Lakemont Park

This is Lakemont Park in Altoona PA and the 5th stop on our Western PA road trip. It added three coasters to our conquered list including the oldest wooden coaster in the world, Leap-the-Dips, as well as Mad Mouse and Skyliner. This is the park we went to the same day we went to Delgrosso's. We knew that each individually didn't have enough to keep us busy for an entire day so we decided to visit both on the same day. It was a really fun idea.

Lakemont Park is delightful. It's charming, fun and feels like an oasis. It looks like an old swimming hole that a county fair setup shop and never left. At the north end of the park is the home of the minor league baseball team, the Altoona Curve. You can see the ACE award winning Skyliner roller coaster and the rest of the park from your seats in the stadium, just past the outfield.

The parks star attraction is the oldest roller coaster in the world, Leap-the-Dips. The coaster was built in 1902 and was almost demolished twice before it received its National Landmark as well as ACE Landmark status. This is one of the most fun coasters we have been on. We rode it over twenty times that day. If only Mouse Trap coasters were this much fun. Top speed is only 18 mph, highest drop is 9 ft and the ride starts with the station attendant pushing you to the first hill. The coaster is wooden, very smooth and unbelievably fun. This ride alone is worth the trip to the park and would recommend it to all amusement park enthusiasts.

Together, Lakemont Park & the Altoona Curve are a home run, one way or another.

Trip Picks & Ride Reviews

DelGrosso's Amusement Park

This is DelGrosso's in Tipton PA and the 4th stop on our Western PA trip. It's a small, family-owned park that only added one coaster, Zyklon, to our conquered list. Like many parks of its kind, it is admission free, offering the option of buying individual ride tickets or an all day pass.

There isn't much to say about DelGrosso's. It was a nice, clean park. It had many well maintained carnival rides, some with unique themeing. It looks like a great starter park for kids. It took us about 2 hours to get through everything we wanted to see in this park and that's because we dragged our feet. It's also the reason it was the first park of the day. After DelGrosso's we went to Lakemont Park the same day. It was an idea we had that made for a really fun day. This park is a couple of good coasters away from being something really special. Regardless of its limited options, we had fun.

Zyklon is a standard mouse trap type coaster, nothing special and not particularly fun. The only other note worthy attraction is Space Odyssey. It is an original caterpillar ride, inside a building and in the dark, themed to look like the night sky. It's the best use a caterpillar ride we have ever been on and reminded me of Conneaut Lake Park's Ultimate Trip.

Delgrosso's is not a vacation destination but if your in the area and looking for some fun, check it out. The price is right.

Trip Pics & Ride Reviews

Kennywood

This is Kennywood located just outside of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. It was ranked the 2nd favorite park in Theme Park Magazines "Readers Choice Awards" in 2004. Kennywood was the 3rd stop in our Western Pennsylvania Park Trip. This park added 5 coasters to our conquered list, Exterminator, Jack Rabbit, Phantom's Revenge, Racer and Thunderbolt.

Anyone who has ever visited Pittsburgh will understand why the park is so unique. Due to the geography of the area, Kennywood is essentially built on the side of a hill, a feature they utilize in several of their coasters. The park is visually impressive with quality rides. The Jack Rabbit is a good wooden coaster that uses the hillside to create its infamous double dip drop. Racer is a classic dueling wooden coasters with a winner declared at the end of every ride by the staff. Thunderbolt, their 3rd wooden coasters, has a unique feature in that the first drop occurs immediately out of the station. But the best coaster at Kennywood would have to be the Phantom's Revenge. It's a hypercoaster, top speed 85 mph, biggest drop, 228 ft, but here is the cool part, IT'S THE SECOND HILL, and it goes down the side of a mountain. AWESOME!

Kennywood is just an overall great park, with impressive rides and some kick ass, award winning, French fries. Seriously, have I ever mentioned food on this blog before? This is a vacation destination park. However, I don't know if they have enough thrill attractions to keep the rollercoaster enthusiast entertained for an entire day, unless they enjoy riding the same coasters a few times. Regardless, we loved it and recommend it. Often parks that are given the "U.S. National Historical Landmarks" tag are places that would close if it weren't for this designation. In the case of Kennywood, it's just a well earned honor.

Trip Pics and Ride Reviews

Conneaut Lake Park

This is Conneaut Lake Park in Pennsylvania. It was one of my local amusement parks and the one I visited most as a kid. It's also the place I rode my first rollercoaster so it has a special place in my heart. The park is small; it only added two coasters, Blue Streak and Toboggan, to our conquered list and was the 2nd stop on our Western Pennsylvania road trip. It has good prices, intimate surroundings and is rather charming.

