Day 11 - Idlewild and Soak Zone

Today's outing was a planned trip rather than a random reach into the Jar of Fun.  I mentioned when we returned from Reptiland last week that this was BOGO week at Idlewild and Soak Zone. With a coupon available at Sheetz, King's Family Restaurant, or Parkvale Banks, you get one free admission for each paid admission (a savings of $31.99 per ticket). With taxes, today's trip came to $65.98.  Not too bad for four passes to the park...  If you are interested in the BOGO deal, it runs through this Friday. 

The Kennywood Corporation took over the park in the early 80's and Jumpin' Jungle, a playground for kids, was added in 1983.  Walking in from the parking lot, it immediately caught Matt and Cathy's eye and was our first stop. While we took advantage of each activity in this section of the park, the kids really favored three: Bigfoot's Mudslide, Jungle Catch, and Bubbling Springs.

Bigfoot's Mudslide is a smaller version of the giant slide that shows up at carnivals and fairs around the state each summer only with a nice, wide set of stairs to climb. This is where we learned that, with sneakers on, Cathy hits that magical 42" mark that opens a whole new set of amusement park opportunities!  I think we went down that slide a half-dozen times, maybe more.

Jungle Catch has a number of stations that blow air straight up out of pipes, enabling small, lightweight plastic balls to 'float'.  Once the balls were floating, Matt took great pride in his ability to hit them to the edge of the play area.  He also seemed to enjoy pushing several balls into the pipe and temporarily plugging it up.  I guess it's true what they say: boys will be boys.

Bubbling Springs is a ball pit... otherwise known, to me at least, as a cesspool of germs and disgustingness.  Matt's interest in the pit came primarily from the fact that there are 'targets' inside the pit that the kids can throw the balls into. He's been a great fan of watching baseball since the 2008 season and is developing more and more interest in learning to play the game too. He's been hitting wiffle balls in the backyard, practicing to catch fly balls, and sliding into bases. He's also insisting that come next spring, he'll give up his beloved spring soccer for pee-wee baseball.  So his 'pitching' seemed like a natural thing for him to do.

Cathy on the other hand really seemed to enjoy going into the pit, but once inside, she didn't seem to move much.  She made it clear across to the far side of the pit her second time in before deciding she was stuck and needed help getting out, giving me the opportunity to experience the ball pit for myself.  The balls hurt to walk on and it's difficult at best to walk through them... no wonder the kids all have such a hard time getting out of the pit.

I was surprised that this section of the park was an absolute favorite with both Matt and Cathy; we visited twice and spent the better part of two hours here over the course of the day.  Good thing this section closes early or I am sure we would have made a third stop before we were allowed to climb into the car.

Story Book Forest was added to Idlewild (originally as a separate attraction) back in 1956. I am pretty sure it hasn't changed one bit since then, other than to decay a bit with time. The gates of the park, along with this section, open at 10:30am with rides and Soak Zone opening an hour later.  It's my understanding that there are many characters from favorite nursery rhymes at each of the displays within the Story Book Forest early in the morning. However, we did not get there until mid-afternoon and found only two: Raggedy Ann sitting outside of Old Mother Hubbard's shoe - an odd location for her even though she told us she was 'babysitting' Mrs. Hubbard's children - especially given there was a display for both Raggedy Ann and Andy earlier on the trail. The other was Little Red Riding Hood who warned us that the Big Bad Wolf was sleeping inside the house we were about to walk through. And sure enough, there he was, dressed up like grandma and watching us with one creepy eye.

I could have done without the tour of this section, though it was fun to read through some of the nursery rhymes and I was surprised by how many I could remember hearing as I was growing up. When we saw the Little Train That Could, Matt told us that his teacher read this story to his kindergarten class and let Cathy know that she'd be hearing it in the upcoming year.  I realized that while Mother Goose was a big part of my childhood, she has been pretty absent from my kid's. Perhaps a trip to the library sometime soon can change that.

We took a train ride across the Loyalhanna Creek to Raccoon Lagoon (otherwise known as the land of rides I don't want to or am too big to ride).

Raccoon Lagoon has the slogan "If you're small, we've got it all".  I'm always a little surprised that these rides still hold an interest for Matt, but they do.  And I am certainly glad for that - it makes a day at an amusement park much better if I can keep the kids together and interested in the same things.  And since there are possibly two more parks coming up later this summer (plus a trip to Hershey Park this fall) I hope it lasts just a little longer!

I am quite certain that Cathy's favorite ride of the day was Cattail Derby - a miniature version of the bumper cars. Watching her drive her car (quite skillfully) around the floor, I thought back to the trip the kids and I took to Knoebels last summer: they rode the bumper cars there at least half a dozen times and each time Cathy just couldn't manage to hold down the 'gas' and steer; she'd get frustrated and the ride attendant (who I thought was going to kill me by the end of the day) would have to hop on Cathy's car and help her out.  It's great to see the progress that she's made over the last year!




The kids both love the handcars and they have both a kid-sized version and an adult version.  I got to crank my way around the track with Cathy as a passenger (she was too short to drive the adult-sized version) until Matt came along and relieved me from my duties.  It was much harder work than you'd think it should be and I was happy to let him do the work instead.

Matt also managed to get me on the Tea Party - an evil spinning tea-cup ride that reduces grown-ups to jello. He's at an age where the faster something spins, the more fun the ride is, whereas I am the complete opposite.  The faster something spins, the more sure I am that I will lose my lunch all over whoever is unfortunate enough to be sitting next to me.  Since today it would have been all Matt's fault, I would have been OK with that.  Instead, I forced him to stop spinning our cup and resigned myself to the fact that old-age is starting to catch up with me in unexpected ways.

