This past Father's Day I recieved a set of four tickets to Six Flags from my family. With Ben leaving for Japan on Tuesday, this Sunday was the last opportunity for all of us to go together. I had mentioned to MarKay that I hoped the day would be a bit overcast, with maybe a shower or two to keep the crowds light.
A week of 100+ temperature days seemed to have killed the desires of Georgia residents to play outdoors. The day started cloudy with a very light turn out at the park. We had some concerns over our youngest, Sean, who was visiting the park for the first time. He did not enjoy the first several rides and the Mine Train truly terrified him. But suddenly he just got over his fears and began to loosen up. He didn't even object to having to wait patiently while the grownups took truns riding roller coasters. When he road Thunder River for the first time, he was totally sold on the park. He and I stayed on the boat for a second run at his insistance.
We never stood in a line the entire day and we rode the most popuplar rides again and again, more than once remaining in our seats for a double ride. As the afternoon grew warm and the crowds picked up a bit, a thundershower emptied the park and cooled the day. Then it went on it's way, leaving us another two hours of nearly empty rides in a pleasant overcast.
The staff at Six Flags is much better trained than I have seen them in the last two decades. Friendly, smiling faces asked after our park experience and chatted happily with us. The concession prices were more outrageous than I was prepared for, even as an experienced park goer, and the Looping Starship is gone (a ride which is significant in our house because MarKay first took notice of me while we were riding it) but those were minor concerns on a day when my family put aside all recent stress and squabbling and just enjoyed ourselves in a way we haven't been able to in ages. It was a perfect send-off for Ben.
The park is celebrating it's fortieth year in 2007. I have a lot of nostalgia for Six Flags, having been an attendee for all of that time. I had hoped that I might find a coffee table edition book featuring a chronology of the park with reproductions of the maps and info on the rides that have come and gone over the decades. There is actually a small book on sale at the park with black and white photos and a fun retropective on the park, but not quite the keepsake I had hoped for. Perhaps for the fiftieth...
For all my memories of the park and the trips I made there with parents, schoolmates and girls I was hoping to impress, I would be hard pressed to imagine a better day than the one I had today.
Labels: Six Flags
