Cedar Point Amusement Park

DAY 9! Teej and I were talking today and we said it seemed liked ages ago that we were staying in Park City with Lois and Bruce. Time really flies, especially on vacations. However, we are getting to the point now where I think we are more excited to get to Boston and see if we can make this work then we are to continue driving through the states. Good thing we only have two days left! 

Today, however, was a really great day. We woke up at the "Knights Inn" in Sandusky, Ohio. Remember the sketchy hotel I was talking about in yesterday's post? Yeah, it's that one. It doesn't look that sketchy from the outside but the town around it and the actual room wasn't the most luxurious. Our alarm was set for 8am but with the time change we experienced yesterday I didn't end up getting up until almost 9. Whoops! I was super tired and to be honest, still am. Anyway, we woke up and got our thing together and started packing up our car. The moment we stepped outside we knew we weren't in Oregon anymore. It was already hot and semi-humid and it was only 9 in the morning. At first, it was a good change because we were just thankful to have the heat (since I hear Oregon is raining right now) but as the day went on and all the sweating happened I started to re-think the if I was really thankful for it or not. :) 

Today was Cedar Point Amusement Park day. Teej did a great job finding a hotel that was only about 7 minutes from the park so we didn't have to drive very far to get there. It opened at 10am so we figured it would be the best idea to get there right when it opened so we could hopefully do some of the fun rides first before the crowds hit. Once we arrived, we parked and walked in to the guest services area to claim our ticket. The hotel we stayed at wouldn't let us use their computer to print off our tickets so we were lucky enough to have guest services do it for us. Ordering online ended up saving us like $20 in the end so thank goodness for guest services! 

The first thing we did once we got in the park was look at the map. We had no idea what to do or where we were going so having the map ended up being very helpful. Teej thought it was a good idea to start from the back of the park and work our way forward. He has done this a lot in Disneyland and he says that it has proven to be successful. So, that's what we did. We walked all the way to the back of the park and started riding the rides there. It was also kind of fun to do that because we got to see the whole park and what it has to offer. 

The first ride we decided to go on was called "The Iron Dragon." It was more of a tame roller coaster but had lots of loops and dips as well as a small drop that got my stomach going. We said it was a good "starter" roller coaster. 

We continued on our way and saw this red roller coaster off into the distance. It looked like a fun ride; not too scary and not too fast. We waited in line for probably about 30 minutes or so and got on the ride. The ride was anything but tame. It had a 95 degree drop and had lots of corkscrews. We both agreed that the "Maverick" was the scariest roller coaster we had ever been on. No wonder people were waiting in lines over 30 minutes long for this thing. It was a pretty fun ride but one that we agreed we would only do once today! 

Teej had really been desiring to ride on some of the wooden coasters so we decided to hit those up next. There were a couple in the back area that looked pretty fun. The first one we went on was called "Gemini" and the other was called "Mean Streak". The thing we realized about the wooden coasters is that a) they are a lot older and b) because they are a lot older, they were a lot more rickety. I felt like my body got rocked today by some of the wooden coasters but it still was really fun.

After the first couple rides had ended, I decided that going down the long drops were not my cup of tea. So, there was this ride that Teej really wanted to go on but I didn't so I stayed behind and let him go. In the process of trying to take a picture of him I dropped the stinkin' camera and part of the top of the camera broke. I am so clumsy!! It still worked but it became harder to actually take photos because you had to really hold down the button hard to take a good photo. BOO!! Teej wasn't upset with me, thank goodness, but then I realized that I was the one that bought him that camera like 3 years ago so after that I didn't feel that bad. Plus, it gives us an excuse to buy a new one in the near future... hopefully :) Anyway, he loved the roller coaster that he went on by himself. It was really high up with like a 200 foot drop but didn't have any loops (which he likes).  

Lunch was a good break. We decided to go to a sit down restaurant called "Game Day Grille" because we were SO THIRSTY and we just needed to sit down and rest our bodies for a while. The food was so great and actually very reasonable in price. Teej decided to order a burger and fries and I ordered a chicken burger and fries. Teej ate all his fries and MOST of mine. haha.. 

To wait for our food settle, we walked around for a bit and then took the train (that took you around the park) to the area where the WATER rides were. However, we walked to all 3 of the water rides and they were either closed for the day or currently unavailable. The one that was currently unavailable became that way just as we started taking our shoes off to prepare for the ride. I was so mad because I had literally just taken my shoes off but I got over it. Why? Because we came back later and it was working again and so we did get to eventually experience the ride. All the water rides at disneyland are a lot better but this one was fun because it got you SOAKING WET. It was so refreshing though after we had finished because it was so hot and humid outside. 

The rest of the day was pretty low key. We watched the craziest ride on the whole park take place several times. It was called the "Top Thrill Dragster." IT IS NUTTY. It literally straight up and straight back down. It goes 120mph at 420 feet high. That is 42 stories high. It is only a 17 second ride but the thrill I'm sure lasts longer then that.  Right as we began watching it, however, a malfunction with the ride occurred. The malfunction happened on this ride when one car of people shot off at 120mph but didn't make it to the top and instead came back down. IT WAS SO SCARY TO WATCH. Everyone ended up being fine because they had emergency breaks but they all had to wait in the car until the mechanic fixed it. They were probably sitting there for close to a half hour. We felt bad for them. I told Teej that if it was me there is no way that I would go on that ride after having seen that it didn't work properly. 

We ended up leaving at around 6 after having been at the park for about 8 hours. Our next destination was to go to a hotel in East Cleveland, which was about an hour and a half away. Staying in Cleveland made us a little nervous since we had heard such awful things about it from friends and family but decided to take our chances and try it out. Surprisingly, our hotel and the area around the hotel is pretty nice and feels very safe. We arrived at the hotel in Cleveland at around 7:30 and went directly into the hotel pool. It felt so good to just relax after a long day! We finished the day off at Red Robin for dinner. Teej wanted french fries... again, so we apparently had to go somewhere that had fries. He is a goon sometimes.. but gotta love him! 

downtown Cleveland-we drove through it to get to our hotel

Tomorrow? Niagara Falls! Pray that my camera holds up so that I can still take some great photos of the falls. We are so excited to go on the mist tour! :) 

Love to all and thanks for reading. 

"Instruct the wise, and they will be even wiser. Teach the righteous, and they will learn even more." Prov. 9:9