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood of Make-Believe is also on this side of the creek and offers the chance to take a life-sized trolley ride through the (wait for it) Neighborhood of Make-Believe, stopping first at King Friday's castle where we were all invited to return to the castle for a Hug-and-Song party.  I suspect that I should remember something about this from all the times I sat down and watched Mister Rogers' Neighborhood while I was growing up but it did not seem at all familiar.  The characters I mostly remembered, though I suspect it helps that we saw them a few weeks ago at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh - subject of one of my very first blog posts.  It's also pretty dated but the look on Cathy's face as we stopped to visit each of the neighborhood friends and invite them to the party was priceless.  The party itself was lost on me as our driver pointed out the momma deer and babies that were having lunch just feet away from our trolley.

The Royal Hanneford Circus had a big-top performance that was actually quite fun to watch.  There were the obligatory animals with four legs - in this case four poodles and three cats.  Some of the tricks were cute and I am sure it was the highlight of the circus experience for Cathy... before they came out, all I heard was "where are the animals?" and after it was over "I want to leave." There were two girls, allegedly sisters, that could bend in ways that just didn't seem possible for humans to bend and I should have thought to take a picture.  Instead, picture this: the first girl bends her legs over her head so that her head and chest are on the floor and her feet on down flat on the ground.  She walks herself into a clear box and closes it.  Impressive (and freaky) on its own?  No doubt.  And just when you are done being in awe of this bendy girl, the other one bends very similarly and before you know it, there are two girls in the box.  I think this alone made it worth the price of admission.

Last, but not least, we made it into Old Idlewild, where we quickly learned that there weren't too many rides that the kids could go on (in this section, having a child that is only 42" is a blessing for those of us that don't want to spin in circles).  I'd had several recommendations for the Wild Mouse roller coaster, but it was closed today.  Instead, I focused the kid's attention on Rollo Coaster - a 1938 coaster built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company.  Cathy was the first to balk at the idea but I somehow convinced Matt that if he just gave it a chance, he would like it.  To help with the argument, I reminded him about the summer I taught him to love water slides...

For those that don't know this story, I took a day off from work and just Matt and I went to Delgrosso's Amusement Park.  We got about half way up the steps for our first slide of the day when the apprehension started... but the line was completely down the steps and I was carrying a HUGE tube, so I told Matt the only way down was down the slide.  The closer we got to the top, the more nervous Matt got until he was finally in a heap of tears.  We stepped aside at the top of the slide and I tried reasoning before I finally just made him do it... I was now the mean mom forcing her four-year old onto the slide and if he hates it I would probably scarring him for life.  Before we went down, I promised him that if he hated it, he wouldn't have to do it again. But I just knew that wouldn't be the case. Sure enough, three seconds into the ride - before we even round the first curve - I hear this little boy behind me yelling "Wwwwhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeee!!!!!"  and "I want to do it again!!!".

On Rollo Coaster

Back to the roller coaster. It's not a big coaster at all... the biggest hill is just around 25 feet. But it's by far the biggest thing that Matt has ever been on.  And sure enough, on the way down that very first hill, he's laughing so hard and smiling so broadly that I know I have a coaster enthusiast in the making.  I can still hear that laughter in my head hours later and it's so fantastic.  Of course we had to ride it again, and again.  Three trips in all.

For all the things we saw at the park today, the one thing we didn't do was Soak Zone.  The day started off looking pretty miserable, overcast and breezy, and by the time the sun came out and stayed out, it was well after 4pm.  Soak Zone closed at 6pm (as it does every day) and I was starving.  So we opted for food instead.  If I am feeling up for it and if we can find friends, we may head back again between August 22 and 26... carload week.  During carload week, with a coupon from Giant Eagle, you can get a carload of up to eight people into the park for just $89.99 + tax.  If you have the Giant Eagle Advantage card with you, they'll take $4.00 off at the gate.

Speaking of food, you can take food into the park with you and there are picnic tables and pavilions everywhere if you chose to do so.  We packed a lunch and snacks, but chose to buy our dinner there.  Taco salads for the grown-ups from Loco Roberto's and chicken and fries for the kids from Potato Patch.  The food was pretty good and reasonably priced compared to other parks that I have been too... dinner for four came to less than $30. 

So, the big question of course is what did we all think of the park?  My initial impression is that is was OK, but I wouldn't be upset if I never got back... it's dated and in need of some work. There were multiple "out of order" signs in each of the bathrooms I went into (and I was probably in all of them during the day). Story Book Forest may have been better if more of the morning characters were available in the afternoon.  And of course, I realize that I may have viewed the park a bit differently if I had actually gotten down to Soak Zone - what I could see of it from the Rollo Coaster looked very nice - but $31.99 for each person (including the kids) for what we did do is excessive and I wouldn't have gone if it weren't for the BOGO deal.  If you are local to the State College area and are interested in going sometime other than this week, Centre Region Parks & Recreation offers discounted tickets for $25 each.

As for the kids - they had a great time.  That alone made the trip worthwhile.  Matt is still struggling with the rating system, initially giving Idlewild an 18 on my 1 to 5 scale.  In trying to clarify his position a bit, he's claiming that it's better than Hershey Park, better than Knoebels and that he likes it the same as Delgrosso's.  I promise you, he's only saying that until he gets to one of those places.  Then he'll have a whole new perspective.  Cathy, on the other hand, had no opinion... she was fast asleep.