What a great time we had. To give a recap, we went to Illinois first and shot lots of fireworks with the family. Lisa, Arlo, Michael and Anthony were there from Texas along with Aunt Beth and grandma Naas came out for some of it too. Then we took John to ride go Karts and play mini golf and we had a good time drifting around the track. We then lazed around dads house since his A/C died and it was HOT. We went through 3 box fans trying to ghetto rig it to work. It did for a while, but the last night it was kaput and it was over 80 degrees and humid in the house.
On our last day there, dad watched little Jane and we went with Jamie, Alex and Ethan to Holiday World in Santa Claus Indiana. It started to rain when we got there and we were thinking our 180 bucks to get in was a waste. They had the rides shut down for lightning and we were getting miserable. But hey, we were there for the water park too, so getting wet was part of it. We drove the little cars on rails, something we wouldnt do normally , but it was the only ride open at the time, John got to drive it! Then the rides opened up and me, Alex and Ethan got on the rocket launch, the giant thing that takes you up 100 or so feet then drops you and does it a few more times. The look on Ethan’s face was priceless. Jennifer, Jamie, Ethan and little John did some smaller rides while me and Alex rode the legend roller coaster in the rain, it was like a pressure washer to the face, and a great time. We made it next to the biggest one, the Voyage and rode it with some rain falling. There were NO lines and we sat in the very front. It was a rush! I was proud of myself for getting on these things as they scare the crap out of me, but I’m always glad I did. I rode the Octopus with John and it made me queasy, then we got on the gravitron wheel and John thought that was the best ride there. That one makes me want to puke every time. I even talked Jamie into getting on it. Just as the rain started to clear up it was time to eat so why not eat Taco’s right? Yeah…. So on to more roller coasters, Me and Alex rode the 3rd and final big coaster and it too was no line and a good ride. Then we caught back up and decided it was getting hot and the water park only had 1.5 hours left open, so we hit the slides, and I talked Jamie and Ethan into getting on the good raft rides and they were great fun. We made fun of Jamie’s shrieks in the water tunnel. Me and Alex ran up the mile long stairs three times in a hurry to ride all three fast slides before they closed up the water section while John and Jennifer Ethan and Jamie played in the wave pool and kid sections. We had enough time after the water park closed for me and Alex to go ride the big Voyage coaster one more time, that thing is WILD! You can see a video of it here, although it does it no justice:
http://media.psci.net/hw/pov512K_Stream.wmv
Then we ate some Goblin burgers and by then it was 8:30 and the park was closing, so we did some shopping and hit the road. Turned out to be one of my favorite days of the vacation. Dads house was nuclear hot and I was still spinning in the bed so I ended up sick in the middle of the night, remember the tacos and goblin burgers? I sure did, but I would do it all again any time.
The next day we made the drive to Georgia to stay at Wades house, we went through Kentucky and Tennessee, Nashville, and stopped at Ruby Falls on Lookout mountain outside of Chattanooga. The signs started at least 100 miles from the place so how could you not go? Ended up carrying Jane on a 1.5 mile trek through a cave. John loved it and Jennifer had a good time too. We got some great pics that you will be able to see in my gallery. The waterfall underground is pretty neat although they drag the tour out for over an hour when it should take 15 minutes if you could just go see it and come back. You end up on the top of the place where you can see all of Chattanooga. Jennifer did not like the top of the place…..Our detour to Ruby falls was just long enough to avoid the rush hour traffic of Chattanooga, although it was late by the time we got into Atlanta.
We spent the next day visiting with Mindy and had lunch with Kelly at his favorite Mexican eatery. Then the following day we all went into downtown Atlanta, and took John on his first ever train ride on the Marta. It was about a 30 minute train ride with tunnels and stops everywhere. It was enough to make you carsick, but he had fun. It saved us gas money, parking fees and the hassle of driving in psycho traffic of the city. We went to the Georgia aquarium. Its really cool and has many overhead tanks, and even a tunnel through the largest tank with sharks, a large whale shark, stingrays and all kinds of things swimming all around you. Its a very nice self paced aquarium sectioned off into major areas that all return you to the middle of the building, you can walk through them again or pick a different one. This is different than the Chattanooga aquarium that starts you at the top and gives you no choice where to go. There are many things to touch there an John touched a shark, a stingray and some sea anenomies. We then walked through downtown going through Olympic park ending up at Hard Rock Cafe where the loud waitress brought us some good burgers. We were all too tired for the World of Coke so we took the Marta train back and called it a day. Then we visited some more, ate dinner one night at Mellow Mushroom outside under their patio in the rain and went to Richard and Courtney’s house the next day where we all swam with Harper and Avelyn in their community pool. We capped off the Atlanta trip with a dinner gathering at Ipelitos an Italian place. It was a great visit. The last day brought us home through Alabama, and Mississippi. The kids traveled great the whole time, Jane was the perfect baby in the car and slept a lot and even slept at night after the days in the car. The truck ran great. We didnt spend near what we had budgeted on gas and everyone had a great time. It will take me a while to get all the pics uploaded, but when I do, I will update with a link!
*UPDATE*Â The link to all the good pics is HERE