Monkey See, Monkey Do, Monkey Scream
2006-06-13, 16:06

Fearless is the best word I can think of for our little one. Well, that and Sleepless, lucky us.

This weekend was my company's summer outing, which this year was as Geauga Lake amusement park - a place which now partly exists only in memory (more on that later). It was just H and I and the baby, as the Boy and the Girl were sent off to their biweekly summer prison camp (a.k.a. their dad's place), but as it was free - and I was happy to show off the baby to my coworkers - we figured we'd go for as long as the baby could handle. We got there at about 11am, and the place was pretty sparse, crowdwise. We figured it was because of the weather prediction of a high of only 65&248; Fahrenheit that was keeping people home (which was fine by us), especially since almost half the park these days is water-based stuff, and it wasn't a good day to walk around wet. We were kind of banking on some water play ourselves, but we figured that there must be something for the baby to do.

First things first, though - we got in our Villain fix, each taking one turn riding/baby watching, which was easy to do since there was literally no line to get on. The Villain is an old school wooden coaster that whips us around nicely, and it just wouldn't have been a trip to Geauga Lake without getting on it at least once (our record is something like 11 times in a row). After that we headed over to the carousel, a classic that was brought there from Coney Island, intact with a still-working calliope. We found ourselves a good horse near a bench so I could get some good pictures, and we mounted the baby on the horse's back, with H holding her in place. The thing got started, and through most of the ride, grasping the brass pole and staring straight ahead, Laurana had this look on her face like she was trying to decide whether or not she liked it. Eventually she came to the conclusion that she did; her look of indecision turned into a look of wonder, and she seemed to be totally absorbing the moment. We had to go when the ride stopped, though not without the promise to return.

Then it was on to company-provided lunch, which consisted of oh-my-god-not-burgers-and-hot-dogs-again! It was the third weekend in a row where that was the lunch selection. Thank goodness, they also had chicken breasts, so I managed to keep my red meat level down to Overkill. I swear, I've had more red meat in the last three weeks that in the previous 6 months, at least. I'm all done for a while. The baby was picky as usual, and only had a little chicken, a little macaroni salad and a handful of potato chips. She also managed to eat half a Snoopy-head ice cream bar all by herself, and even managed to not get it all over herself, though the melt-off covered her hand pretty well. Nothing a wipe couldn't take care of.

After lunch (and after the baby stared at the coi in the lake for a while, watching them beg for fish food that was available for 50 cents a pop from a crank machine), we headed into the kid park section and prayed that the baby didn't demand to immediately run into the funky water-spraying thing they had there, because, while it was a little warmer than we expected, it was still too cold for being wet. No challenge (or fighting) on that point, thank goodness. We did run the kiddie ride gambit, though. First was the little train, then, amazingly, the mini spinny-cup ride, which she adored. The girl loves to spin around; when she rode with me (she had to go at least twice, once with each of us, on most all the rides), we got going around pretty fast and she didn't even blink about it. And of course, she had to feel like she was doing all the spinning using the fixed wheel in the middle, because she just has to do everything herself.

Next were the mini monster trucks, which followed a track in a race-like circuit and made wee-ooo noises when you pushed the button on the dashboard. We went on these a few times, alternating parents, of course. One time through, she insisted on riding in the blue truck, saying, "Brap-pa," because grandpa (my dad) drives a blue pick-up (he, when I told him about it the next day, ate it up in true brap-pa fashion). Also on the ride circuit was a yellow submarine that went up-and-down, round-and-round. Slowly. She made sure to look back (she sat in front, I in back) every now and then while we were going around to make sure I had my hands on the steering wheel(s). Safety first, with this one.

Another big part of the day was spent in the climbing part of the kid's park, where on the ground floor was a Step 2 play area, full of plastic seesaws (or teeter-totters, your choice), little houses and toddler-level slides, the joy of which she's only recently discovered. She was very happy to be able to run around the area all by herself without us having to watch her every step. She even made some friends there, playing something akin to House and climbing on the climbeys. We were just happy to see her developing some good social skills, though her penchant for following/imitating older kids sends up a flag for me. Maybe it's too early to worry about that kind of thing. Yes, let's go with that.

Anyway, after that, we thought surely, she'd need a nap then. But no, the naptime never came. Not that she ever turned into a Tired Monster- at the park, at least. One thing we noticed is that there's nary a place in the park that's quiet; music pumped through every inch of the place, it seemed. Not a good way to try and get a baby to sleep. Dear Cedar Fair, Inc.: please make quiet spots in the park for naptime. Sincerely, me.

The baby lasted a lot longer at the park than we expected. After a good ten more times on the carousel, dinner, another double round of kiddie rides, a trip up the sky doughnut and spending our two Beagle Bucks that we got from the company lunch on a 'win every time', fishing-for-a-frog game that scored us a stuffed Blue look-a-like, we headed home at around 9pm. Laurana was asleep about 30 seconds into the ride.

Not that that was the end of her evening; she woke herself up when we transferred her from car to crib, and screamed her way into staying up for a good hour and a half until she calmed down enough to get herself admittedly tired again. To her credit, she's teething, getting both her upper and lower canines in at the same time, so it's no wonder she'd been having a hard time of it.

Call me an old, nostalgic fogy, but one thing that bothered me while we were there - changes. They redirected the boardwalk to a completely different area across the lake, so that it lined up better with the water park. No longer does the bridge dump out to the Asian-looking building that featured trinkets and a pearl diving guy. No longer are any of the sea creature shows; no otters, no seals and certainly no killer whale splashing the first eight rows of the audience. There isn't even a ski show anymore. No shark tank or aquarium, either. Tragic, I tell you. Where are we going to go to see an elephant seal wave at us, grunt and incidentally show off its embarrassingly large genitalia? Where can we see dolphins do back flips and dance on their tails? It felt like a part of my childhood had been ripped away. H said that she suspected that this must have been what it felt like for people when Euclid Beach closed down. Again I say, tragic. My kingdom for a sea creatures show!

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