Now we're getting closer to California's Great America, let's see how that was going.
Told you it was the soccer match at the football stadium forcing the place to close early, although I don't know why, since the match was going on before 7 pm anyway, so it can't have been a matter of running out of parking space.
The warning of what's not working. I like getting snaps of this sort of report, when it's available.
And now we're finally ... to the ticket booths where you don't go buying tickets anymore. But you can remember the days when this would be useful.
And now we're finally in! With the park's logo, the grand pond in the middle, and the two-storey carousel behind. It looks strongly like sister parks Kings Island and Canada's Wonderland, although Great America when built was by a different chain from Kings Island and Canada's Wonderland. Great America probably just knew a good layout when it sees it.
Peering around the front of the park and getting a first look at Gold Striker here.
And here's the centerpiece, the carousel.
How do you get up a two-storey carousel? ... Well, like you'd think. I'm curious what the accommodation plan is for people who can't take that many stairs, although I wouldn't be surprised if it's 'ride the lower level'.
And this is the lower level! Which, to give it some attraction, has the menagerie figures like hippocampus.
We went upstairs for our first ride, but figured that wouldn't be our only ride.
It was a terribly hot day and every time we went past the pond it felt soooo good.
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bunnyhugger looks out, taking pity on all the little people who aren't riding carousels or roller coasters.
One of the upper-level chariots has this figure of a sea serpent alarmed by a tiny snake, a design we know from the carousel at Crossroads Village among other places.
Trivia: The papal conclave of 1655 was the first without any of the attending cardinals dying of malaria. Source: Napoleon's Buttons: 17 Molecules that Changed History, Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson. (I assume there should be a ``since ___'' attached to that. I mean, yes, this conclave had 69 members says Wikipedia but some of the older ones would only have a dozen or so participants and even granting they would go 118 rounds of voting that's not so many you'd figure one should die. Also Wikipedia says apparently one of the conclave of 1655 members died of pneumonia after a prank went badly.)
Currently Reading: The World In A Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization, Vince Reiser.
