Today is sure to be a fun day as Uschi and I will be at Jenn and Greg’s for their party. The penguins are looking progressively more unsettling, but I’m sure they’ll be enjoyed regardless. For now, though, I give you the long overdue recap of our day at The Great Escape.
My mother has wanted me to go with her to the park for years now since she gets a season pass through work and this was the first time I took her up on it for two reasons: 1.) Yara’s child distraction would have made the trip unbearable and 2.) my mother does not even attempt to make sure that I’m able to keep up with her in a crowd. So, I was very glad when she asked my friend Cindy to come along, too. We got to the park at about 11:00 and Mom and Paul went off immediately to do their own thing. Left to ourselves, Cindy and I mostly wandered for a bit looking in different shops and eventually ending up at the Wild West show. It was just starting so we were able to get right up in front. It’s a staple of the original park — before it become a Six Flags — so I’ve caught it a bunch of times before. Given that it was incredibly sunny that day, I was glad for this because I wasn’t able to see anything when we were outside. Uschi enjoyed the show and that includes the moment where they shot a gun not two feet from her! She got very concerned at one point when the bandits were being chased and one of them ran past her out of the roped off “stage.”
After the show ended we walked a bit more and came upon Mr. Six dancing. Mostly we just explored the park as neither Cindy or I had been to it in well over a decade. Eventually we ended up at a little gazebo where we sat and watched some ducks and the little boat ride go by.
Lunch was a treat for Paul, as he just “graduated” to the eighth grade. He decided on Chinese so we all left the park and went to a buffet a bit down the road. My lasting memory of this particular meal is that the staff were incredibly unhappy about having a dog in their establishment and were not shy about being rude on the subject. But Paul was happy with his meal so I guess that’s all that matters.
Back at the park Cindy and I headed for the wave pool. We got stopped by Scrappy, who beckoned us over and was very interested in Uschi. She had been very good about generally ignoring all the costumed characters walking by her throughout the morning, but being right up next to Scrappy her curiosity overtook her a bit. She later gave Scooby a good sniff when Paul and I quickly posed for a photo. The wave pool was nice and refreshing, though I didn’t stay in long since Uschi wasn’t able to come in. We didn’t stay too long because of that thinking it was probably a bit tortuous for my water-loving shepherd.
Our plan was to take a ride on the train and/or the boat, but while trekking to them we stopped for some treats and then had to go on a ridiculously long search for a very specific gift for Cindy’s boyfriend. Once all that was complete, we were too exhausted from all the walking to bother with the train and it was nearing time to find the others and head home.
We’re hoping to take another trip at the end of August, right before Paul goes back to school, so hopefully we can accomplish a few more actual rides. But I still had a wonderful time. And I was very pleased with how well Uschi worked throughout the day. She made sure to stay pretty much glued to Cindy — and of course Cindy was making sure that we were following her and not someone else! — and she very obediently ignored all the many distractions. Including all the food that was permeating the air. We got asked countless times by people if they could pet her and with one exception everyone was very gracious when I refused them. And the only real distraction/petting issue I had was when a toddler came running up and clamped herself around Uschi. Her mother was ignoring her, and continued to ignore me during my attempts to get her attention on the child mauling my dog. Cindy eventually intervened which got the woman to grab her kid, move her a few feet and then promptly ignore her again when she went after the dog a second time.
If you missed them from before, all the photos are here on Flickr. Basically, it was a very fun, exhausting day.
