Summer Vacation, Part 1 - Cedar Point

Vacation’s all I ever wanted
Vacation’s a time to get away
Vacation’s meant to be spent in love
Vacation by the Go-G0's

How appropriate for that song to come up on the iPod as we were driving from Illinois through Ohio en route to New York.

As 2007 has been already dubbed the year of the Roadtrip, we added another 1,900 miles on to the Tahoe during our week long vacation. This trip took us back East to visit Scott’s mother in Upstate NY. In the past, we have flown there and then onto Boston, but since we will see my side of the family in August, we decided to go to NY only and take the Interstate instead of the Airways.

By driving, we were able to take advantage of stopping along the journey. Our East bound stop was the Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio. The park claims to be the Roller Coaster Capitol of the World, with 17 of the thrill rides. Scott and I last went to Cedar Point in 1990 when we lived in Cleveland - we had a great time back then and expected this return visit would not disappoint.

The plan – arrive Saturday afternoon, hit the water park, Soak City, that evening and spend all Sunday at the main park. The weather Saturday evening was warm and perfect for the water park. After 6pm, we had the water slides all to ourselves – no lines – just tons of fun.



The tracks of the Magnum 2000XL coaster weave through Soak city, giving us a taste of tomorrow’s adventures. It was almost too much for Erica to bear watching – she wanted to ride that coaster and knew she had to wait another 12 hours. But once she realized that the water slides were fun, she stopped obsessing about the roller coaster. We raced down the water slides, rode the family tube ride and frolicked in the wave pool until park closing time at 9pm.




Day 2 – Cedar Point

We were able to enter the park an hour before the general public (one advantage to staying at one of the Cedar Park Hotels). Mommy and Daddy first rode the Raptor coaster – an inverted suspension coaster. Erica had never ridden a looping coaster and did not want this one to be her first one, so she opted not to ride. But we would have to wait until 10am for many of the main rides to open.

That first family ride was the Magnum XL 2000 – [flash to the past] – this ride was Cedar Point’s fastest, tallest, newest coaster back in 1990, and the first ride Scott and I experienced. The coaster is over 200 feet tall and travels up to 72 mph. The ride was as exciting and fun as we remembered it. Back in 1990, we only were able to ride the Magnum two times due to the ride’s popularity. [Fast forward to 2007] – Erica rode the Magnum 6 times, 5 times with Mommy and 1 time with Daddy. Brian rode it twice. The longest we waited was 15 minutes.
We also rode the Gemini, the Mean Streak, the Miner Coaster and the Iron Dragon. Erica conquered her fear of inverted coasters and rode the Corkscrew coaster – and after the ride was over she commented – “is that it?”. I guess going upside down wasn’t so scary after all.

Daddy waves at the end of the Iron Dragon (Brian's Favorite)


Here is a picture of Scott, Erica and Brian in front of the Corkscrew –



Towards the end of the day, Erica and Daddy waited 45 minutes to ride the Millennium Force – at 310 tall and traveling at speeds up to 92 mph, this was Erica’s favorite coaster. Mommy and Brian will ride it the next time.

We did enjoy other more relaxing rides – the Sky Ride, the Swings, and the Antique Cars – and some thrill rides – the power tower and bumper cars. Mommy and Erica got drenched on Thunder Canyon and we had to buy Erica a new outfit (that was an expensive ride).

Our day ended at 10pm as we dragged our cold, sore bodies back to the hotel. That is always the goal - open up the park and close it down.