Kings Island

Okay, so we were supposed to go on this family outing on July 6th - everyone got the day off work, but that was just after Robert's accident and there wasn't any way he could go on roller coaster rides only 3 days after the accident…so we postponed the trip until 7/20!

We were so lucky - Jessica got the day off, but Devon didn't.  Luckily a guy at Devon's work needed a different day off and had Wednesday off so Devon and he switched.  It worked out perfect.  We left the house at 7:45 am and drove up to Mason, OH where King's Island is located.  It's approximately a 2 hour drive - which meant the kids got to watch most of one of the Harry Potter videos on the way up. hee hee!

We got there just as it opened and went straight for the water park to put our stuff down, only to find out it doesn't open until 11:00 am.  YIKES!  So we did a u-turn and headed for Diamondhead; the tallest roller coaster in the park.  On the way there we road Flying Ace.  Diamondhead is an amazing ride!  Oh my goodness, what a thrill it was.  The lines were short so we were able to take in a few more rides.  

We learned something about Devon today.  The boy is a roller coaster junky.  I've never seen Devon move so fast.  He was running from one roller coaster to the next.  He loves the trill.  He'll be on a ride saying, "faster, faster!"  

Mark decided to take the towels to the water park while we went on the Beast, the longest wooden roller coaster int he world at 74,000 feet, and then met up with us.  The Vortex was closed (BOO).  We then did Firehawk.  Have you ever ridden Firehawk?  It's crazy.  It's a roller coaster that you ride laying down and the ride takes you around as if you are flying.  It's so incredibly fantastic!!!  However, it also gave Jessica and I vertigo…uggh!  Mark didn't even try it because it just looked like it would make him sick to his stomach.  He, however did the Racer with Devon, Marissa and Robert while Jessica and I headed for the water park.   Today's temperature was averaging 94 degrees with a heat index of 105.  YIKES!!!  Needless to say it was a HOT ONE!

When everyone caught up at the water park we road the Typhoon and the Coolangatta Racer together.  The water rides felt wonderful, and the wave pool was such a blessing.  A huge water pool with waves to cool off.  The kids continued to ride more slides while Mark and I relaxed a bit while reading books lounging around.  Together we ate lunch in some shade.  Everyone was starving!!  Robert and Devon ate 2 lunches!  The lines for food were longer than the lines for rides.  Our lunch took forever!  We decided to continue with roller coaster rides, since the water park was filling up fast.

We road Race for Your Life (log ride), Diamondback again, Adventure Express, Flight Deck, Drop Tower, Congo Falls and Invertigo.  Drop Tower is the craziest ride I've ever ridden.  I can't believe I agreed to do it.  It doesn't say how far you drop but you go up higher than any of the other attractions in the park.  You sit there in a small seat secured only by a harness and seat belt and DROP straight down for what seems like a mile.  The scare is in the suspense that you feel as they take you all the way to the top and then let you sit there just long enough to realize how HIGH you are and then, you FALL, and FALL, and FALL, and continue FALLING!!!  

Diamondback has a really cool spot where the roller coaster goes over water and water sprays up!  This is what Mark and Robert are looking at.  They look identical.

It was great to have some special time with Jessica.  I think everyone had a lot of fun together.  Waiting in line was a great time to take photos, but the great thing is that we weren't in lines very long at all and we road so many rides. 

We had to do one more thing before leaving:  Marissa had to win a "minyon" - the cute little characters from "Despicable Me".    She player Robert in a game and won!!!  Yeah, Marissa!  

After a great day of adventure and fun, we left the park around 8:00 pm.