Dare Devil

On a happier note than my last post, I met my friend Meredith and her brood of five, plus her sister Tammy, at Great America today. Weston isn't much into rides so the plan was just to hang out at Boomerang Bay and do the water slides. After a few hours, Garrett starting hankering for some more thrills though. He had his eye on one of this boat, that swings like a pendulum, finally gaining enough momentum to hang upside down, then plummet to complete a full circle. His initial reaction to the ride was a maybe, but when his friend Kaylie said she'd ride it with him, he was all for it.

After lunch (smart to plan the ride where they hang upside down after lunch, right?) we headed over to the ride. There was pretty much no line, so they were immediately at the gate watching the thing spin, with nothing to do but get cold feet. And cold feet were exactly what Kaylie got. She spun on her heel and left Garrett where he stood. He went as far as to actually get on the ride by himself, thinking that she would follow, but when it became apparent that he was going to have to ride alone, his shoulders slumped and he got off, resigned to never experiencing the swing.

Undaunted, I called Tammy who was elsewhere in the park with Kaylie's older brother Joey. Joey, like Garrett, will ride anything. He was only too happy to join Garrett. Once again, there was no line, so in minutes Joey and Garrett were strapped in and ready to ride. Just as it was about to start up, Garrett looked as if he was about to fill his pants, but by the time he got off (and after hanging upside down for what seemed like an eternity to his poor mother below), he was screaming his usual post-ride "AWESOME!!!" Kaylie, on the other hand, poor one, looked as though someone had stuck a pin in her and let out all of the air. She really wanted to be the one hooting and hollering at the end of that ride with Garrett. Alas she, like Weston, has that handy adaptive trait called fear.