Cheap Vacations

We rather enjoyed our visit from the H's. For detailed description, see Dave. It was a somewhat cheap vacation for the H's, as we cooked from home/packed our lunches as much as possible. Saved that much more money for the Cheesecake!

OUR cheap-ish vacation took place the following week. John and I spent two days after the H's left going back and forth about what to do with his week off. We wanted to do something fun, somewhat close by, and somewhat cheap. We finally decided to take the kids to Cedar Point.

So we left Tuesday afternoon (after Mary's last painting class) and got to our hotel in decent time (AMAZING how much simpler a 5 hour trip is as opposed to an 8 hour trip!). Wednesday morning we got up, hit the continental breakfast bar, and then hit the coasters. Well, John and Mary did, anyway. Mary, being 47 inches, could now go on most of the coasters. Myself and the wee folk, Keith and Izzy, stayed closed to Kiddie Korner for those first four hours (and had a sit-down lunch, too). John texted me throughout the duration.

We picked an excellent day to go to Cedar Point. The weather was only in the upper '70s, so it wasn't too hot. It was a Wednesday, so the crowds were thin, and John and Mary hardly had to wait more than 15 minutes each ride. Exception: The Millenium Force. They ended up waiting for two hours for that ride. Mary was completely bored and annoying throughout the wait, and we decided not to torment her with the wait again.

After the family reunited, and Mary and John had a bit of a snack, we all went back down the line to all the coasters. This time, Mary and I hit the ones she wanted to ride (she was adamant NO upside-down roller coasters!) while John would take the wee ones to whatever kiddie rides were close by. Still only 15 minute wait--heaven!

John and I paid an exhorbant fee and had caricatures done of the three kids. Keith's wasn't so great, but Mary and Izzy's were quite like.

Twilight came, and we decided to hit the games on the way out of the park. The kids were ALL exhausted and Mom and Dad weren't doing so well either. After a couple of breakdowns over games not won and tickets stuck in pockets and therefore not turned in for crappy prizes, we stopped for a breather (Oh! The humanity!) and then headed out the gate.

It was a great time, seriously. We just pushed it too long at the end with hungry, tired parents and kids!

Next day we drove to Cleveland and John and I finally made good on a years-long threat: we stopped at the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. The kids were completely bored, and Izzy was a complete brat (wanted to be in the stroller, DIDN'T want to be in the stroller, had to go potty, DIDN'T need to go potty, WANTED TO DRINK FROM EVERY FREAKING FOUNTAIN IN THE PLACE...). I basically spent my time attempting to read a few things here and there while mainly keeping Izzy out of John's hair so that he could take in as much as possible. We just need to go just the two of us sometime....

So we then headed home and got in around 7:30 Thursday night.

Cheap(ish), but fun.