Ahh the amusement park. The endless fun that is being jarred around and spun faster than your brain can handle. Greasy food, crowds, people with personal space boundaries that are much too close for my comfort. Lines, lines and more lines.
The water park portion of it wasn't, actually, bad. I enjoyed standing in lines, talking to the person in front of me, people watching. I like those things. I enjoy (perhaps a bit too much) watching different groups of people interact with each other. From the couple that just had a fight but wouldn't cancel their planned trip with their friends, to the two people in a group that refuse to admit how they feel for each other, the overindulgent father and the eye rolling (but secretly pleased) mother, the over excited child and the subdued, looking slightly bored mother (oh wait that was me!). So many different relationships to soak in, enjoy, cringe at, smile about and giggle at their complexity.
We started off simply, water slides. We stood in line with the double raft for maybe 15 minutes to go down the canyon slide. The lady in front of me had curly brown hair and black bathing suit. She seemed as uncomfortable as I was in a bathing suit so I tried not to scrutinize her. She held her raft like a lifesaving device between herself and others. She was definitely uncomfortable. I tried to shoot her an encouraging smile but she stared back skeptically. "I hate these things," she muttered. I nodded in agreement because I too hated these things. But the look on Lacie's face as she screamed down the slide, lit up in pure joy as we hit the water and she cried to go again and again and again. That was worth it. This part, though? Standing in lines averting gazes from prying eyes? No. Not so much fun for me.
The man behind is seemed friendly enough. Taller than me by a long shot. We were eye to eye when he was on the step below me. He had already been in the water, you could tell because his hair was spiked up in an assertive manner, and his red shorts with the strangely inartistic black dragon were wet. His little girl with blond hair and cornflower blue eyes kept staring at the tattoo on my back, bouncing around and giggling excitedly with Lacie, who was for all intents and purposes just as excited as she was, although slightly more subdued because she understands, sadly even at six, that too much excitement wears me out and she wanted to take in all of the park today. To do so she was on her very bestest behavior.
We reached the top slowly in between mutterings ahead oh me, "Oh I hate this." and excited giggling and squealing behind me, all in all in one piece.
Lacie has the shrillest scream you have ever heard. It is high pitched and deafening, and when she is excited she unleashes it like you would not believe. An assault to the senses, that scream is. Screaming all the way down the twists turns and loops she glanced at me hopefully and I shot her an encouraging smile. It was supposed to say I'm having fun, and she seemed to accept that because, despite the slightly bored look on my face, she went back to screaming.
Most rides were a mixture of the same thing. Stand in line for an almost unbearably long amount of time, rush through the end. Scream. Smile encouragingly. Rinse and repeat.
I had, at one point, wanted to make a break for it before night fall. It was chilly, I was uncomfortable, Lacie had forgotten her sweatshirt. Then they methodically started switching on the lights to the rides. Her eyes lit up in reflection to the lights. Her mouth fell open slightly and an excited giggle escaped her lips as we spun around on the teacups. Her arm straightened and her finger was outstretched to the Sea Dragon. "Look mommy," she whispered as we whirled around. "Isn't it magical?"
She's still beaming about it this morning. So even though I am hiding upstairs in my room trying to get a grip on my over stimulated brain, it was worth it.
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