Dutch Wonderland

I will be the first to admit that I didn't have great hopes for our planned day at Dutch Wonderland theme park. We are Disney and Legoland veterans many times over and very few places can measure up to our southern California expectations. Let me say that I was ever so wrong and that we spent the entire day at Dutch Wonderland, open to close, and would have stayed longer if they hadn't turned off the lights and sent us home. This theme park was a real treat for the under 10 set. All of the rides were perfect for Kel's age, but fun for parents too. There were no lines, the prices weren't bad for food and drink (quality food and drink I might add, not the usual overpriced theme park junk), and we all had a most wonderful day out.

I would have taken more photos, but this was probably my sickest day of the great summer fever illness thingy, so I only got up to take a photo when I knew that the shot would be good. I didn't have the energy to move any further than necessary. These first two are from the most horrible turtle ride that Kel convinced me to go on (Nic did most of the riding while I did most of the sitting down and trying not to die this day). It was awful! It spun and spun and spun...





Kel on the boat.



They had a fabulous steam engine that went all around the park. We rode it a couple of times. Mommy was in to the "sitting down and resting" rides.



No idea what these were supposed to be. Rifle laden space ships?







There was a fun live Thomas show. It also involved sitting down, so made my list of best things to do at the park. After the show, they could have their photo taken with Thomas.




These were cute diggers. They could control the bulldozer bit.




We also rode the Monorail a lot. Yep, you guessed it, extended sitting down!



This ride required the kids to use their arms in order to move the trains around the track. Kel went on it over and over again. Good exercise!




Kel driving an Amish buggy replica.




This is a bit hard to see (click the photo to enlarge), but the crazy guy in the red shirt is Nic and the little boy hiding his face is Kel. They went on this roller coaster over and over again, even though Kel didn't seem to like it, he'd stay on and ask for another ride as soon as it finished. Go figure.