There were two compelling choices for the last ride of our night at Seabreeze: the carousel or Jack Rabbit. We decided to make for Jack Rabbit, hoping that they didn't close the line before, or too much before, the park closed. It would turn out to be open until the 9 pm closing hour of the park, but we couldn't know that; our only previous visit was a low-attendance day cut short by rain.
So we hopped into a line for Jack Rabbit that was a bit shorter, and a lot darker, than any we'd been in all day. For a short while we wondered if we might be so lucky as to get two rides in, since if things moved fast --- and the ride does unload and reload fast --- we might get around again. We would not get that luck, but we did pretty well anyway.
We also had an unexpected visitor. A skunk wandered around the roller coaster, the second time we've had a nighttime skunk encounter near a wooden roller coaster. (The first was one at The Beast, at Kings Island, back when we visited in I'm going to say 2018.) I had a hard time spotting the skunk, but finally followed direction well enough I'm pretty sure I saw it. Some teenagers in line near us worried that the roller coaster's dispatch would make it spray. ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger observed that if the skunk lives around here, they're probably accustomed to the sounds and motion of the coaster and wouldn't fear it. There were no untoward skunk incidents that we witnessed, but see below.
When we got to the platform we noticed there was a small line for the first row seats, and a shorter one for the second row seats. We took a chance and joined the front-row queue, even though --- with the queue closed --- there might not be enough people for all these trains. But the chance of a front-seat ride for the last train of the night is worth taking. This too paid off. There were a couple people who briefly joined behind us but they estimated there wouldn't be enough people to fill one more train after us, and they went to a free space behind us. I don't think the operators ever told everybody to rearrange to fit in the last train of the night. They did say that we were going out on the last train of the night, though, and yes, we were in the front seat. The skunk did not mind us at all.
And now the park was closed, although it was finally dark and rides were lit up, at least while they handled the last of their riders. We figured to to the bathroom and get on the road to the last of our hotels. At the women's room there was some kind of kerfuffle --- no better word for it --- as some people said they saw a skunk, and feared going in the bathroom? Or maybe it was near the bathroom door? Anyway security guards came over to nod and listen to this story of there being a skunk on the park grounds.
And this threatened to foil my last, minor mission. Seabreeze Park has one big fixed sign with a map of the park. (Michigan's Adventure, a park owned by the mighty Cedar Fair chain, has none, by the way.) And I had checked earlier, they had a little mailbox with park maps inside. I wanted to hop over there and grab a park map ... but it was going into parts of the park that were turning off their lights, and here was a security guard trying to shoo people off from the closed parts of the park. I explained what I hoped to do, trusting that he might maybe escort me to see I didn't screw around longer than it took to grab a map.
He looked me over like I was daft and then, after saying something over the walkie-talkie, told me to follow him. bunnyhugger came along, with his suspicious approval. And over at the guest services office, rather near the carousel and the picnic benches where we'd had our sandwiches hours earlier, he took out a couple maps from another little box that I hadn't noticed. And then pointed to the other exit gate, over by this spot. Fair enough, and we thanked him for the help, and went out with our last little subordinate quest accomplished.
We took a couple pictures of the park's entrance by night, and walked the long way down to my car, which was not the last one to leave the third parking lot. There was one car left, come after us.
For the last of our hotels bunnyhugger had picked the closest hotel to the destination park; it was only a ten or fifteen minute drive. Along the way we passed some odd restaurant that was a combination Salvatore's Pizza and ... get ready ... an Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips. Right? Who knew they existed except as a sub-label to Nathan's hot dogs in mall food courts? And that was not the only bizarre ghost franchise we would encounter. The hotel turned out to be in a difficult-to-access plaza that shared space with a strip mall Macy's, Bon-Ton, and Sears, at least according to the signs. The Bon-Ton Department Store, yes like Molly on Fibber McGee and Molly used to shop at, evaporated in 2018 although I gather there's some brand revival that's never going to do anything. And Sears, well, you remember when Sears used to be a thing. So anyway there's some weird ghost business stuff going on around Rochester. Folks should know.
We got to bed early; Sunday was projected to be a really big day.
Now for a bit more of Canada's Wonderland; you like the look of that place, don't you?
The tall gantry from which Canada's Wonderland launches its orbital rockets.
All you people enjoying the park today, stop it! The sign clearly states they are preparing for your future enjoyment.
I took a snap over the construction barrier walls there. This is the lodge-style restaurant they're building, one of an estimated 74,816 restaurants the Cedar Fair chain is putting into their parks this year.
Huh, a photo spot you say? All right, guess I'll take a picture of it. (If you used it correctly you'd get a photo of yourself in front of Wonder Mountain.)
The way into the Medieval Fair, one of the theme areas that opened with the park in 1981.
And a plush dragon friend for sale in the gift shop there! We gave it some consideration but don't need plush this big (or costly) that we don't love.
Trivia: In 1663 Isaac Newton bought a book of astrology, to learn what it was all about, a the Stourbridge Fair. Source: The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World, Edward Dolnick. The book's reliance on trigonometry would force him to study Euclid, and from there Descartes's geometry, and from there, the stuff we know Newton for. Newton also may have bought his first prism that year; it's not certain.
Currently Reading: New Brunswick, New Jersey: The Decline and Revitalization of Urban America, David Listokin, Dorothea Berkhout, James W Hughes. So the Irish foreign-born population of New Brunswick had shrunk, in the 2010 census, to four people. That seems low even granting the city had moved on to other immigrant sources. (Also there were far fewer Hungarians than I thought.)
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Date: 2022-09-02 04:06 am (UTC)