Daily Archives: August 22, 2009

Trip to Sandusky

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This is what my brother asked me to do for him for his birthday. We first discussed going to Cedar Point about a month ago, and it was on AIM. At the time I still had not traveled to Chicago or even completely finished my college courses for the summer, so it was something that seemed very far away. The day has come and on Wednesday morning we woke up early, got lunch packed in a cooler, and started our journey to Sandusky.

We used the GPS unit that he brought with him from Maryland. I could have used my phone, but this seemed like just as good as a solution. I went with the “avoid toll roads” option, because honestly after traveling to Chicago I had just about enough of paying Ohio money for the privilege of using that route. I do not know if it would have saved us any time in the long run, because the way we went was pretty fast. I seem to remember when I was younger that the route to Cedar Point involved going through some towns and generally driving much slower than we were. Either they have built new highways or I just remembered wrong.

We went in and Adam suggested that we start by going to the back of the park. Apparently that is his solution to the question of what you should go on first. We were going to go with that plan, until I decided that I would really like to go on the Mantis. The major reason for this was they have signs in front of the rides now, and honestly I have not been to Cedar Point in a long time so this might not be new at all, that tell you approximately how long the wait for the ride is.

Generally speaking the sign is usually only about 5 to 10 minutes off, and in our experience that can go either way. The wait for the Mantis was about 15 minutes, so we went. We made a wrong turn and ended up at the entrance of the Mine Ride, so we went on that as well. Finally, we made it to the back of the park and we went on the Mean Streak. I really enjoy the old wooden roller coasters.

We went on some more rides, and then headed back to the car for lunch. There we witnessed something that we are pretty sure should be against the rules or have signs posted warning against. That is throwing foot for the birds in the parking lot. See, it does not take a rocket scientist to know that what you are doing is attracting a large number of large birds, you are by a lake after all, that will proceed to defecate and possibly land on and scratch cars around where you are throwing the food. I understand that some people think this is good fun or something, but it just seemed really stupid to Adam and I.

We went back to the park and the treatment we received trying to get back into the park seemed a bit too profiling for me. It seems that Cedar Point employees have been warned about young men in groups of 2 or more trying to beat the system. We were in a line with a bunch of people and the Cedar Point employees were using a wand with a light to be able to see the stamp you get on your forearm for readmission on leaving the park. Well, the line was moving pretty quick, but when we got up to the front they took both our arms and kept looking at it at different angles. I remember I actually audibly sighed when the employee checking my arm actually went to double and even triple checking.

Speaking of checking Cedar Point seems to have a policy in place that the employees that are in charge of the rides have to say “check” out loud whenever they go around making sure you have the safety belt on or anything else that is supposed to keep you in place. Not really a complaint, because personally I am glad that they are taking my safety seriously, just something that by the end of the day sort of gets hilarious. Maybe it is just us, but we were saying “check” back to them.

We managed to go on some more rides. While we were taking a break to get something to drink, having finished all of our Gatorade that I was carrying around in a bookbag, we watched a lady at one of those guessing booths try and get some customers. It was sort of amusing and we decided that we would like her to guess our age. We ruled out month pretty early, because they get 2 months in either direction, which means they get 5 months and that does not seem like very good odds.

We went up there and she had 2 years in which to guess my age and she nailed me. Adam said that the way they do that is by looking at the lines around your eyes. I guess the older you get the more lines you have, and she did spend a moment looking me straight in the eyes. If there is any consolation about it she actually guessed the low end to get the 2 years, and I will take that. Adam changed his mind when he realized that if she was that good at age he might not stand much of a chance and went with weight, which she had said she was not very good at.

Well, she was not lying about weight, but at the same time we get the feeling that there is something about that part of the game that was not completely on the level. See, the thing is we both won a prize, which you can see the stuffed animals in the pictures, but the thing is she actually did guess our weight. She guessed Adam and I at what we really are, and yet when we got on the scale we were nearly 15 pounds heavier. I am of course accounting for the fact that we were both wearing shoes and fully clothed, since I know many people weigh themselves on their bathrooms scales either upon entering or exiting the shower. The scale had us well over even that. I am not saying that the game is fixed and that she gave it to us, but I am definitely suggesting that I would not be surprised if there was not a little magic to the scale.

