Our main goal for Day 3 was to hit Knott's Berry Farm. I remember as a kid my mom mentioning it as a possible thing to do on our fairly frequent trips to California, but we never actually made it there. Maybe we just loved Disneyland too much. In any case, Julie had been there not too long ago and wanted to go back, so rather than do 2 days at Disneyland or something else, we did Knotts Berry Farm (KBF) for our 2nd day.
Admission-wise it was considerably cheaper than Disneyland, about half of what we paid there. And the experience was definitely different. KBF reminded me a lot of Lagoon here in Utah, with its midway games, thrill rides, and also size-wise. Granted, most of the rides at KBF were a step up from Lagoon's. Lagoon has the rickety white roller coaster, KBF has a much bigger, much ricketier brown wooden roller coaster (Ghost Rider), that shook me so much I actually hurt afterward. Lagoon has the "Turn of the Century" swing ride by the lake. KBF has the "Wind Chaser" swings that are the tallest structure in the park, taking you up so high that you can see for miles around. Lagoon has "Wicked" that shoots you out at a fantastic speed and up and over a hairpin turn. KBF has "Xcelerator" that goes so fast that if you sit in the front of the car, your eyes water from the air blowing into them so fast. And a super high hairpin turn. We rode that a bunch of times. Oh, I should mention that while lines at Disneyland were short, lines at KBF were non-existent. I think we waited at most 5 minutes for any ride all day.
Anyway, back to the rides. Lagoon has "The Bat", KBF has "The Silver Bullet", where you actually get something for hanging down below the bar: barrel rolls and loops and stuff. There's also a log flume ride that has a few more drops than Lagoon's, a river ride like Rattlesnake Rapids that was actually pretty similar. And a couple rides that take you through loops, only to then have you come backwards through the same loops. Brandon and I did one of those with Julie (Montezuma's Revenge), but it left us both feeling queasy, so we let her do "The Boomerang" by herself since it looked even twistier.
Brandon and Julie on "Supreme Scream"
That was kind of the theme of the day for me: ride something, get a little queasy, sit the next ride or two out, do some more. I think it must be part of getting old that my stomach just doesn't handle those thrill rides the way it used to. Speaking of my stomach, food at KBF was one thing that was even more expensive than at Disneyland. An $8 cheeseburger feels a little exorbitant, but when you find out that it's another $8 on top of that for a 21 oz drink and some fries, then you start to feel a little indignant.
Anyway, the lines were so short, that by about 3, we really had been on pretty much every ride that we wanted to, and we decided we were good to hit the road.
We found a sign on our way out and had someone take our picture. Luckily they got the sign in the background.
Even leaving town at 3 we still had to crawl along the freeway for an hour or so until we got to the outskirts of LA, but after that it was smooth driving on to Vegas.Brandon got us checked in, and then we went down to see what all Circus Circus had to offer. Somehow with our room reservation, Brandon got a few coupons for rides at "The Adventure Dome", and for a free game or two at their midway games. So he and Julie rode another rollercoaster there, I won a stuffed monkey doing some magnet fishing, we watched a trapeze show, bought matching T-shirts (3 for $10!), and eventually sat down for a nice dinner.
Trapeze show
I think partly we were all worn out, but that dinner was so fun! At one point Brandon shook his glass of water at me, as if to say "Look! I got more water!" and we all just lost it. Laughing so hard. Brandon was crying. Eventually he explained to us that he was trying to show us his ice. Or something like that. Anyway, it was a fun night.
Brandon's Magic Water Glass
Ribs!
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