The park has been around for over 100 years and recently has had lots of financial problems keeping the park open. It used to have a bowling alley, a ballroom, roller skating rink and the scariest "rotor" ride ever called the Hell Hole. The signage for the Hell Hole had a 10 foot tall statue of a devil and gave me nightmares as a kid but became one of my favorite rides as a teen until it closed in 1992. They have your standard dark, "scary" ride with glow in the dark pictures, rubber spiders, loud noises, monster mannequins & the ever trashy & disgusting used chewing gum wall. The Ultimate Trip is the best use of a Scrambler ever. It ran for 3-5 minutes, in the dark, with black lights everywhere & loud rock music, but it closed in 2005. Lastly, my first coaster love, the Blue Streak is the 6th oldest coaster in the United States and a classic out & back wooden coaster. The ride starts in a tunnel before getting to the first hill, has a top speed of 51 mph and lasts 1.32 minutes. Unfortunately, those financial difficulties have caused the coaster to not run since 2007.

I wish I could tell you this is a must visit park but it in all honesty, this park is all but dead. Even in its prime, you could get through the highlights in 2-3 hours. I'm just happy I got to share this park, it's rides and all of it's charm with my wife while it was still a shell of it's former self.

Trip Pics & Ride Reviews

Waldameer Park & Water World

This is Waldameer Park & Water World in Erie Pennsylvania and the 1st stop on our 2002 Western Pennsylvania Park Trip. It only added one coaster to our conquered list, Comet, but we believe local parks are much more than the rides they have, it's the experience they offer.

Waldameer is an admission-free park which I find incredibly charming. They offer the option of an all day pass or individual ride tickets. It has a pleasant midway, a sky ride, a giant Ferris wheel and loads of carnival type rides. It's a great starter park for kids and we intend to use it for just that with our nieces and nephews soon.

Other highlights would be the Pirates Cove "Fun house" walkthrough attraction which is not much overall but kind of fun regardless. The Wacky Shack is a very dark ride with loud noises, scares around every corner and a good excuse to get close to the person you chose to ride it with. The Comet is a very small but quite fun little wooden coaster. Top speed, 25 mph, biggest drop, 25 feet and the ride lasts 1:24 minutes. It won't break any records but it is enjoyable.

Waldameer is a fun, family park with a good management team. They have grown the park by adding two more coasters, Steel Dragon (2004) & Ravine Flyer II (2008), both of which have helped to increase annual attendance. We are looking forward to adding these to our conquered list in the near future and hope that Waldameer continues to grow and improve their park.

Trip Pics & Ride Reviews

Western Pennsylvania Trip

This is the trip that started it all. It began with a desire to share some parks I enjoyed as a kid with my wife and ballooned into a 6 park marathon road trip that we really enjoyed. The trip took place in the summer of 2002 and started with Waldameer Park to Conneaut Lake Park to Kennywood to DelGrosso's to Lakemont Park and ending at Idelwild, all in one week. We even did DelGrosso's & Lakemont in the same day. This trip added 1 state, 6 parks and 12 coasters to our conquered list including the oldest roller coaster in the world. More than that, it ignited a passion for amusement parks and road trips that continues to this day, not to mention some fantastic memories.

Gallery of Ghouls video

This is the Gallery of Ghouls at Indiana Beach, located to the left of the Frankenstein’s Castle. This is quite possible the coolest shooting gallery I have ever seen, however my wife says the guns don't work very well. She is quite the shooting gallery aficionado so its probably not bullshit. The game was actually better than the castle. Beware, the characters shown in this video are not real and posed no real threat to us at anytime.

Steel Hawg Coaster

This is the Steel Hawg coaster at Indiana Beach. It is their newest coaster and possibly their best. It looks like just another Mouse Trap type coaster but looks can be deceiving. This coaster is smooth with very unique inversions, 111 degree drop which, at its debut, made it the steepest coaster in the world. Top speed is 40miles an hour but that isn’t why this coaster is so much fun. I can try to explain the unique features of the track but after watching the video, you'll understand better than if I rattled off technical specs.

Indiana Beach

This is Indiana Beach. It’s a cute little amusement park located off of Lake Shafer in Monticello Indiana. The park added 6 coasters to our Conquered Coasters list; Cornball Express, Galaxi, Hoosier Hurricane, Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain, Steel Hawg and Tig’rr coaster.

