Saturday, September 9, 2023

It’s What Fun Is

September Writing Challenge - Prompt #13:

Purchase

For Christmas last year, we decided to get season passports to Lagoon, our local amusement park. I have a love/hate relationship with Lagoon (which, as a child, I thought was called Little Goon). There are so many rides at Lagoon that I love! But I hate the lines, the crowds, the hot summer weather,* and don’t even get me started on their parking lot! (IYKYK) 


We had season passports seven years ago. Our kids were 9, 6, 3, and 1. It was hard to take them to Lagoon, and frankly, I didn’t care for the experience. I was in school, so usually it was Scotty that would take the kids while I did homework. After that season of Lagoon-ing, I was fine to not go again for a really long time. Thus, seven years passed before I would even consider going to Lagoon again. Then Black Friday 2022 rolled around, and we had no idea what else to do for Christmas, so we ordered Lagoon passes from our condo in California over Thanksgiving weekend.

After the first couple of attempts at taking the whole family to Lagoon, I was ready to pull my hair out. Zoe and Eva were horrible. They disagreed about every ride and constantly begged to play carnival games and buy junk food. No matter what we did, someone was mad. We couldn’t go on any rides as a family because one of them would always throw a fit and stay off the ride. It wasn’t that they didn’t like the ride - it was that they didn’t get to choose the ride. If someone else picked it, they had to pretend they hated it and refuse to go on it. Nicky and Daisy were miserable because Zoe and Eva were so difficult. 

We took a hiatus from family Lagoon trips for a while, and Nicky and Daisy started going with their friends instead. It turns out everyone has Lagoon passes. Has it always been this way? Have I just never noticed? Or was this year just a really popular year for our locals to go to Lagoon? The people in The Other County (the one Lagoon is in) always have Lagoon passes. But our county? I dunno. Have I just not been paying attention? Has everyone been hanging out at Lagoon without me? 

Anyway, we didn’t go to Lagoon for a while because it was hot, and we were busy. Then after all our camps ended and things calmed down a little, we started going again, and to my surprise, things got better with Zoe and Eva. Still not ideal, but better.


We found that if we went right when they opened and left by noon, things were quite pleasant. It wasn’t too hot or too crowded, and we got out of there before Zoe and Eva were completely burned out and ornery. I would always pack a cooler full of food, which we would usually leave in the van and eat on the way home. We bought reusable ICEE cups so they could get ICEEs at the end of each trip. 

Once we found our system, Lagoon became a lot of fun, and the passes were worth every penny!


It’s nice to go for a quick trip and not have to feel like we need to stay all day. We also don’t have to worry much about weather. On Labor Day we went to Lagoon in the pouring rain. We weren’t sure if the rides would be open, but we figured we could just leave if things didn’t work out - no big deal. Turns out, since there was no lightning, they were able to operate all the rides in the storm. We froze a little, but it was an absolute blast and one of the funnest and most memorable experiences of the season!




We still have another month and a half of potential (weekend) Lagoon visits, so I can’t make my final assessment, but at this point, I’m a little shocked to be able to say… I think I might want to do this again. 

*Lagoon is only open from April-October and the season begins and ends with weekend hours, so the peak of the season is June-August.

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