Mister & Miss Guided: Darien Lake

We decided to take another family vacation to Darien Lake this year. This time though, we only had Chris, Makenna and myself (last year we went with my brother Jared and his wife Jessica and their two kids Eli & Abbie).

Last year we stayed in a tent and brought a car full of stuff that we could never find when we needed it and were miles away from a bathroom (okay it seemed like miles). This year we decided to try a camper and brought a lot less stuff. In fact, one day Chris ran to Target to buy a few things we had forgotten to bring - bath towels and things to grill with. We thought the camper came with a grill but it only came with a grill hook-up. So the first couple of days we had to "fry" stuff inside the camper. My least favorite thing to do is fry food. So Chris bought coals and a grate of sorts in order for us to cook via campfire outside. Plus, our camper was only moments away from a bathroom facility and we didn't look like a bunch of lazy hicks driving our car to the bathroom like last year.

This year we were smarter and brought a small cooler type bag so that we could make lunches in the morning before heading to the park and then when we were ready to eat...just stop and eat. Last year we had to trek back to the campsite from wherever we were in the park (usually it was the furthest point away from the entrance to the camping area) and then we got smart and parked the car closer to the park but still had to hoof it back to the car area - which again, seemed like miles away from wherever we were in the park at the moment we decided we wanted to eat.

We were also excited at the prospect that Makenna was now taller and would be able to go on more of the roller coasters she so desperately wanted to go on last year. She did go on one - which she did not like at all~ I can't remember the name of it. Unfortunately, this was the first or second one that she went on at the park, so it kind of soured her towards trying others.

She did go on the Motorcycle one (which I bravely went on last year) and she loved it. So much so that she probably went on it close to 15 or 20 times the four to five days that we were there. I went on it probably about 5 times.

She did decide to go on a wooden one (again, the name escapes me) that Chris hated last year and of course....she loved that one but was hard-pressed to find someone to go with her again. There was another one that she was going to do that goes up and then comes back backwards but she got in line and then before I knew it, she came out of line and was sitting with me. The only one that I remember the name of, "Man of Steel" was one that she wanted to go on and still was not tall enough so she was upset about that (see picture below).

Other than that, we had a good time except that a couple of days were windy so that made it hard to want to do the water park. When the sun was out, it was nice and warm but if you were standing at the top of some water slide waiting in line and the wind picked up, it seemed like you were a frozen popsicle. Plus most of the water rides have cold water to them so that made it even worse. There was only a couple of water rides where the water was like bathwater and one of the rides a was a long wait. I think the second day that we had a windy/sunny day I decided not to do any of the water rides and just cover up near the wave pool when the wind picked up and take off the towel when the sun came out.

The nice thing about the windy days is that we FINALLY could use our kites that we kept bringing everywhere. We got it up momentarily but some other boys seeing us struggle were more than eager and had more stamina to keep trying.

I assume we'll go again next year and maybe we'll move up to a cabin...who knows...maybe we'll stay in the camper again as it was fairly close to the park entrance...or maybe, we'll take a trip to another park for something different.

I'm guess this is the last year she'll be able to do the kiddie roller coaster: