The Science of Spinny Rides

What a wild ride the past two days have been. 5 days off in a row for Bill equals finally some feels-like-an-actual-vacation-time. Bill is catching up on the stuff he feels he "missed-out" on. Plus, we are finally cashing in all those let's-save-them-until-Dad-has-time-to-do-them-with-us activities that have been piling up. Not to mention all the fun we saved for those lets-wait-until-the-weather-gets-better days. (Now that my right pinky is exhausted from typing all those hyphens, let's get to it already.) OMSI was such a giant hit the first go round, Bill wanted to see it for himself. This time we opened and closed the place down with only a dinner break in-between. That equalled 9 hours of OMSI entertainment. Too cheap to spring for the submarine tour for myself and the kids, we skipped it last time. Bill is not that cheap and he enjoys a good submarine, so that was first on the agenda. Taking Bill to see all the killer video games was next and then we explored the rest. This time, we figured out there was an entire wing separated from the front desk area that we had not seen. Smarties that we are, we didn't miss it the second go round. Let it suffice to say lots of interesting science and engineering facts were learned. (AGAIN.)

Now that we feel more educated, we thought we would spin some of those brain cells right on out of our heads, by exploring Oaks Park. Oaks Park is an amusement park/overgrown fair full of spinning rides, plastic blow-up junk and overstuffed stuffed animals one can win. It is charming and run-down all at the same time, but for $14 per person to have a treat/ play games and have unlimited access to nauseous making thrill rides isn't a bargain, I don't know what is. William the brave wanted to ride this little twirly-migig first. Because he has the coolest mom on the entire planet, I agreed to ride with him and help he swing it upside down. We rode, we twirled, we went upside down. He loved it. I felt old when my head started to pound after our turn.

Romney's favorite ride of the day- another spinning extra-
vaganza. Bill and I rode once before wanting to vomit, the boys rode at least 10 times. Nothing like easily losing your equilibrium to make you feel like you are one foot in the grave. I used to love this kind of stuff.


And this kind of stuff. But now even looking at them spinning while waving to my child is almost enough to make me need to sit and put my head down. (Almost, I said.)


Romney, as mentioned in a prior post, was ruined by Bill and I when we cajoled him into riding a pretty intense roller coaster a couple of years ago in Williamsburg, Virginia. An old favorite of both of ours. I remember thinking it was LAME in the scary department as a teen. I felt bad when Romney was screaming "I'm hate this! I'm going to die!" while riding it after promising him it wasn't as bad as it looked. Now he won't get on ANYTHING with out freaking out first. We are trying to ease him back into it by having him pick a ride that he thinks looks scary, but not too scary and then riding it to build his confidence back up. This was the ride he picked today. It had height. It had speed (NOT, but Romney thought it looked like it would.) It had a Mom and a Dad who held onto him the whole ride. He wanted to do it again at the end of the day, but someone (not me or Bill) had gotten sick on it and it was being hosed down when we tried.

Romney pre-rewarded himself for his bravery by winning this little duck who then got to take the ferris wheel ride with all of us. He felt confident he could conquer the "wheel of death in the sky" once he proved he was strong enough to hit the bell with the giant hammer. Thank goodness he rang the bell or the "you-can-do-it" conversation encouraging him to ride the freakin' ferris wheel may still be going on.

Conquering a challenge as big as the ferris wheel deserved a post-reward reward. Ice cream and cotton candy (included in the price of admission) were big hits with the three boys. Plus, what trip to an overgrown fair would be complete without the sampling of some type of unhealthy tastiness. Another plus, it gives you a reason to feel like you want to upchuck. (Wow, I am going to need a Thesaurus soon when I run out of ways to say that particular phrase, and it seems like it keeps coming up--pun, indeed, intended.)


William's favorite spinning ride, was the Disko. Obviously, he was able to talk me into riding it by virtue of it's name alone. Bill also was up for this one (for at least half of it, anyway) and Romney was happy to keep eating his cotton candy on the bench in front of it waving to us with his sticky, yellow fingers. Fabulously fun and nausea inducing (both the ride and the grody waving fingers.)


It was dinner time, and I needed to get some solid food before passing out. With nothing appropriate available at the amusement park, we took off grabbed some delicious and healthy (enough) grub to calm our queazy tummies and stumbled upon Andy and Bax's surplus store. I had this placed marked to visit in my Zinester's guide to Portland, and since we were there and it was the one day per week they stay open that late, it seemed like fate (and a nice respite from Oaks Park for just a minute longer). William and Romney have spent the past three weeks wrestling with one another which goes from wild giggles to upset tears in no time flat. I have been warning them over and over about the perils of brother wrestling, but they don't seem listen or remember when the tears stop and an hour passes because they inevitably start again. (Trust me, it has been a really fun pattern this month.) We found these Mexican Wrestler masks in a bin (because of course they sell these at the local armed forces surplus store, right.) and I made them put them on and pretend to wrestle for a photo in the middle of the store as punishment for having to referee so many matches this summer.

This handsome dude greets you when you walk in and if I were taller I would have succeeded in giving him a cheek kiss. Bill gets jealous though, so I have to keep this kind of wolf chasing behavior in check. We poked around and enjoyed trying on every silly hat, funky sunglasses, ugly footwear in the joint and headed back to the park for the best part of the day.


The old fashioned roller skating rink. This place was sheer perfection. The rink was wood and imma-
culately kept and smooth and well oiled as a baby's butt. There were fast, slow and backwards lanes. All of which were marked by a neon sign from the ceiling with arrows pointing to each. The DJ would announce the type of skate (couples, all, backwards, etc) the next song would be and a staff member actually went to the giant board on the wall and changed it manually by lighting up the correct "skate". There was a beginner backwards skate, and an advanced backwards skate, a goodnight skate, a trio skate, the list was seemingly endless. My beginner skater, Romney had 3 special areas to practice on before hitting the big rink. One to practice turns, one for tricks and one for just plain staying upright. The pro shop was amazing, the staff was incredible and present both on and off the rink. There was a giant organ in a glass covered room with the organ pipes that lived on a platform suspended from the ceiling over the rink itself. I think we will be going back on Sunday night when they have live organ music to skate to. We skated past 9 p.m. and then let the boys ride their favorite rides one more time before arrive home, exhausted, happy, and a little dizzy well after ten. Another day of opening and closing the joint down.