Every year our school participates in the Six Flags Read To Succeed program. Personally, any program that can promote reading to my students I absolutely love to use! This one especially, because it gives students free entry to any Six Flags park during the summer season! That's right, FREE ENTRY, for reading and logging in 6 hours of reading! This is amazing, especially for the students at my school as they might not all have the opportunity to go to Six Flags because of the expense and traveling involved, but a FREE ticket always helps! Anyway, another plus to the program... if 1 student in my class completes and turns in the 6 hours of reading then the teacher gets a free ticket too, WOO-HOO!
So every year, towards the end of summer I try to put together a group outing to Six Flags! This year H-Dub and I headed out for an all day long park adventure! We left ATX around 8:30 so we could be among the first to enter the park!
We were among the first "thousand" to enter. Haha, no it really wasn't that bad, or maybe I just didn't mind the people. We did have to wait in line for 30 minutes to enter but we met some new people who were actually from a school in our district! This would be a trend throught the day! We met lots of new people and made lots of people smile in the park! Which we tend to do wherever we go. =)
After spending a small fortune on a locker for our swim gear, we headed on out to Goliath. The newest attraction to the park, added in 2009. Here are some pictures of the ride from the line. It was both our very first and very last ride... in the same exact seats and cart both times!
After a closer look, I died laughing. This ride takes a total of 1 minute. How in the world this guy made contact with me/my camera baffles me, but that is totally what it looks like!
Then we headed down the path to Boomerang! This ride is super cool!
From across the park, we could see SUPERMAN! I couldn't wait to get to that ride. It is the very best ride I have ever been on!
Picture of the "loop" from the line. This line lasted a little long because we watched on two different occasions the operators run both of the carts through the ride completely EMPTY. But we weren't about to let that stop us. We waited patiently... and got on! We conquered SUPERMAN!
After exiting the ride, you have to leave through a store (how convienent). I found a giant statue of SUPERMAN and was dying to get a picture. I kindly pardoned my interruption and asked this lady and a man, who were talking and drinking beer (I should have known then), if they would "snap a picture of us." We took our positions, clearly posing around SUPERMAN and smiled. We thanked the lady and rushed off to our next few rides. Hours later I decided to review my photos from the day, and found this...
We nearly died laughing. Are you kidding me? Why would we not be standing closer if we wanted a friend photo, aren't we clearly standing on either side of the statue awaiting a picture with us and SUPERMAN, or is it just me?
Below is a picture of the Rattler, the only wooden coaster in the park. We didn't get to ride it due to the park closing that section early for fireworks. But we really enjoyed watching it run from a line nearby!
Gully Washer line- The big water ride, still in the regular park, in a giant tube with strangers. Here we are in line. Among an audience of purely impressed people, I proudly killed 2 bees that were haunting us and our new friends in line.
Upon exiting the Gully Washers ride there was a bee on our souvenier cup. I only saw it as I was picking it up. So I did as anyone does and "shoo-ed" it away. As I grabbed our stuff (mind you, the platform you exit your tube from is constantly rotating so all this has to be done quickly and we had a 70 year old lady in our group) and turned to make it to the stairs I felt a sharp stab of pain shoot through my back on the right side. I knew immediately it was a bee or wasp and reached back to find and pull out the stinger. Eww!
Yup, one of them got me. But that is ok, during our Lupper (that is LUNCH AND SUPPER-for those of you who do not know) another bee landed on my souvenier cup and out of pure retaliation I GOT IT!!! Haha, now who has the last laugh!?
Next, we headed over to White Water Bay. We changed into our suits, claimed our "rock" (the only place that was left in the park to put our belongings), and headed to lazy river. I, sadly, don't have any pictures because my WATERPROOF camera has yet to arrive (should be here today). Lucky for you, I have a great memory.
We were "lazy" in the river for several rounds (reminder- this is after Lupper-not sure what Lupper is? See reference above). We then found our way to the tube line where we waited on 2 individual tubes. We finally got to the top of the line and went down the slides. Then, since lines were very long, we decided to spend the rest of the time (before White Water Bay closed) in the lazy river. Ahh, serenity... except for the splashing, ill mannered children everywhere you looked!
