The Thursday before Memorial Day we headed out for Western PA around 5 PM with the expectation that we would drive as far as possible while the kids slept and then stop for the night somewhere out in PA. We decided the longer portion of the trip they were sleeping the better. We made it to Parsippany, NJ (which was good enough for us) and called it a night.
The next morning we loaded up, stopped for a quick breakfast at DD, drove for a couple of hours, stopped for lunch and then finished up the last few hours of the drive. Overall, it was not a bad trip and we only had to use Elmo and our portable DVD player for the last 45 minutes!
The first part of our vacation we stayed with friends in Boswell, PA over Memorial Day weekend. Jacob enjoyed chasing the chickens around Cal's yard as seen here:
On Monday night, we once again bathed the kids, put them in their PJ's and loaded them up for the short 4.5 hour trip to Langhorne, PA where Sesame Place is located. The first day we were in Langhorne there was a threat of thunderstorms and Grace was feeling a little under the weather so we decided to postpone Sesame for a day and headed into Philly to drive around, take in the sights and crossed the border into Camden, NJ to spend the afternoon at the Adventure Aquarium:
The following morning we woke up bright and early and headed over to Sesame Place. The first hour we spent there was pretty dramatic and we almost ended up leaving. First, we headed over to security with our bags to get searched and then headed to the gate with our tickets which were printed at home on our computer. They were missing a bar code so we had to step out of line and head over to Ticket Sales to get that situation squared away. After that, we waited in line to have our bags searched....AGAIN! We proceeded to the gate and once inside the park started organizing ourselves and realized we forgot something. As I was searching my purse for the keys to the car so Ian could run out to get it we realized the keys were missing! After 20 frantic minutes we found the keys....in the ignition of our parked car in general parking. At least it wasn't running!
We headed over to the carousel and waited in line with Jacob for his first ride of the day. I got my camera out, Ian loaded Jacob and buckled him in and immediately he wanted off. We were starting to think that this was a bad idea, but we swapped Jacob out with Gracie who enjoyed every minute of the carousel. I should mention that the day we decided to go to the park was also 91 degrees and humid. AWESOME! We decided to sit in the cafe, have a snack and cool down in the AC and fortunately from there the day got much better. Jacob rode on the flying fish ride twice (once with Mama and again with Daddy). Daddy and Jacob also rode on the teacups. Jacob was not a big fan of the rides and although he didn't cry he did clutch our arms through all three rides so we figured since it was 90 and disgustingly hot out we would take advantage of the water park.
This is where Jacob ended up spending 99% of his day and had a blast. We stayed on Count's Splash Castle the entire day and Ian and I took turns taking Jacob out. Grace was due for a nap so she slept in the stroller while I laid out in the sun for awhile on a lounge chair. Eventually, we had to get Jacob out because his lips were turning blue, but he would've stayed in there all day if he had it his way. We ended up meeting Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Super Grover and Elmo and Jacob hugged all of them. He kept grabbing Big Bird's beak so we have no pictures of that, but Jacob had so much fun and the trip was definitely worth it. I think the park is ideal for 3-4 year olds and we can't wait to take him back next Summer when Grace is a little older and can enjoy it more. We also learned a few lessons in organization that I will share with those of you who might want to take a trip there:
- DO bring a wagon if you have one. Strollers are a pain in the neck and when you are bouncing back and forth between the water park and the rides you don't want soaking wet kids trying to get in and out of a stroller when they don't want to walk anymore. Also, if your stroller does not have a cup holder or a big basket (like ours) a wagon is more handy to store things.
- DO dress in swim gear and bring a change of clothes. Most people did this and we decided to do the opposite. We wore our clothes and brought swim gear with us which was pointless since we changed into swim gear right away and spent most of the day in it even on rides.
- DO make a list at the hotel of things you need to bring in the park. Otherwise you will spend 1 hr and 45 min at the gate running back and forth to the car for little things like sun block, sunglasses, hats...oh and KEYS! ;)
Here are the rest of our pics from Sesame Place and our road trip in general:
No comments:
Post a Comment