Recovery

Back in high school, our marching band took a trip to Cedar Point. It was great fun. But then, I've thought Cedar Point was great fun from the first time I ever went, way back during the summer of 1980, when I was nine years old.

The biggest downer of that trip with my high school marching band was this one friend who refused to ride even the tamest of rides. She didn't want to spin, she didn't want to go up high, she absolutely didn't want to go up high while spinning and roller coasters? Forget it.

And yet, she got mad at the rest of us because we wanted to go on all the thrill rides. She fretted that she was being left out and whined when we went on the rides anyway, leaving her on a bench by the exits.

It was bad enough that she was having a lousy time at the park, but she wanted the rest of us to be as miserable as she was. She was pissed that we refused to let her ruin our day.

My mom and I took Alyssa and a friend of Alyssa's to Cedar Point yesterday. It was the perfect day for a visit to the amusement park.

The temps stayed moderate, the cloudcover kept the sun from burning us and it was a Thursday in August, which worked in our favor by keeping the crowd low and the lines short.

A's friend has been to Cedar Point several times. She said her first time was when she was six.

Which, fine. Good for her. Yay and all that jazz.

Except...when kids are six, their parents have to explain to them that the bigger, more thrilling rides are too big and too thrilling. They (the parents) may even tell the kids that the rides are too scary for them.

Which in turn, leads a ten year old girl to be afraid of riding the race horse carousel because it's too fast.

Seriously.

After we convinced her try the stupid carousel, and after I rode the ride on the same horse with her, she realized it wasn't so fast nor so scary. She and Alyssa ended up riding the race horses at least ten times, loving each and every spin.

Then she refused to go on any of the roller coasters because, again, they're just too scary.

That's the point!!! We go there, we pay insane amounts of money to be scared, to be thrilled, to be excited and to almost pee our pants.

We don't pay over $40 a person to go in the arcade and spend even more money playing games you can find just about anywhere else.

I think what got to me is that I felt like Alyssa's friend was 'afraid' because she thought she was supposed to be afraid. She claimed to have a fear of heights but I wonder if that's just because she's heard others claim the same fear and so she thinks that's how people are supposed to feel. Whatever it was, it was frustrating because her 'fears' were contagious and Alyssa wasn't nearly as adventurous as I know she would have been had her 'experienced' friend been more willing to try a few of the more thrilling rides.

In the end, we did have a great time. We walked and rode and played and ate. We got soaked a couple of times, dried out in the breeze.

And for the record, the first roller coaster Alyssa ever rode was the Gemini. She was so brave and so scared out of her nine-year-old mind. We didn't have time for her to think about it, we raced through the line and never once had to stop and wait. As we flew down that first hill, my arms extended over my head, I glanced over at Alyssa, who was holding on to the bar in front of her, her head down and her eyes squeezed shut as tight as she could get them.

I put my hand on her knee and squeezed. She gripped my hand and didn't let go until the ride ended. I didn't stop laughing until the ride ended.

When we got off, I laughed and asked if she wanted to do it again. She declared, "I thought I was going to die!"

I laughed harder still. I was so proud of her.

Today, though, we've dropped Alyssa's friend off at home and we're now recovering from the walking, the spinning, the flying and the eating.

Next year, I think I'll encourage Alyssa to invite a different friend. We'll save this friend for trips to the pool or just hanging out at home, where we're all safe and sound.