Legoland

We have started this summer with lots of go-go.  We, the kids and I, took a long, long drive to Chicago earlier this week.  I have never known the drive to be as long as it was taking Interstate 55 across the state.  Yes, we stopped three times in our first hour, but geesh, the road itself seemed to go on forever.  Finally, we got there.  I messed up taking my exit where we were to meet Debra, but I found out by accident exactly where Ikea is, so watch out, I might just take off now and go there sometime. 

So anywho, we finally connected with Deb at a Wendy’s and then headed on up together for the next leg of the drive to Legoland.  Jack decided he didn’t want to do Legoland which was probably an appropriate choice since it was more kiddie than he is, so he and Deb did their own thing at Woodfield. 

I know we had a really good time!  Tell me how else could you pet Einstein’s tongue?

 

^^This is a replica of where Caroline was yesterday.  She stayed with Aunt Deb and they were going to Navy Pier.  Side note:  It sure is quiet around here.

       

    

We paid a bunch of tolls there and back.  This, unfortunately, is the only pic I snapped of our lovely hostess and beautiful sis, Deb.   Back at her place that night, we had some fabulous Aurelio’s pizza.  Wow, that stuff is good.  Very Dimaggio’s like.  Delish.  We watched True Grit (the new version, a good one!), and then left Caroline and headed on back home late the next morning.  We took I-57 to 70 on the drive home and for some reason, it is so much more enjoyable of a drive.  We stopped in Champaign for a late lunch at Cracker Barrel. Grant enjoyed his first beer in a bottle.  The root kind, that is.  

That’s not his tooth, but a funny thing did happen…a waitress dropped a dish clear across the big room and we heard the crash.  A second later, this shark-tooth-shaped piece of glass sailed right across Grant’s chest.  I never would have thought the glass would have travelled such distance and it seemed like such a delay after hearing the crash.  Weird, and so glad it didn’t hit those blue eyes. 

This is my other mystery son that won’t let me take his picture.  Is there a sad mom face icon?  : ( 

Sam threw a whopper of a fit because we walked into Cracker Barrel instead of the neighboring Steak and Shake, but with a jelly biscuit, he seemed to come around.  

 

This is my list of things I wrote down at lunch that wished I had taken a picture of…

Deb and Caroline—self explanatory

Airplane wing—on 74 headed into Champaign, we passed a truck with one of the longest trailers I’ve ever seen and its load was literally an airplane wing.  It was huge and I’ve never seen anything like that going down the road.  It so deserved a picture, but sometimes I have to just drive.  You know, kids in the van.

Limos—on the drive up, we kept playing the passing game with these two stretch limos.  The funny thing was, they were both so full of luggage that their trunks were overflowing and had to be held shut with a cord, plus, the front seats were filled with luggage with only a little open space for the chauffeur to sit and drive.  It looked like a plenty big enough car.  I told the kids it was the Chilis inside. 

Braidwood Inn—And yes, it is the actual one where Neil Page and Del Griffith hilariously share a room when their flight out of Wichita is delayed in my all time favorite movie, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.  It is right by I-55 and its sign says Sunset Inn.  But it’s def the Braidwood Inn.  Man, I wish I had a picture.  I’m gonna snap one when I go on my Ikea getaway.

And are we good or what?  Fourteen seconds to spare.  We hit the Effingham Steak and Shake just in the nick of time to get our half-price drinks and shakes to fuel us the rest of the way home.

 

And speaking of fuel, I saw my all-time highest price gas price ever—Chicago $4.29/gallon.  Whoa.

Well, it was a good, fun trip and thanks for the hospitality, Deb!   Love ya!!

The Mini Vacay--Holiday World Day 2

   

Hey, thanks for your patiencia.  The day I was home this week with time to type up Part 2 of the story, our computer wasn’t working.  So, now here it is, finally, so many days later that I’m sure I’m going to have to work the brain harder to even remember what all happened. 

This was taken the second night (see how nicely the campground cleared out after Memorial Day) after we came back to our campsite.  If I didn’t mention it in the last post, the campground is called Lake Rudolph.  I was there as a little kid.  My grandma decided we should take an extended-family vacation, so me and my folks and my uncle and aunt and their two kids and the grandparents all went camping at this very campground and went to what was then called Santa Claus Land, now Holiday World. I wish I had the pictures from that trip, but I don’t.  I know there is a picture of me and my cousins, Donna and Shawn, standing in front of this Santa Claus statue that is still there today. 

