I'll be teaching a 6-week summer school class starting on June 29, and we'll be travelling for basically the first three weeks of June, so May is my prime opportunity for rest and relaxation. Actually, I have some work commitments that will start next week, and I want to have most of my planning for summer school done before I leave town in June, so this week has been my real chance at completely unstructured time. As usual, the first few days after the semester were a bit weird--I always have that feeling like I should be doing something, even though the work is all done. I did finish reading a book I had checked out from the library a few weeks earlier on multimodal composition, so that helped me make the transition a bit. By now, I'm in full summer mode: totally lazy!
It's been a fun week. We've started staying up later and sleeping in, and we've enjoyed some nice, long walks on the mostly-deserted campus. I've been watching some TV shows on Netflix (mostly Parenthood and Star Trek: The Next Generation) as well as some movies (one I really liked, called The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio). I've also been reading a lot; a few days ago, I started re-reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series (which has now been made into a TV show that I'm sure I'll get around to watching eventually.)
Yesterday, Mark and I took a day trip to Cedar Point, the amusement park in Sandusky, OH. We went for the first time last summer, and we decided to go back again this year. Originally, we were thinking we might get season passes. Although we enjoyed our time there yesterday, we also decided we'd rather put the money we would have spent to upgrade to season passes into our Disney vacation fund, since we hope to make it back there next summer.
Anyway, we got there a little before the park opened, and we spent the first hour in line waiting to ride the Top Thrill Dragster, an impressive ride that was closed both days we were there last year. It was cool, but we were really irritated by starting our morning in such a long line. After that, we were able to ride our favorite roller coaster (at Cedar Point, and possibly of all the roller coasters we've ridden anywhere), Millennium Force. I think we rode one more ride, then stopped for lunch at Pink's of Hollywood. We split a bacon chili dog and onion rings, then got back to the rides! By the late afternoon, we'd pretty much made the rounds of the park and ridden most of the rides we wanted to. We did stop somewhere along the way for mini corn dogs for a snack. This was the park's first full week open, so the crowds were pretty light, but we found that the lines for the 4-5 biggest, most popular rides were still pretty long. Also, it was chilly! We were expecting low to mid 60s, but I don't think it ever got that warm, and when the clouds and wind rolled in during the afternoon, we started to get a bit uncomfortable. We looked for a place to eat inside and warm up, and ended up at Chickie's and Pete's, where we split a buffalo chicken salad and some really awesome sweet potato fries. After that, we tried to ride the Millennium Force again, but after about 15 minutes in line (probably with 10-15 to go), it went down for mechanical reasons. We were too cold and annoyed to wait it out, so we decided to call it a day.
While we were there, we couldn't help comparing it a bit to Disney World, and though we certainly had a good time (and rode all the rides we wanted to), it's just not the same kind of experience. I definitely prefer the storytelling, attention to detail, and customer service that Disney offers to the pure thrills that Cedar Point provides. (Thus our decision to save for our next Disney trip instead of buying season passes). Still, if you enjoy roller coasters and ever find yourself near this area, it's absolutely worth vising Cedar Point. We didn't bring the camera, opting instead to carry Mark's smart phone, so we only have a few pics:
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| Front entrance |
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| In line for Millennium Force |
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| Part of the Gatekeeper |
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| Lake Erie (from the Gatekeeper line) |
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| What's going on with my posture here? |
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| A little petting zoo |
Today's fun outing (for me) was a trip down to the Swan House Tea Room in Findlay. I was interested in organizing a trip down there just for fun, but when I took a look at their FB page, I realized that they were closing at the end of this month. At that point, I knew I had to get something organized fast! I managed to get a few friends to join me for tea today. I might have to squeeze in one more visit if I can swing it--it's just such a lovely place!
All in all, I'd say summer is off to a great start. Next week, I'll schedule a work day or two, but it's really great to have a bit of down time after a hectic semester (and year!).
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