The last ride for the night was the Millennium Force, which is something of a staple of Cedar Point. It is definitely one of the rides that you have to go on if you are going to visit this park. I did not go on the ride, instead I opted to just sit on a bench and wait for Adam to get done. Some of the rides made me feel a bit old. I remember when the Demon Drop was a new attraction and the line for it would stretch to the front of the amusement park. The Magnum was celebrating 20 years, and that ride to was one that I remember having to pass on one year, because the line was so long.

Trip to Canton

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I am posting all the pictures from the trip to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the pictures section of the blog, because I realized that it was sort of a special event that I am not going to do again anytime soon. That is, after all, why I have that part of the page. There are over 100 pictures, and honestly I think that most of them are worth keeping. That way I can be more selective for this post and just post the pictures that I really like.

Adam and I went to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday, but I do not really remember when we decided to go. Adam is here for the week and I know that we had planned on going to Cedar Point as his birthday present, but this was really more of a spur of the moment thing. I remember we were online Monday night looking at the specials Cedar Point had running for tickets and we ended up looking up the hours and directions for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. When you sit on the internet you end up going to all sorts of places.

We figured out that it was definitely open and the hours were long enough that if we slept in we could still wander in after noon and still have hours to enjoy the place. I was kind of surprised to find out that the Pro Football Hall of Fame is actually open just about all year round. Honestly, I wanted to go anyway, and I have always said that I would end up going, but there is something about when people visit from out of town you always end up going and doing the things you never would do on your own.

After a 20 minute drive we were there and it was time to take a picture outside of the building. The outside is not really all that interesting, so we went in and purchased our tickets. We ended up getting a discount, because if you live in area you actually get $4.50 off the ticket price. That is kind of cool. When you purchase your tickets they hand you a map of the layout of the place, and while the building is fairly linear and you would not necessarily miss anything without this brochure it was still sort of neat to know what was ahead.

You begin your journey through the hall of fame by climbing up a spiral ramp. At the top you enter into a room that has memorabilia complimented by video and audio of important games and interviews with people. There are a lot of interesting trivia type things to be found in this room. Such as who the first professional football player was and why a football field is sometimes called a “gridiron”. I think we spent quite a while in this room. It was amazing just to take in all the history.

That section takes you from the mid to late 19th century and just into the beginning of the early 20th century where there still is not an NFL like the one we have today. It is interesting how things are sort of recognizable, but still so foreign. Pictures of jerseys, uniforms, pads, and clothing. The next section is every team in the AFC and NFC displayed on a large stand with the teams helmet in a case. In the middle is the AFC and NFC trophy for winning the conference. We made sure to get our picture next to the Cleveland Browns one.

We continued through the hall of fame and ended up in the room with all the busts of all the individuals who have been inducted throughout the years. Seeing as how we are both fans of the Cleveland Browns we went around and looked through all the names for not only people who we remember seeing throughout the years, but also everyone that ever played for the Browns. One of the interesting things we found was that there were a great deal of players who played a season or two for the Browns, but did not end their season in Cleveland. They played and became big stars some place else.

We skipped the theater, because the video is a recap of the last Super Bowl, and neither one of us wanted to sit through a game where the Steelers won. The last two exhibits that we spent some time with was the “modern NFL”, which is a room devoted to all the star players of recent years with NFL highlight reals playing on televisions, and the John Madden exhibit, which celebrates the 20 years that they have been making John Madden NFL games. This exhibit was personally satisfying, because it carried the Xbox name, and that happens to be my console of choice.

There were other exhibits and things that we saw while we were there that I am probably forgetting to mention. The fact is there is a lot to see and take in while you are there. We spent nearly 4 hours wandering around the place, and while we probably saw everything, you could not possibly hope to remember even half of it. It is a good thing that I took as many pictures as I did for that very reason. The last place that we ended up was in the gift shop. It is interesting, because typically in a gift shop you get something to remember the fact that you went to a certain place, but they had so much Cleveland Browns stuff that we ended up getting some of that. I do not think either one of us got something that just says “Pro Football Hall of Fame” on it.