Donna and I were wearing cotton halter tops my grandma sewed for us.  They were so perfect in the hot summer.  It would have been about 1974 or so.  I was probably the age Caroline is now. 

The two things I remember from the trip is 1) swimming in the lake at the campground and learning the side stroke, and 2) my dad somehow getting ash all over the back side of his clothes from our campfire which seemed to fuel even more fervently his saying something to the effect of “never doing this again when he’s got a good bed at home.” 

And camp again as a family, we did not.  : ) 

See this?  No wonder we needed an extra big trailer.   

It’s just our shoes.

How does this happen? 

Wait, stop.   Don’t answer that.

Hmm, I don’t remember taking a laptop with us in 1974. 

We enjoyed our second day at Holiday World even though it was as hot as any Fourth of July.  Smart folks were doing the water park that day to help keep cooler, so in a way it worked out well for us to do the amusement park.  It was one of those get-off-a-ride-and-hop-right-back-on days because so few people were riding the rides and there we no lines.  That made it fun, and once we had our clothes sweat-saturated, the baking sun didn’t feel so bad.  

We rode the log flume about six times in a row and no matter how big Ross plays it up as an awesome ride, it is fairly lame, but I will say it’s pretty enjoyable when it cools you off on a 98 degree day.  

Jack has been to Six Flags twice and that has basically been our kids’ exposure to rides, minus the local fall festival Ferris wheel-type rides.  For never having ridden any kind of major ride before, Grant and Caroline sure took to them.  Caroline rode anything the boys did except for two roller coasters, The Legend and The Voyage.  I didn’t even ride that one (Voyage). 

Click the video for the Honorable Mention here for The Legend and jump on at 1:56 to see what’s like. 

Now, The Voyage (you can read about and ride it here,) Gary rode it once and told me NOT to ride.  That says a bunch because usually he is trying to talk me into doing everything.  I think he has no plans to ride it ever again.  The boys rode it three times and after the last time, they just sat in the park for a couple of hours and did literally nothing else.  I take that as, it’s pretty intense.

This is them as they’re getting off, taken with Gary’s phone after their first run on it, back when it was still fun:

We rode all kinds of things really, including driving tin lizzy cars and watching a musical performance (a little lame but fun).  I will say had a total blast on the Raging Rapids.  The inflated boat-thing holds 8 passengers, so it was us six and two older ladies.  They were sitting there with their hair sprayed white-hair hairdos and makeup and glasses, clutching their purses on their lap.  A worker kid came by and finally talked them into letting him lock up their purses in a locker while they were on the ride.  They really did not want to relent on holding their purses, but finally did. 

OMG, I have not laughed so hard in so long. 

They were so unsuspecting somehow, these ladies.  It was obviously a water ride.  We were in a boat on water.   I guess they thought it would be a cruise around a calm pool of water or something.  Half way into the ride, which I will point out is called Raging Rapids and actually has some, they got caught under a waterfall for several seconds and got completely drenched.  Completely.  Wet shirts revealing their grandma bras and everything.  They screamed before, during, and after, and I just cackled. I know it sounds so heartless, but it was truly so funny and I just could not not laugh.  Anyone else sitting across from them would have been, too.  And if you don’t already know, I have a certain laugh that  really gets going and I can’t shut it off until it just runs its’ course, and it was that kind of laughing.  I can’t help it, honestly.

One of the ladies looked at me at the end of the ride and said (I quote):

It wasn’t really that funny.

Which made me get started laughing again. 

That was a really fun part of the day.

We had an excellent lunch in the Thanksgiving section of the park (like real food: turkey, ham, prime rib, real mashed potatoes, baked apples, etc.) and then separated by two’s for the afternoon.  That’s when the boys rode the Voyage again for their final time and then had to sit for a couple of hours, Gary and Caroline changed into swim stuff to do more of the water park, and Sam and I did some little kid type stuff. 

We regrouped around 4:00 and then headed out of the park for the long drive home.  Caroline was very unhappy because we were leaving without getting her one wish which was for a funnel cake.  I had told her we’d get one later in the day and then totally forgot, but then we were already out of the park and she was more than a little upset that there was no funnel cake that day. 

Once we got into the van and got the a/c on and cruised down the road a few miles while they rested, everyone’s mood improved.  It had really been a long, hot day and we were all really tired.   

