Tuesday, May 25, 2010

West Coasters

It would be a colossal stretch to call myself a thrill seeker, but truth be told I do love it when I get the rare opportunity to experience a physical event out of my normal comfort zone. I'm pretty sure this would explain why I have always loved riding roller coasters.

In fact, for years I have dreamed of planning a vacation centered solely around traveling to different amusement parks, where I would ride the biggest, fastest, and most physically thrilling coasters the country had to offer. Forget lying on a beach for a week with a cold drink in my hand (however, this would come in an extremely close second) to me, this would be the ultimate way to spend a couple of weeks off from work.

The problem is that there has been one fairly substantial obstacle to my fulfilling this dream vacation.

Mrs. LIAYF.

My lovely wife, as fun loving as she is, has a slight issue with motion sickness. Ok, truth be told it's not at all slight and it precludes her from joining me on all but the mildest of these rides meant to bring thrills to the masses. How bad is it? I remember one occasion shortly after we were dating where we rode a super twister at a Kentucky amusement park we were visiting. Perhaps to impress me, girlfriend LIAYF agreed to ride with me on this super coaster, which took the riders on several 360 degree loops before depositing us suddenly back where we had started.

I yelled at the top of my lungs with excitement the whole ride, cherishing every twist and turn that it offered. Then, a couple of minutes later upon exiting I, with a huge smile on my face, turned to see her reaction. Nothing short of a ghostly apparition stared back at me! I instinctively reached to put a hand on her shoulder to see how she was doing, and was greeted with a firm "DON'T TOUCH ME!" as she made her way to the nearest bench for the next several minutes.

Needless to say, that was the end of my dream of a joint Mega Coaster vacation with my lovely, soon to be bride. Since then, I had almost completely given up the notion of such a fun-filled getaway. That was until Monday. On Monday Mrs. LIAYF, Lukas, and I visited a local kid centered farm and amusement park just outside Seattle.

And even though it was only a coaster geared towards the under 10 set, it was a super coaster to Lukas, and it was there that my dream of someday conquering the countries biggest coasters was given brand new life.




16 comments:

BloggerFather said...

Awww... She had you at "Don't touch me!"

Surfer Jay said...

That's rad. I never thought it about it untill you wrote that, but now I can;t wait to take my boy on a coaster.

SciFi Dad said...

"Don't touch me!"

The words most commonly spoken from wife to husband... she was SO ready for you to propose.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I have no designs on riding on any "throw up" rides with my son. Roller coasters are going to have to be his mother's domain.

Anonymous said...

Okay PJ and Mrs LIAYF will be drinking beers from the comfort of the flat Earth while you throw your body around. I too have the motion sickness bug.

kelsi said...

Aww =] So cute! I love the picture with his hands up! Oh, if you want to ride giant coasters anytime soon, you can always give your awesome nieces a call! Love you all!

If I Could Escape . . . said...

Cute photo! We're off to Busch Gardens tomorrow where I hope to drag my sons on Shiekra! Hehe!

Slamdunk said...

A great way to spend time together--fun photos. The Mrs. here is not a coaster fan either--so I am the one who has to tough it out with the oldest kid's ride interests.

LindsayDianne said...

We went to disneyland in match with our three year old who was tall enough to go on some of the more mature rides. I was sure that shed be terrified and she loved it!

Keith Wilcox said...

You and your wife have the same condition as me and mine, except backwards. I get motion sickness and can't stand roller coasters while she's always itching to go ride. I'm sure she'd appreciate your story as both the boys want to ride coasters but I staunchly refuse because I don't want to puke. Some day she'll be the one to go with them :-)

Captain Dumbass said...

I hear "don't touch me" a lot lately too.

Mrs. M said...

Oh fun! I love roller coasters too - we went on one in Vegas and I hurt my neck and am still recovering. I get motion sickness too, so I avoid anything that spins. But roller coasters are okay for my tummy. Just not my neck, apparently.

Anonymous said...

I'm already prepping DLG for when she's old enough to ride roller coasters. I take her to the biggest slides, swing her as high as the swings can go and throw her high in the air. She loves it. She's going to be a thrill seeker. I can feel it. I can't wait to be where you're at with Lukas now...

DGB said...

I have had a similar plan in effect. I too love roller coasters--once took a vacation to my mecca, Sandusky, OH just to ride all I could for two days. But alas, WonderWife™ has not stomach for them. So I've been slowly trying to get the Bean to like them. It's a long, long process needing a lot of patience.


If you're ever in So Cal and need a roller coaster buddy, let me know.

Knatolee said...

I love that last shot of the two of you!

A Free Man said...

That's one of the advantages of having kids - you've got potential companions for things the missus doesn't want to do. Mine isn't keen on camping, but I'm guessing with two boys I've got a couple of future campers in the nest.