Semi-unexpected trip

Well my friends Char and Evy are youth ministers at their church. Evy's been asking me for ideas for things to do with the kids and for fundraisers off and on. Well they told me of an upcoming trip to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom about a month ago. When the announcement was made on Face-book, I commented that I hope they have a great trip. And they offered me a chance to come along.

Yesterday, was the trip. I knew it wasn't going to start off well when Char told me he'd pick me up around 1100. He didn't pick me up till about 12ish. we got to the church about a half hour later. At that time, the Pastor wasn't there. So we had to wait for him. then the cousins. by the time they all arrived and we got situated it was pushing 115. We got on the road about 130.

I realized that on the way, we'd be going through Dixion California, where my dad is buried. I haven't been able to get out to see his grave at the National Veteran's Cemetery there. Anyways, we're about half way through Dixon when the kids and Evy tell Char (who's driving) that they need a rest stop. The Next exit? just happens to be the exit one takes to that National Cemetery. It was too weird. Anyways after that stop we're on the road again

another 30 minutes or so we're at Discovery Kingdom. We were told by one of the Pastor's kids that they were in the Skittles lot, so when we pulled up to the parking attendants booths to pay for the parking, we asked which lot was the skittles lot. She looked back at us blankly. "You can buy skittles inside". we tried explaining what  we were referring to, and she told us  "the skittles tram was out in the front of the parking lot. and she'd had never heard the lot be called the skittles before." we laughed and decided to try to find the lot ourselves. We drive and find the Pastor's car parked in Low and behold, the Skittles section of the parking lot. I think they may have been hitting the egg nog a little early? maybe?

Well we get inside and get our pictures with Miss Gingerbread-man and Blitzen and break off into our three groups. The cousins in one group. The pastor, his wife and kids in another group, and Char, Evy and me in the last with the three kids we drove to the park. We sat down and circled the rides and things we wanted to see before heading out into the park.

The first stop off the entrance area was the dolphin tank, the water was so blue that you couldn't see the dolphins at first unless they were at the window. They were showing off and ever so often, swam by the window, scaring the proverbial crap out of the kids. I believe both girls screamed as the dolphins said hello.

 We decided to hit some of the rides next, Cobra, Medusa and Kong. None of those were a ride for me, so i stayed safety on the ground and took pictures of what I could. I could see the kids having a blast, which I was greatful for. After that we headed over to the Land animal area. we got there about 356ish, at 358 Evy and I overheard the park attendents talking

PA1: Two minutes
PA2: Yes.

We asked PA2 what it meant by 2 minutes, we found out that they were about to close the land animal section. Apparently they feed the animals about 4 pm and during the winter they just close that part of the park at 4. Inquiring further, we found out that they opened that part of the park at 2 pm, so the land animals were only open for two hours. sucks.... I really wanted to see the tigers and the lions.

lets see, after the kids did the last ride of the day on one of the rides in the land animal area, we headed towards the Killer Whale's tank. the kids got distracted by the snow they had at the park, there was also a sledding hill which in retrospect looked really fun, but I didn't ride it I tried to get some pictures here, but it was really hard to. Right afterwards, I spotted a ride that is very reminicent of the teacups at Disneyland, but at Discovery Kingdom, they were called Monky bowls or some such thing. This ride I figured I could do and went on with Evy and the Kids, Char at first decided to stay off, but the kids, after finding out, started to tease him and playfully call him a chicken. He came on and the six of us had a blast. I was fine until the bowl we were in started to slow down, that's when I got a bit dizzy. After that we headed to eat. we were going to see the killer whale after linner, but we never got around to it.

while we were eating the Pastor's group came by and the pastor said that he wouldn't mind taking the three kids we had to give us a break. we finished eating and went to the park's tree lighting (which was amusing) several of the carolers seemed more into it than the others. and you could tell when they were faking smiles. *Shrug* think it was more for the kids than anything. I did some shopping and we headed back to the Medusa ride to meet up with the pastor's party. all day it was touch and go with the rain, and as we approached the ride, several park employees were telling us that the park was closing at 630 due to the weather. we did some last minute shopping and headed home.

We stopped in Dixion again on the way home, but the ride home was a bit on the uneventful ride, though I was pleased. One of the girls, about when we entered west sacramento, asked Are we there yet. The whole ride there I was waiting for it, but it didn't come, but I'm glad I heard it at least once on the way home. ^^;