So, the Short Report on Holiday World:

It is a great place!  Very clean, with just a nice feel to it for families.  A huge range of things to do across all age ranges of a toddler to teen/adult.  Free drinks and sunscreen and life jackets and parking and shuttle rides.  Even buying food at the park is not out of hand.  Our pizza and chicken strips/fries lunch was $25 the first day.  That is fine for feeding six.  The tickets for the park weren’t inexpensive at $40-$50-some each, but for the cost, it seemed so much more worth it for such a nice set up, say, versus Six Flags that just seems run down and old and with a crude crowd these days.  Second day tickets are just $22 at Holiday World and that is totally reasonable for all the fun. 

The RV rental seemed a little pricey, too, but the convenience was worth quite a lot.  The campground is literally right by Holiday World and you can shuttle there lickety-split.  The campground has the pool and playground and probably other fun things to do that we didn’t even have time for, so that adds to its value also.  Plus, we rented the most deluxe of the RV’s for the additional space for the six of us, so it really wouldn’t have to be so expensive. 

This Gill Family recommends it!

The Mini Vacay—Holiday World

Last year with the move and all (yes, it was a year last weekend that we officially moved in!) we had no vacation, so this year we didn’t wait long after the kids were out of school to take off for a few days of family vacay.

We had heard good things about Holiday World in Indiana, so I made a last minute call to see about going there on the Memorial holiday weekend and us taking in the amusements.  A neighboring campground had two large RV’s still open for rent  so I booked one, a 44-foot long camping trailer with three bump-outs.  It sounded like it would work great for us, sleeping eight, seating six at the table, two bathrooms, full kitchen, and we were to arrive the next day. 

We got our stuff together Saturday and took off then Sunday morning.  We swung by my folks for some cicada fun (unbelievable the numbers of these things and their volume! Caroline was freaking out.  They were on everything, including us.) and then to our other folks for a great lunch.  And then we landed the mini van three hours later at our final destination, Santa Claus, Indiana.

We cooked out some dogs and brats and burgers.

 

I find it interesting that I have not shopped at an Osco since my Chicago days, dating back to 1992-95.  This lighter fluid is from then.

Not kidding. 

 

Our camping experience was pretty cushy nice, just awfully crowded in the park since it was Memorial weekend. But it was good.

   

Next, we hit the campground pool for awhile before settling in for the night. 

Next day, we hit the water park at Holiday World.  And so did 10,000 other people.  I can’t imagine there possibly being more people there, but was told by a worker that on weekends in July, they will have 35,000 people.  Wowzers.

The water park was excellent!  It was so clean and absolutely full of things to keep us all happy and entertained all day long. 

And they have some great emergency medical care.  Here you see five of Sam’s toes bandaged up within thirty minutes of our arrival. 

Rough concrete + little boy enthusiastically running = absence of skin on bottom of toes. 

Did I mention the free drinks you can help yourself to, unlimited, all day throughout Holiday World?  No worries of dehydrating or spending $100 on a hot day on beverages.  Cool.  And they have sunscreen stations throughout and you help yourself to that, totally free. 

It really is a nicely run place.

You are now looking at the hat that shut down a major water slide. 

So, yeah, I lost it on the ride down and knew it had to be there somewhere in the pool of water at the base, so I asked the worker guy if I could look down just to see if I spotted it. 

It was like $22 at Kohl’s, you know, irreplaceable!

He then radioed to the top of the three-chute, four-story water slide and next thing I know, the whole thing is totally shut down and the guy hops into the pool of water and was able to fish my hat out.  That’s the dedication of the Holiday World worker.  And did I mention they’re just all so friendly and clean cut. 

And I am glad I was was out of yelling range from all those sweating hot riders waiting on top.

After that, I mostly hung out with Sam while the others went to do more big-kid stuff.  He had a blast.

  

  

Heck, we all did!  There were some things we all could do together, like these: 

Racer

Otorongo

Watubee

And then there were many things the others did since they were bigger and more daring, and can I just tell you, Miss Caroline was right there on everything with her big brothers. 

One major thrill for all of us, besides Sam, was the Pilgrim’s Plunge, the world’s tallest water ride and I am not making that up.  Whoa.  135 feet up, 50 mile an hour drop down. 

 

I might have yelled a little. 

On the ride up even. 

Freaky, and, whoa.

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We had so much fun, and, yep, some tired, tired kids after our 8+ hours at the super cool water park. 

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Rest of Mini Vacay, Part 2—coming soon!