As that part of the park closed for the day, we headed back to our lockers to switch clothes and go ride more rides before leaving. Also, we were on a mission to get a REAL picture with our man, SUPERMAN! As we walked we did get to see the "HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS," (no, not really it was about 6 young men who were all in a group walking and dribbling or walking and spinning the basketballs they won on their finger) and as we passed I said, "Aww, Look, it's the HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS" and they nearly died laughing, as did H-Dub and I... I am so clever! ;)
(Anyway, back to our search for more rides and picture #2 with SUPERMAN.) Little did we know that our clearly "thought out souvenier cup purchase" would hinder our getting on more rides. As our luck would have it each big attraction in the park would claim that you could not take your cup with you and leave them near your shoes during rides, NO. They said you had to rent yet another locker (located at the entrance of each individual ride for $1) to house your cup (and/or any loose belongings) while in line and on the ride. And I did not like that, and these were pretty much the words that came out of my mouth, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME? NO THANKS! I MEAN, I ALREADY SPENT $14 ON A LOCKER FOR THE DAY, WHY GET ANOTHER, AND WHY WOULD YOU SELL ME SOMETHING THAT ALLOWS ME NOT TO GET ON ANY RIDES IN THE PARK. SERIOUSLY" And I marched on. So we decided just to head for the SUPERMAN KRYPTON COASTER for photo opp #2. And we knew that this time we had to pick someone who looks pretty "with it" and is NOT drinking. We did just that and after giving a very clear explanation of exactly what we were expecting, we posed and ended up with this...
Success! We got one...
After our accomplishment (thank you random stranger with great common sense), we decided to end our long day by stashing our ominous souvenier cup in our pricey locker one last time to hit up our very last ride of the day... GOLIATH. No pictures. Just pure fun as the sun began to set. And H-Dub kept her eyes open for the picture taken by the park cameras on the ride... at last!
Afterwards we cleared our locker and headed out for one last FREE refill (which we soooooo took advantage of... meaning we each had 6 drinks in less than 4 hours- if it got hot or watered down we just poured it out and headed to a filling station, ha!) and one last mission... a PICKLE!
I headed to the nearest stand with a clear jar with a yummy green liquid and had a conversation with the young men working that went something like this.
Me- "UM, what kind of pickles are those?"
Boy#1- "They come in a giant jar."
Boy #2- "They are your normal big pickles, like you might find at a movie theater."
Me- "Ok, um... (very awkward long pause), I will take 1 please. The biggest one in the jar. And I would really like some of the juice as well."
Boy #1 & 2 giggle then one watches as the other diggs. H-Dub is pointing out and directing them to THE PERFECT PICKLE. (ha)
Boy #2 grabs a dixie cup (small size) and dips it in the jar and fills it.
Me- "ewww, perfect." (I excitedly said as I see the cup and think he is going to give it to me with the pickle)
Boy#2- puts the pickle in a "hot dog" tray and then pours the juice in the tray, NOT in the cup. (weird)
Boy #1- "Are you like, one of those people who like, freezes pickle juice?"
Me- "O, you mean PICKLE POPS? Yeah, for sure! Thank you guys so much for helping me find the perfect pickle. Enjoy your evening"
Boys #1 & 2- they giggle and say, "Thanks, you too."
H-Dub decided we definately needed some memory of me drinking my pickle juice while exiting the park... YUM!
After finding our rides, we headed off into the sunset, back to the ATX!
What an amazingly fun filled day we had. I wished we would have gotten on more rides, however, I wouldn't change the day for the world. We had a blast, stayed from open until close, and enjoyed every minute of it! Thanks H-Dub! You, my friend, are the greatest!
*Due to a lengthy post I did not talk about each ride we went on. There were many, but I didn't have pictures of each one. I simply posted memories, my favorite, from the day. We enjoyed our visit so much that we are going back, FOR FREE I might add, before October! Anyone wanna join? I can't get you in free, but you are always more than welcome!
Note- for all the educators out there-
Another program I participate in (St. Jude's Math-a-thon) gives students a free ticket if they raise a certain amount of $ and they give me 2 free tickets to Six Flags for coordinating their program at my school. That program is also very cool in that the students do math problems and raise money to send to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. If you would like any more information on either program just let me know! =)
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