Surf's Up!

R's cousin A arranged for surf lessons for M and J with his buddy Kevin, owner of Heʻe Nalu Surf School. Since Kevin scouts out several locations for the best conditions each morning, we were up early, eagerly awaiting the notification about where to meet up. By 8:30AM, we were at Kalapaki Beach in Lihue. A was already there, ready to go out on his foil.

Testosterone Day

J's final game was supposed to start at noon today, but they were running about 45 minutes behind (the facility wasn't opened as scheduled). Fortunately, another parent texted us about the delay, so we could take our time getting over to Henderson. J stayed out late bowling with his teammates at South Point last night, so he definitely needed the extra sleep this morning.

Here's another clip of J driving the lane, putting up a floater, and getting the "and 1"! (Thanks to another team parent for the highlight!)

Armed and Dangerous

The first official family reunion festivities started today, beginning with bowling at the Gold Coast Hotel and Casino. I think we took up nine or ten lanes!

The Cincinnati Kids

Since I'm clearly stuck in re-runs from my childhood, here's another YouTube clip related to our activities today...

Coasterholics

Any summer trip to Chicagoland would not be complete without a trek to Six Flags Great America. We're definitely putting our season passes to good use! Today we picked up two more adrenaline junkies. M and J had a great time hanging out with their cousins K and D, one from each side of R's extended family!

Third Time's the Charm

Currently there are 405 units in the National Park Service. As of today we have visited 111 of them together as family! We checked off our latest one with a tour of Port Chicago Naval Magazine N MEM. 

Port Chicago is one of the more challenging units to visit because it is located within MOTCO (Military Ocean Terminal Concord). When there are active operations at the base, no tours are available to the public for weeks or months at a time. And when it is open, reservations must be made at least two weeks in advance so that the military can conduct background clearance checks. The last two times that we have been in the vicinity, Port Chicago was closed. Needless to say, I was really happy that the timing was finally right for us to visit!

SA Review - Update

Now that the andrenaline junkies have been to 6 theme parks (7 if you count LEGOLAND, but that's really only kiddie rides) and have gotten a broader perspective, they wanted to revise some of their previous ratings of Saiki-delic Awesomeness.

Here is our highly unscientific and totally biased list of the Top 10 15 best rides (so far)...

1.  Tatsu - Six Flags Magic Mountain, CA - 10

More Flags, More Fun!

Q:  How do you get two kids to happily agree to hop in the van for a 6-hour drive?  

A: By promising to feed their adrenaline addiction with a visit to yet another theme park!

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

Vacation Rewind

With this trip we have visited 102 of the current 401 National Park Service units, including all of the ones in Massachusetts and Rhode Island (with the exception of the Appalachian NST). Well, technically, R is only at 101 since I'm counting a childhood visit to Gettysburg, and the boys are only up to 98 since they were only a twinkle when R and I went to Haleakala, USS Arizona, and Mt. Rainier. But their Jr. Ranger badges and patches now number 84!

And now for one of my favorite parts of keeping this blog -- getting the family's opinions on our most recent adventure...

What were the best places that we visited or things that we did (top 5, in order)?

J: Basketball Hall of Fame, Fenway Park / watching the Red Sox, Museum of Science, Georges Island, John F. Kennedy NHS

M: Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield Armory, Fenway Park, USS Constitution, Six Flags New England

Me: Adams NHP, Georges Island, Minute Man NHP, USS Constitution, Fenway Park

R: Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield Armory, Minute Man NHP, Fenway Park, USS Constitution

The Tri-State Area

Since it was still overcast this morning, my hopes of getting a morning pic from one of the national seashore beaches were dashed. But after checking out of the hotel, we went out to see the Nauset Light...

From One Mountain to Another

M and J wanted to get up early this morning. Why? To squeeze in one last hike before we left Yosemite? So that we could drive over Tioga Pass as an alternative route home? Don't be silly. Of course not! They wanted to hit the road early so that we would have time to stop by Magic Mountain. Good thing smart mom figured as much and brought our passes with us!

Interview with the Road Trippers

With this trip, we've visited 86 of the 397 National Park Service units, and the boys have earned 68 junior ranger badges! In keeping with tradition, here's the debrief of our latest adventure...

In the 3 amusement parks we've visited, what are your favorite rides (top 3)?

M / R: Millennium Force (CP), Tatsu (MM), Raging Bull (GA)

J:  Maverick (CP), Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth (MM), Ninja (MM)

Me: Millennium Force (CP) x3, because it's the best one of the few I could ride that didn't make me sick!

Wheeeeeeee!

One of the benefits of staying “on Point” is entry into the park an hour earlier than the general public. Thanks to one of my friends from high school, we were armed with all kinds of information about the park (i.e. which rides to hit in what order). We ate breakfast at the Perkins restaurant in the hotel and headed over to the gate for early entry.

After the national anthem was played, the gates were opened, and it was off to the races. At least that’s how it felt with the throngs of people running towards the back of the park. Haha!

Here's the final installment (for this trip) of the Saiki-delic Awesomeness Review...

Call Us Crazy

The thermometer in the car read 92 degrees at 9:00AM this morning. Ugh. Not looking good for spending the day outside at Great America. Traffic was slow on the Edens, so we went local -- quite surreal for me, because that was my route to work for more than 7 years. Instead of going to the park via the tollway, we stayed on Route 41 and used the south entrance off of Washington St. I would highly recommend going this way rather than through the main entrance off of Grand Ave. We zipped right in, driving underneath American Eagle on our way to the parking lot.

All of the warnings about the heat today must have scared away most of the sensible people, because only a manageable number of CRA-ZEE people like us were in the park today. Even though it was H-O-T, there were minimal lines for the rides -- at most, a 15-20 minute wait. R and the boys (including cousin D) were able to go on everything they wanted at least once.  

As we did for Magic Mountain, here is the second installment of the Saiki-delic Awesomeness Review...

Magic Mountain vs. Cedar Point

I didn't realize that Magic Mountain and Cedar Point had such a rivalry, battling it out for the title of "Roller Coaster Capital of the World". I just found this article on the Los Angeles Times website. Cedar Point removed a coaster earlier this year, which means that Magic Mountain (currently with 17) owns the title... for now.

Last year, the same author wrote another piece comparing rides at the two parks head-to-head. The accompanying photo gallery also has some nice pics. Can't wait to do our own SA review!

Thrillville

We took the boys to Six Flags Magic Mountain today. We decided to go and brave the Memorial Day crowd (which really wasn't too bad) for a couple of reasons:

1. J has finally reached the magic number... 54", the tallest height requirement for rides.
2. Later this summer we'll be going to the mecca of roller coasters, Cedar Point! For our highly scientific evaluation using the SA rating scale (Saiki-delic Awesomeness, trademark pending), we needed to set our baseline somewhere.
3. Buying season passes for the family before the end of May got us a free parking pass for the rest of the year. And as an added perk, the season pass is also good for admission to any Six Flags amusement park in the country, Great America included. Looks like it will be a roller coaster summer for us!