Memorial Day Weekend, 2009 - Part 2: Kennywood Park

While the main purpose of our little family reunion this past weekend was to visit Great-Grandpa Bilbo and cheer him up, we also took the opportunity to take all the kids to one of Pittsburgh's premier attractions - Kennywood Park. It's been well more than 40 years since I was last at Kennywood, and in any case, we used to go more often to West View Park, which was closer to home and which, sadly, is long gone...but all the memories came back and a great time was had by all.

The weather was looking a bit iffy when we first arrived, so we got right down to the business of riding the rides. Agnes and Marcy rode this one ...

Unfortunately, the rain that had been threatening all morning hit in the early afternoon. It rained like crazy, along with lightning and thunder, for about an hour, and Joe and Noah kept a vigilant watch for signs that everything would soon blow over ...

The lightning and thunder stopped before the rain did, and the park started up rides that were safe to operate in the rain. Joe and Noah enjoyed racing motorcycles ...

and the helicopters ...

Once the rain finally let up, the adults wanted to go on rides, too (except for ol' Bilbo, who is fond of his lunch staying inside where it belongs). One of the dreadful offerings was the "Aero 360," a huge tower with two counter-rotating booms that swung riders in a full circle at great speed. Eddie, Vin, and Minnie rode it first ...


and then Jason and Agnes had to try it, too ...

You can see Agnes's reaction at having survived ...

Leya soon figured out that it was easier to ride the cooler than to walk ...

Opa's getting old, and it's nice to have someone offer to carry him occasionally ...

There were a few rides I was willing to try. One of them was the "Bayern Kurve," which whipped riders around an undulating oval course at very high speed. Agnes and Elena rode the car in front of me ...
While my cheering section waited outside to see if I'd survive ...

We kept at it until about 9:30, when everyone was utterly exhausted and ready for bed ... until, of course, we got back to the hotel and the kids remembered the swimming pool! We all frolicked in the pool until about 11:00, and then collapsed - tired, but happy.

All in all, it was a great weekend. We got to visit Great Grandpa and let him revel in his role as the Patriarch of the Clan, had a nice picnic on Saturday, and a great time at Kennywood Park on Sunday. We won't discuss the drive back to Washington from Pittsburgh, which was ... well ... long and agonizing.

That was Clan Bilbo's Memorial Day weekend. I hope yours was as much fun.

Tomorrow, we'll get back to our usual schedule of rants.

Have a good day. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo