Dutch Wonderland Trip, Day 2

We stayed at the Country Inn and Suites, which is right across the street from Dutch Wonderland. It is our hotel of choice when we visit, the price is good, the hotel is clean, there's an indoor pool and a nice breakfast. What more could one want?

Unfortunately, no one slept very well (except Luke, he was wiped out!). The first night in a new place is always tough. I woke at 5 and stayed in bed for a while trying to fall back asleep before deciding to go the exercise room. I set a goal to exercise 100 days in a row and it was day 56. so I didn't want to ruin my streak. Unfortunately, I have only lost like 5 pounds, but that's a whole other blog.

So, after my workout, I returned to the room to the kids just waking up. Everyone loves a hotel breakfast, so they were happy to get dressed and go to the lobby. We enjoyed our waffles, eggs, and muffins. The kids really wanted to go back to the pool and we had some time before the park opened, so Thomas and I were happy to oblige. The pool was surprisingly crowded, but we still had fun. The kids swam for about an hour. We staggered our return to the room, so we weren't all trying to get changed at once.

Everyone loves a breakfast buffet, even a small hotel one.

Hanging out poolside

We checked out, and went across the street to Dutch Wonderland. We walked in the park at exactly 10AM. Perfect timing!

We went through the park and rode all the rides again. Kara decided she was ready to try out the roller coasters. Back story time! When Kara was 3, she was fearless. She loved all rides, but I pushed her too far too fast on our first trip to Disney World. After that, she became much more timid on amusement park rides. However, during our trip to Universal Studios this year, she decided to try new, more exciting rides and was surprised to find she actually enjoyed them. However, she wasn't tall enough for their roller coasters, which were probably too intense anyway. So, today was her day. She started off on the little kid one, before she decided she was ready for the Kingdom Coaster, which is a good-sized wooden roller coaster. She loved it! She went on it twice in a row and would have gone on more, if we had let her. We have our 5th Wilson coaster aficionado! 

No good photo on the big coaster, but here she is rocking it in the front row of the smaller one!

Pressing our luck, we brought Luke onto the log flume. He did not like it. After we got off, he ran to the ride attendant to tell her, "that was scary, I did not like it!" So, it looks like we might have another long road ahead of us. All I want is a photo of the six of us on Splash Mountain, with everyone looking happy. Is that too much to ask???

Luke insisted I hold him tight throughout the whole ride

But, I digress. The park wasn't as crowded as the previous day, we did all the rides again, some of them multiple times. We walked through the dinosaur area and saw the diving show. We have always enjoyed the diving show and make sure to catch it on each visit. Thomas and I were ready to call it a day by 3. It is never as much fun to make the drive home and we had it looming in front of us. The kids were agreeable, so we rode a few more rides and then left the park. Luke napped for most of the drive and we made it home in time for everyone to shower and relax for a bit before bed (and, for me to write these blogs!).

We lost a drink taking this shadowy shot, so it's not for nothing, it gains a spot in the blog

It was another successful trip to Lancaster and our favorite little amusement park!