Friday, July 27, 2007

KNOEBELS AMUSEMENT PARK

We just got back from our yearly trip to Knoebel's Amusement Park. We go camping at their adjoining camp ground. Its just a short walk to go on the rides. The kids love it and I would recommend it to anyone with kids. Its nice because if you don't go on many rides you don't pay to get in, you can just pay for each ride. If you go on a lot of the rides you can pay for an all day wrist band and get to go on as many rides as you want. The prices are great with most rides costing between 80 cents and $2. A wristband is just $28.



Here is our camping set-up.




Here is Tom fixing the leak in the camper, since something has to go wrong!





Erin and Sarah on the motor boats.
This ride and most of the others are "antiques" or replicas of old rides. Its sort of neat to go on rides that they don't have anywhere else because they are old instead of new!







Thomas in front of the sky slide. Its the best slide you will ever go down. Super high and super fast! You'd be able to look out at the scenery if you weren't busy trying to stay under control!





Sarah at the end of the slide, this was a ride that she was too scared to go on in previous years.




Me, almost totally out of control and falling over!



Erin, ready to go down the slide.





Sarah on the smaller of the two train rides.







Erin and me on the train.







Thomas on the smaller of the two carousels. The bigger one has rings that you catch as you go around. Thomas and Erin both got a brass ring and won a free ride.







Erin, happy as ever.










Years ago this is the first and only ride that Sarah would go on. I spent much of that visit riding around with her! Over and over and over!





Sarah and me on the Tilt-a-Whirl. One time ride for me! Sarah's shirt may have been green, but so was my face!






Erin on the antique cars giving Sarah a taxi ride.





This was a new ride called the Looper. I'm glad they didn't ask me to go on it!








Sarah getting ready to be taken back to the campsite on a golf cart. This was after a visit to the first aid station for "chest pains". We figured it was either heartburn or a muscle spasm but a bit scary for everyone. Although I love Knoebel's, their first aid station was staffed with very nice but not very helpful people.



Finally, a picture of Thomas right before he said "Dad's taking too many pictures, you've got to stop him".
He's sitting in the Pioneer train waiting to take off on the 1.5 mile ride through the woods. Its a great ride to go on in the dark because its pitch black except for the trains headlight and really neat! One of my favorite rides!

































BLUEBERRIES!!!

This year I have discovered how many wild blueberries we have around here! I have been picking and eating them in between our trips. I would guess that I've picked over 30 cups of blueberries so far and plan to go out picking again today. I've made two blueberry pies, a big pan of blueberry cobbler and have frozen 4 or 5 cups. The rest we've just eaten plain. The kids love to snack on bowls of them. I want to make some blueberry muffins and maybe blueberry bread. I definitely want to freeze some more to have in the winter.

I'm going blueberry crazy! During my blueberry picking outings, I've come to realize that this blueberry picking thing makes me happy in so many ways. First and foremost, I love the taste of blueberries and the things I can make from them. Second, with the big emphasis on organic produce today, I can be happy that these have not been sprayed with chemicals! Thirdly, they are free! I am a cheapskate at heart and love the feeling of a good deal. What's better than free?!? Finally, I've read that blueberries are very good for you health wise. I happily tell my kids, "go ahead, eat some more"!

When I was a kid, one of my favorite books was "Blueberries For Sal". Its a story of a little girl who goes picking wild blueberries with her mother. A mother bear and her cub are also in the patch eating blueberries. Somehow, Sal gets separated from her mother at the same time that the cub gets separated from its mother. Sal starts following the sounds that the bear is making thinking its her mother. Likewise, the cub follows Sal's mother thinking she's the mother bear. Eventually everyone gets back to there rightful mother without anyone getting eaten. They live happily ever after, with plenty of blueberries.

So when you see me in the blueberry patch you can know that I'm happy. I'm probably thinking happy thoughts about those friendly bears in "Blueberries For Sal"!