When I was little, we used to go to Conneaut Lake Park in western Pennsylvania at least once or twice a summer. CLP just happened to be where my parents met when they were working there for a summer during college. So I'm sure they have lots of fond and interesting memories of it also.
My memories of it usually revolve around the sheer fun of it -- there was so much for kids to do. It was the one place I looked forward to going to each summer. They had rides (although at that point, I was nowhere near the thrill-ride junkie I am not; in fact, I was scared to death of them); they had a petting zoo; they had this place called Fairyland Forest; they had midway games; and they had an arcade.
I did dare to ride a few things like a mini-roller coaster called the Wild Mouse and their version of the Tilt-a-Whirl the last few times I went to CLP. They did have this thing called The Hell Hole that I never did go on though because it just looked ominous and my parents always told me I was too little.
I spent some serious bank in the arcade there. And of course, I'm sure my parents spent more than a fair amount just getting us into the park and for tickets to do everything we wanted to.
We moved to the Carolinas though after my fifth grade year and haven't been back to CLP since. Over the years since then, the park has had alot of financial difficulties, changed ownership a few times, and hasn't been open in over a year. They had a pretty big fire in the old dance hall there last year also. I think that's really sad. It was such a magical place for children.
But now I think I've found my adult equivalent.
During our vacation last week to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, TN, my wife I decided to go to Dollywood. As I have been every other time we've been to the area, I was reluctant to go to Dollywood - period. I have issues with the fact that a lot of entertainment venues seem to like to take advantage of people with high priced foods and souveniers. And I figured Dollywood would not be worth it and would just be another place that sucks hordes of money from its patrons.
So when I paid for our tickets to get into the park my thought was "This better be worth the money I just plunked down."
It ended up being very worth it - and then some. We ended up upgrading our tickets to season passes before the end of our first day there, for a very nominal fee, which can be used for the last few days of 2008 and all of the 2009 season.
I always thought that the shows I saw at Carowinds (outside Charlotte, NC) and Six Flags over Georgia were really dorky. I understand now though that that is how those performers make a living, they truly are talented, and they obviously must enjoy their job to be able to put these performances on four or five times a day, seven days a week, for 9 months at a time. We saw a total of five shows - and each one of them were really awesome - from an adaptation of Babes in Toyland, to an Appalachian bluegrass group performing Christmas carols, to a musical about the birth of Jesus. I came away wishing they had a few more shows to see.
We didn't do a whole lot of rides - just two roller coasters for me, some sort of combination tilt-a-whirl that rocks back and forth that we both rode, and then the carousel. And we did ride the Dollywood Express, an authentic coal-fired locomotive that does a five mile trip through and around the park. We rode it at night so there were few spots where it literally was pitch black as we were winding through the trees outside the park.
What we really enjoyed was going to church service in the park and seeing some demonstrations at some of the specialty shops - like glass blowing, blacksmithing, and carriage building. I really wish I had had my Nikon with me, but I was not about to take something that expensive into Dollywood. I kept telling myself "Oh, that would be such an awesome shot - I wish I had my D40 with me" --- like the gentleman who was painting the glass beads on Christmas decorations, or the one who was putting a wagon wheel together. And some decent pictures of the bald eagles that they have in the park would have been cool too.
So all in all it was very worth it. And I think I've come full circle now on from my favorite childhood amusement park to my favorite adulthood theme park.
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