Cedar Point

Today, August 8, 2010 is Lee and I's first anniversary.  We knew it was a big deal, but we couldn't decide what we wanted to do.  Nothing was going on in town and we didn't want to do the typical date night.  So we decided to go to Cedar Point for our anniversary weekend.  Lee couldn't take any more time off of work and we lead the college group on Sunday nights, so we had to get it all in between work on Friday and the group meeting Sunday night.


Once we decided we wanted to go to Cedar Point for our anniversary (a week before our anniversary), we started the planning.  Well, Lee started the planning.  It's nice having a husband who will plan the vacations.  Lee picked out a few cities for us to stay in Friday night.  Sandusky is eight and a half hours from our apartment, so we wanted something a little closer.  We picked Findlay, Ohio which is only seven hours away.  I researched Cedar Point and found out you can't buy discounted tickets online anymore, and Lee researched the places you can get discounted tickets.  They were of course located in Ohio, so we couldn't pre-purchase them.  Lee also found a few places for us to stay Saturday night after the park.  Because Hotwire worked so well for us in Savannah, we used it again for this trip.  It listed a 4-star hotel for a cheap price for Saturday night in Columbus, so we chose that one.  We booked our hotels and Lee planned a few stops for Sunday on the way home.  We were ready to go!

We worked all day Friday before leaving for Cedar Point. As soon as I got home, I finished packing and straightening up the apartment. When Lee got home, he finished packing and we headed out the door. It was daunting that after a full day of work, we would be driving at least 7 hours to our hotel. The drive actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. We enjoyed each other’s company and listened to a few of Mark Driscoll’s sermons. Just as I was starting to fade, we arrived in Findlay, Ohio. We checked into our hotel at around 12:30am. I was anxious to see our accommodations because you never really know with Hotwire what you will get. We were pleasantly surprised when we found our room had a living room, kitchenette, and bedroom with double beds. The bathroom separated the bedroom and living room. We crashed for a few hours before starting day two.

We woke up bright and early Saturday to get ready for the park. We were still an hour and a half away and the park opened at 10am. We saw a Meijer’s on the way in the night before, so we stopped to pick up breakfast and coupons for our park tickets. They didn’t have coupons, but they did have actual tickets discounted. So with our discounted tickets, mini muffins, and chocolate milk in hand, we got on the road. We started feeling the traffic about 20 minutes from the park. Luckily, the park had parking down pat. They directed everyone into neat rows very quickly. I guess at $10 a car, you can afford to pay people to direct parking. We started with a simple ride to warm up.  The wait was only 15 minutes and the ride was wonderful.  It was a lot more fun than it looked when it took you up high and spun you as you fell.  We were right next to the Ferris wheel when we got off the first ride, so we figured we would ride that while the line was short so we could get pictures from the top.  That was a big mistake.  While the line was short, it took forever to get on it because they weren't using all the available spots.  The Ferris wheel took an hour of our short day away, but we did get some good pics of the park.  The rest of the park was pretty thrilling.  We waited for 15 minutes to 2 hours for the rides, but they were all worth the wait.  This theme park definitely takes the cake.  Most theme parks have 2 or 3 big rides along with several small rides.  This park has several large rides along with several smaller rides.  I love this theme park!

On day three of our trip, we stopped at a few more places.  Our first stop was at the old Ohio State Reformatory.  It was the place where The Shawshank Redemption was filmed.  It looked beautiful on the outside. It was shocking how bad it is on the inside.  Also, because Lee is a college football fan, we visited the Ohio State campus.  We checked out the stadium.  It was impressive, but not quite as impressive as UT's stadium.  Also, their campus was really tacky with shiny, metallic colors all over everything.  It was strange.

Lastly, we went to the top of Carew Tower to see the city of Cincinnati.  It was very hot at the top, but it was 48 stories high so the view was amazing.  For a weekend trip, it was quite an awesome trip. We fit lots of activities in, and only paid for a few.  What an awesome way to celebrate our first anniversary!