I'm proud to say we have just completed our first out-of-town overnight trip as a family! We went up to Storyland in Glen and did the works-- which included an afternoon at the park, dinner at a restaurant, slept in a motel, and then fnished up the next day at Storyland again before heading back on the road (it's a 2.5 hour drive). It all went really, really well..... except for the restaurant. LOL. Drew still can't handle a restaurant although Parker was great.
Aaaaaaannnnnnd the big villain of the trip was the weather. It POURED down rain both days we were there. Relentlessly. And it was COLD, the temp never topped 60 degrees. So that was really, really disappointing for our first family trip. I had visions of sunshine and happy times, but that was not to be. We were soaked and cold but kids being kids, they didn't notice much. Except for when Parker was completely drenched and was shivering and his teeth were chattering. Yeah, that wasn't fun. He did however get a new outfit from the Storyland gift shop because of it!! We would have done anything to get that kid into some dry clothes.
The park is so cute, and so well done. I believe it opened in 1954 and so it still has this really neat retro feel about it, but they've updated things and added more rides and attractions. It's all geared towards little kids, and everything is built so that adults can ride with the kids. So cute. Which means that some of the rides were slow enough even for ME!!! LOL. Yes, I did a couple of things, even one or two that scared me. ha ha.
The Bamboo Chutes area was my favorite. While Dave and Drew went endlessly down the log flume ride, Parker and I hung out and I enjoyed the Asian-style landscaping and architecture and Parker LOVED the singing Bamboo sticks. I really liked it too, and I had the song stuck in my head whenever I closed my eyes to sleep. We stood there and listened to it sing SO MANY TIMES. I even found a video on You Tube that somebody made, so you can share the joy too!! :)
He was happy to just stand there in the rain, mesmerized by the bamboo sticks swaying back and forth singing their happy little song of peace & harmony. :)
We weren't sure if Drew was going to want to ride anything, but turns out he is a daredevil!! He rode EVERYTHING a zillion times with Dave. The best thing about the rain was that the lines were very short and they were able to get right on. They rode the roller coaster, the log flume, the raft ride, the Crazy Barn.... all kinds of things! Parker and I mostly hung out and watched. But Parker really liked the train that goes all around the park so we rode that quite a bit. He would yell "CHOO CHOO!!!" any time we saw it coming and he would scream and pitch a fit if we didn't get on. :)
This is Storyland's "waterpark" area with the big sprayground and all kinds of things. On this day, the entire park was a water park, so it made no difference whatsoever if they went in there fully clothed. We were all so seriously drenched it wasn't even funny.
That night for supper we went to the Red Parka in Glen. Ugh. It was hard. Drew was exhausted, but not so exhausted that he could sit there in his chair. He was all over the place, couldn't wait patiently for his food (which he didn't eat anyway), sucked down his first milk in 30 seconds and asked a million times for more..... it was not a relaxing meal. Parker, however, was wonderful and we barely knew he was there. Needless to say, I was ready for a couple of these! :) And afterward we were ready to get OUT of there as fast as we could.
