Kennywood Days

“I always feel like I'm on a roller-coaster, but I never want to get off! There's a certain high you're always on.”

~ Leonardo DiCaprio

If it's fall, it's time to go to Kennywood!

Every fall, Kennywood, a local amusement park, famous in the Pittsburgh area, offers a military discount day. I'm not sure the regular price for tickets, but on Military Appreciation day, we get to buy an all day pass for $10.00, which seems like a pretty good deal, especially if you've ever spent a small fortune for a trip to Disney World. Now Kennywood is no where near the league of Disney World, but it's a fun, old-style family amusement park, and I love going there every year.

Laura had to work, and Jill and Kara were both stuck at school with tests to study for, so it was just me and Kurt. A guys day out! With great weather, I was really looking forward to a fun day.

The traffic was horrendous, probably taking us an hour longer than normal to get through Pittsburgh, down and across the Monongahela River, and into the park. Turns out they were working on the bridge and traffic was backed up all the way through Edgewood to 386. If I get to do it again, I'll go through the Southside works and Homewood.

When we got to the Park, Kurt wanted to immediately ride The Phantom's Revenge. The Phantom's Revenge is a 2nd generation steel roller coaster, and one of the more violent rides I've been on. It lasts about 2 minutes, and so fast and furious that I really don't enjoy it. It IS the marquee ride park, so you HAVE to take the ride, but it's not one that's worth waiting in line twice for.

Speaking of waiting in line, the reason I like Military Appreciation day is because it is typically in late September when all the summer crowds are gone and the park is much more enjoyable. There ARE rides that are shut down, so you don't get the full Monty as far as the total park experience, but it is so nice to walk up to a ride and get right on... hard to find a bad thing in that deal!

We stopped for lunch, then started on our quest of rides around the park: Bumper Cars, the helicopter, Tilt-a-whirl, and the world famous carousel. Kurt didn't really seem interested in the carousel at first, but I convinced him that people came from all over to ride it, and he finally reluctantly agreed. We found a couple of high spirited mounts and had a good old time going round and round, making sure we took a couple of pictures.

We shot laser rifles, which Kurt always loves. there are lots of targets, and if you hit the right ones, water squirts the people around you. The trick is finding the ones that soak your friends and hitting them over and over again! Complimenting this event was the log ride, a two person ride along a water sluice that ends in a wave-crashing plunge, soaking the compartment and all it's occupants. We found that if we stayed right in the middle of the "log" all the water went around us and we remained remarkably dry.

The highlight of the day for me was two rides on my favorite roller-coaster, the Thunderbolt. It's a classic wooden roller-coaster that starts out with a dive over a cliff, then takes long slow rickety climbs and careening dashes round and round, letting people wave their arms in the air and scream with glee the entire time, without feeling like they had to hold on for dear life. I'd ride the Thunderbolt all day long if I could.

Kennywood is a great time and really does creat memories that will last a lifetime. It's been fun sharing this special time with Kurt year after year, and I hope we can keep doing it as a family tradition in the future.