Rollercoaster Madness

When we went to Michigan, we decided to take advantage of free babysitters (thanks again Grandpa Ash & Grandma Maggie) and take a little mini-break to Sandusky, Ohio to visit Cedar Point -- home of some of the tallest and fastest roller coasters in the world.  Months ago, Ash bought us VIP passes to the park...I told him not to tell me how much that cost...but it was worth the money, for sure.

Here's what VIP at Cedar Point means:

Our own personal staff escort for 10 hours (except for a one-hour lunch).  Everyone, meet Matt!  Michigan State senior, career Cedar Point intern, and all-around good guy who is a major roller coaster NERD.

Matt fast walked with us everywhere....told us where the best ice cream was, the best place for lunch, walked us up ALL OF THE EXIT RAMPS TO GET ONTO THE RIDES FIRST IN WHATEVER SEAT WE WANTED (yeah, that part rocked), he held our sunglasses and cameras when we went on rides...yeah, Matt rocked.  Matt also thought Ash & I were like 24.  Bonus points! Ha!  Can I say rocked any more in this paragraph?!?

So we hit it HARD at the park...Ash was on a mission.  We did 30 rides total, including five times on this sucker:

This baby gets up to 120 mph in like 4 seconds.  I had to scream loud every time so I didn't lose my lunch.  Matt told us a real astronaut rode this and said that the G's were almost as intense as the Space Shuttle.  Whoa!  We sat in the front every time, I think.  At the end of the ride, we literally had dead bugs all over us.  It was intense.  And fun.

Hard to believe this was actually the first time Ash & I had been to any type of amusement park together.  I knew Ash was pretty hardcore about roller coasters, and I thought I was too, but about halfway through the day, I had some very nauseous moments.  Which NEVER happens to me.  My mom said it's because I'm old, but I think since we were able to get on all of the rides so quickly that my body just needed to sit still for more than two minutes after awhile.  I seriously almost puked very high up in the air on top of a crowd of people.  That's when I told Ash we HAD to break for lunch and I ended up lying down for 10 minutes in a booth at Famous Dave's.  But after one hour of not spinning, flinging, turning, or going at high rates of speed (and some corn muffins and a Pepsi), I rallied and was good for the rest of the day.  Matt said we were pretty intense VIP-ers.

Do I look windblown?  I was windblown..  (Also, unintentional use of black & white photography here...silly Matt switched the camera settings. lol.)

Cedar Point is in a beautiful spot for an amusement park...on its own island in the middle of Lake Erie.  And if you visit, save up the cash for the VIP experience.  You won't be disappointed.

-Emily :)