.  I think we ended up riding it 3 or 4 times.

If you want to see what it's like to ride it, flip over to Cora's Blog for a kick @$$ video.  Next came the giant swings.  The girls went for a twirl, I don't handle spinning well, so I held the purses.

This summer, Cedar Point is doing a Dinosaurs Alive! exhibit.  They had some pretty cool animatronic reptiles running around a little wooded section of the park.  They moved.  They roared.

They smelled…	but you couldn't ride them.

After the dinos, we road Iron Dragon one last time, we got some souvenirs,
 

had our fortune told by Zoltar (I didn't ask to be BIG)…

And as we left, some clouds rolled in.  Where were they when the sun relentlessly baked us on the mini-golf course?
 

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And that was that.  All that was left was to pack up, say our good-byes to everyone and hit the road.

After one last game of ping pong…

 
Yes, the daughter and I got matching Charlie Brown shirts at the gift shop…

And one more look out onto Lake Erie…

 
And one last look at the Buster Brown house…

It was time to get settled in for the 5 hour drive home.

And before we knew it, Chicago lay before us, welcoming us home with bumper to bumber traffic.

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All things considered, it was a great vacation.  Good to spend time with my parents and sister's family.  And a good way to start off what has been a crazy summer.