Theme Parks: Part II Travelers: Adam, Ami Day One: My old roommate got a job on an ambulance crew in Orange County, right in the heart of theme park central, so how could I resist the chance to go and finish up the tour of LA theme parks?  We headed down Friday night and arrived very late / early Saturday morning.  He hadn’t really moved in yet, so we threw down a bunch of blankets and sleeping backs we had brought and made a huge makeshift bed in the middle of the living room.  Saturday we were up and early and headed over to Disneyland only to find it was still packed out with leftover Springbreakers, so we moved just up the block to Knott’s Berry Farm.  If always forget how much I like this park – it has more exciting thrill rides than Disneyland, less than half the line time, and the price is very reasonable.  If all that wasn’t enough, we were able to gorge ourselves on Mrs. Knott’s famous chicken dinner which even three full grown men and one pretty much grown girl couldn’t finish it – we had boysenberry pie coming out every hole!  After expanding our elastic tensile maximum, we decided to ride some more roller coasters at just the right pace where we were constantly on the verge of throwing up.  Then we went home to prepare for the next big day. DAY TWO: Mike had to spend the day getting ready for work the next day, Jeremy caught a ride back to San Jose from his friend in Ventura, so Ami and I headed out for Universal Studios.  Traffic was so terrible trying to get up there that we didn’t arrive until about 3:30 and the box office closed at 4, so we just made it in time to use her coupons for a free season pass and another for the price of admission.  We got our passes and also paid the $20 for an unlimited food pass, despite the fact that we only had two hours until the park closed.  We rushed to get our first meal and ate tons of pasta and pizza.  Then we headed off to two more rides that took up all our time until closing, then we grabbed one last meal and filled out drinks two more times.  I think it was worth it since we would have spent about $40 on all that.  We couldn’t even eat it all, we ended up throwing some of it away, but its all to the good because for theme park food we still made out like bandits!!  On the way back we decided to stop at Disneyland since we both have season passes.  We stopped in and just as I parked, I realized I had developed a nasty fever.  I hadn’t felt good all day, but I had been so busy trying to have fun to notice.  It was bad enough that bundling in a thick sweatshirt and wrapping Ami’s scarf around me twice I was still shaking really bad.  We went into California adventure and went on all the rides Ami had yet to try, including the new ride I had yet to try.  Then we headed over to Disneyland and went on Splash Mountain – a terrible idea for a guy rocking a crazy fever.  We went on a few more rides and my headache got nearly unbearable, and yet we stayed until the park closed.  We made the 10 minuet drive back to Mike’s by local streets and instantly fell asleep.  Ami was concerned about me so she bundled me up tight, and I must have looked like death before she fell asleep.  DAY THREE: The fever broke at about 3 or 4 am because that’s when I threw the blankets and extra layers off of me.  Then at about 7 or so the headache subsided and I was ready to rock and roll.  Ami awoke to a whole new me yelling at her to get up and go to Disneyland.  She couldn’t believe that I had kicked this sickness in a matter of hours, but sure enough we headed out to the park.  We hit the rest of California Adventure for the early afternoon, and then headed on over to Disneyland and hit all the old forgotten rides – Casey Jr’s train, Alice in Wonderland and those sorts of old rides.  We met up with Mike as soon as he got off work, and the three of us bounced around the park for a while finally we had nothing left to interest us, and we headed back to his place. DAY FOUR: was supposed to be Six Flags Magic Mountain, but instead it turned into sort of a bummer.  The park was closed, either for rain or lack of attendance.  The website lies, but its no surprise since it hasn’t been updated in months.  We fought through terrible traffic and rain and finally, our hopes dashed, we went to a little taqueria with a fantastic fish tank.  We made an early return home to San Jose, and had great sing alongs and conversation along the way.  Its probably all for the best – I began to lose my excitement on roller coasters by the end.  Now that I have passes for all of them except Legoland, I think I am set to do it again!  I think a good follow-up mission might be Bay Area theme parks – Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Paramount Great America, and Six Flags Marine World!!

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