D.C. Vacation, part 2: Kings Dominion

Monday, Labor Day, was my birthday, and I was more than a little upset to see that the skies were just as cloudy and forboding as the day before. We had planned to visit an amusement park, and although there are plenty of other things to do in the D.C. area, I kind of had my heart set on riding roller coasters for my birthday! Fortunately, Aaron and his friends checked online and discovered that the weather was far better in the part of Virginia where the park is located.

Shonni wasn’t feeling well so she stayed home, but Aaron and I met a group of six other people from the singles wards in the area. I was surprised to see it was such a reasonably small group of people, five boys and three girls. We split up into two cars with four people in each and drove the hour and-a-half drive to the park. My car stopped for gas and a snack on the way; apparently, so did the other car, because we managed to beat them there.

As my birthday present, Aaron paid my ticket into Kings Dominion, which I thought was delightfully generous. Thank you, Aaron! Our group of four, which included Aaron, me, Shandy, and Matthew, went into the park, took a photo and made our way to the nearest roller coaster, Anaconda. We couldn’t get ahold of anyone in the other car, but figured we’d meet them there. They arrived at the coaster just as we finished the ride, so we went a second time! Then we went crazy, making the rounds to all of the rides one at a time.

I like to think of Kings Dominion as the “Lagoon” of the East coast, because there isn’t a running theme for the park – it’s just a bunch of roller coasters, rides, restaurants and souvenir stands all grouped together. They had some Hanna-Barbara (the Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, the Flintstones) and Nickelodeon-themed stuff, but that’s about it.

Because it was a holiday, we were very surprised to find how few people were at the park that day. We imagined the rain might have something to do with it, but then… there was no rain until 6:30 that day. There weren’t even that many employees. We walked past a face-painting station several times and never did see anyone who would paint my face! The best part about so few people being there was that the lines were SHORT! We didn’t wait longer than 10 minutes or so in any one line. It was SWEET!

We had a quick lunch at a Chic-fil-A in the park, where we learned that Adam had brought his own lunch along, complete with lunch meat and vegetables. He bought a bun at the restaurant and made a sandwich, and generously shared with the rest of us.

I made sure to take motion-sickness meds that morning, because I really like roller coasters, and I did NOT want to miss out! Not on my birthday! Nearly every roller coaster had multiple loops and upside-down twists. I admit, the one I liked the least was the one everyone else liked the most: the Volcano. There was something about the hydrolic push at the beginning, and the fact that our feet were dangling, and that third loop seeming so slow that I just did not like! We got to the end and I said “I am NOT doing that again!” Tyson had to laugh. I sat out while everyone else did a second go-around. It took them awhile, since they all wanted to be in the front. I didn’t mind too much. It gave me time to get a really, really stale pretzel, and have a park worker ask me – with much concern – if I was okay (I was flopped over on a rock. It was a long day!).

We stayed at the park and ran around from 10:30am to 6:30pm (oh, and guess which day I forgot to wear my pedometer? That day. I was so annoyed). We had a ton of fun and were exhausted by the end and kind of glad when it started raining. We were already wet anyway, since we did a log flume as one of the last rides, and although Adam and I managed to get past the splash without getting much water on us, the spectators with water pistoles got us good! I was turned around at the time, so they just got my back, but Adam was soaked. Of course, after that, we had to stay and try to get as many others as we could.

I bought a t-shirt and then we all piled back into the cars. We wanted real food, so we decided to eat at Cracker Barrel. I had never been to that restaurant before, and it was good! We had fun looking around at the kitchy items and yummy candies in the store, and I got excited when I saw there was maple candy (I was thinking of that episode of Friends where Ross eats all that maple candy…). Five minutes later, Shandy bought me some as a birthday present. How cute is that? I’d never had maple candy before and I quite liked it!

Oddly, when the others asked if I wanted the waiters to sing “Happy Birthday” to me, I said no. I was too tired, even if it was my actual birthday. It was a little lame of me. Oh, well. It was a great group of people to celebrate with. Aaron, Rich, Lorrena, Tyson, Adam, Shandy, and Matthew made it a great day!

Aaron and I returned to Shonni’s place about 10:30 or 11, and found her feeling much better. We told her about our day, cuddled with Baxter, and checked my Facebook page.

Thank you to everyone who called, texted, emailed, and posted on my FB page to wish me a happy birthday! I felt happy and loved and I really appreciate everyone who thought of me!

What better way to turn 31 than by riding a crazy-lot of roller coasters all day, and basking in the love of people that I love, too? My thirty-second year started off pretty darn good!

Above: Tyson, Shandy, Rich, Lorrena, Adam, me, Matthew, and Aaron