Cedar Point

 We decided to take a last minute vacation/long weekend right before school started.

We had been talking about going up to Cedar Point, the roller coaster capitol of the US, for some time.  We finally decided to just do it!  

We started our 10 hour drive adventure with our lunch stop at Big Bone Lick State Park.  It was a nice Park in Kentucky and our half way point.  They had an area where you could see some Bison.  It was a nice quick stretch and visit.

We continued on with our journey north arriving at the Kalahari Resort.  We had stayed here before when we went to Wisconsin, and loved it.  It's hard to resist an indoor water park when you are so close!  Thankfully, this one had just reopened and it was busy.  We still had a great time.  Even though the website had said that the outdoor park was closed, much to our surprise it was opened.  That gave a lot more slides to ride.  (I forgot to get pictures of the inside, but when you are in the water it's hard to keep your phone around.)

The resort also has lots of other amenities we could enjoy--a petting zoo, a mini golf course (inside and outside), and a new one for us...mini bowling.  We had a fun time bowling and ended up doing that twice.  The boys did a round of mini golf (because we can't go on a vacation and not play, it would break tradition by this point) and then the younger boys, Jarom and me took a visit to the petting zoo, right there in the outdoor water park.

Mini Bowling!

  

The OUTDOOR WATER PARK

 

The PETTING ZOO

This sweet antelope wanted to be petted the whole time.  Unlike the other animals, that wanted to be fed and didn't care if you pet them.  We had no food but he stuck around to be snuggled.  

Notice the baby in the pouch?  Upside down?

The family picture--baby, momma, pops, and his jewels. ;)

Our next big day was at our main destination, Cedar Point.  This park is huge! Right on Lake Eerie.  The roller coasters were so high you could see the whole city of Sandusky and all the boats on the giant lake.  We had to wear our masks the entire day.  We survived.  My watch showed that I walked 8.5 miles that day.  We arrived before it opened and left at closing time.  It was a loooong day and hot.  We never even stopped to eat lunch that we packed.  Bret didn't have as many things to ride, and what was opened they took so long to get the kiddie rides going.  He was a trooper.  In the end, we still got to ride all the major rides of the park.  They were fast and they were fun!

CEDAR POINT on LAKE EERIE

Top Thrill Dragster

You couldn't get close to the characters just stand outside the fence.

Bret wanted to go to the arcade and I didn't want him to spend his money there.  Lucky for him, this teenage (maybe a little older) young men were paying basketball games racking up tickets.  They gave Bret ALL their tickets because they said they weren't going to use them.  728 ticks in total.  Bret never had to play a game and it made his day!

Funny story:  As we were leaving the park the traffic of course was heavy.  There were two cars behind us refusing to let one in front of the other.  They drove side by side arguing back and forth for some time.  Finally, the driver in the van speeds up beside us and tells Jarom she will give him $20 if he will let her cut in front of him.  Jarom's reply, "sold!"  That paid for part of our dinner that night.  

We discovered a fast food restaurant called Culvers.  We LOVED it.  So much we ate there two nights in a row.

We headed back home with a stop in Cincinatti, with plans to attend another them park, Kings Island.  The weather was suppose to be bad and we were exhausted from the day before.  We scratched that.  Everything else I looked for had time restrictions, time slots, etc.  Our options became limited quickly.  We ended up just swimming and chilling at the hotel.  We took a little walk at the park across the street and out to eat at Skyline Chili.  I don't think anyone was disappointed we didn't do anything big.  It was nice to break the trip up and relax for a day.