owlmoose | Amusements and darkness

luvmoose is working in LA for the next few weeks and, with my help,

grue23 lured her up here for the weekend. Somehow, it became the weekend of the amusement park -- the three of us went to Six Flags Marine World (where none of us had ever been) on Saturday, and then

luvmoose and I hit the Santa Cruz Boardwalk on Sunday. We were the perfect group to go together, because all three of us are game for almost any ride (I draw the line at rides that hang upside-down or otherwise trigger my fear of heights). I have many friends who like roller coasters but very few who are willing to go on rides that spin. Fortunately, like me, the others enjoy the sensation of whirling around and have cast-iron stomachs.

Marine World is a good park. It doesn't have as many thrill rides as some of its competition (Great America being the one closest by), but those it does have are quite good to excellent (the Medusa coaster was the winner) and the lines were definitely bearable, most no longer than 45 minutes. Its whitewater raft ride is one of the best of the genre I've ever been on (S take note!). We didn't make it to any of the animal shows, although we made an attempt to pet the stingrays (they did not cooperate) and spent a little time communing with the seals and sea lions. I would definitely go back, especially if I came across the half-price coupons that the people ahead of us in line shared.

I have been to the Boardwalk, many times, but not in years and years. I've always loved it. We went on the Giant Dipper (of course, since along with Space Mountain and Top Gun at Great America it is my favorite roller coaster of all time), but mostly we concentrated on spinning round and round and round. There is something very freeing about being whirled about at high speed.

luvmoose and I spent as much time laughing wildly as screaming.

Now it is Monday, and the unrelieving gloom of darkness is pressing down upon me. Okay, not really. There was a power outage in our building earlier. The power has been restored (obviously, or I couldn't be writing this) but they haven't been able to get the lights back on. So morning classes are canceled and students have gone home. This doesn't matter much to my life, except that the library is empty. It feels like a Friday, except darker.