We really liked the park. It’s the kind of place that you appreciate the longer you reflect upon your experience. It has fun rides, good food, reasonable prices on everything and a charming atmosphere. Some of the people are a little scary and unfamiliar with the groundbreaking science of Dentistry but what do you expect, it’s Indiana and proof that stereotypes are based in fact. Our largest complaint is that since it is located in a heavily wooded area and surrounded by a lake, we had to deal with bugs all day.

The park makes great use of its surroundings with a nice boardwalk atmosphere. It has several platforms built on the water to position a variety of classic “spinney” rides in a unique, water surrounded atmosphere only enhancing the experience of the ride. It also helps keep the park clear for larger attractions. All the coasters were quite good. Our favorite would be the new steel coaster called Steel Hawg. It’s a very unique, relatively small coaster that takes the mouse trap style to another level with smooth turns, a 111 degree drop, 90 degree corners and a section of track that rides completely upside down at a reasonably slow speed. I hope this is the next generation of small coasters which traditionally are rough rides but inexpensive which makes them very attractive to smaller parks. Another coaster deserving a mention would be the Cornball Express, possible the worst name for a good coaster. This wooden coaster is surprisingly smooth, relatively fast with tons of air time.

I wouldn’t call Indiana Beach a vacation destination, but if you are in the area, stop by and check it out. You will be pleasantly surprised at what a good time you have. I know we were.

Trip Pics & Ride Reviews
Steel Hawg Coaster Video
Gallery of Ghouls Video

Johnson Space Center/Star Wars Exhibit

This video covers some of the highlights of our visit to the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Some additional information is that the Saturn 5 rocket on display is the actual last rocket that took men to the moon in Apollo 17. Its mind blowing how massive this thing is and even the video doesn’t do it justice. It’s just something you have to experience for yourself. Also, part of the Star Wars Exhibit was a cloud screen with scenes from the movies projected on it. Keren walks through the screen to demonstrate. Enjoy.

Johnson Space Center

This is the Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas. It didn’t help us add any coasters to our conquered list; it was just a cool place to visit.

We didn’t get a chance to fully enjoy this place because it was our last day of vacation and we had a plane to catch, but what we saw, we liked. We took one of the tours offered of the facility and got to see the last, fully refurbished, Saturn 5 rocket that took men to the moon. We also saw the astronaut training facility which had a fully functioning replica of the space shuttle. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see any astronauts in training because it was their day off. The Johnson Center also had a variety of exhibits covering the history of man in space, the moon landing and the future of manned space flight. They also had a few presentations covering the space station and details about future trips back to the Moon and eventually to Mars. Finally, Johnson’s had a tribute to George Lucas covering his movies and how they inspired NASA and in turn inspired Lucas. The gem of the collection was the original R2D2 & C3PO on display.

Overall, we really enjoyed the Johnson Space Center and will more than likely visit it again, if we go back to Houston, but we will plan more time to enjoy the place properly.

Trip Video

Kemah Boardwalk

This is Kemah Boardwalk. It is a very cute amusement park just outside of Houston on the Gulf. It has one coasater called the Boardwalk Bullet which is very fun but Kemah is so much more than that. This is a perfect example of why, when we plan these vacations, we look for little places like this. It has 10-15 carnival type rides, midway games, shopping, an arcade & several nice restaurants overlooking Galveston Bay. The entire area is only 35 acres and has a hotel & marina attached to it. Admission to the area is free. You can purchase all day passes or individual rides tickets, a feature I love about small amusement parks like this. It is very charming & terribly romantic, a perfect date place. We may go back one day if we visit Texas again.

more pics (click on pic for ride reviews)

Sea World San Antonio

This is Sea World San Antonio. It is the largest of the Sea World parks and it is absolutely beautiful. The place is well spaced, stunning landscapes with some fantastic coasters and all the staple Sea World attractions you’re used to seeing. This park added 2 coaster to your conquered list, The Steel Eel and the Great White.

Upon our first review, we were extremely disappointed but after reflection, it's not a bad park. The Clyde and Seymour show is just as entertaining as ever. The dolphins were good and now share a show with Beluga Whales. However, the ski show was canceled, they were still developing a diving show and despite how amazing Shamu Stadium looks, it was the worst Shamu show I have ever seen. It was extra disappointing because it was the show I was most looking forward to seeing. Also, every show only had about two showings and no special evening shows. It had no Shark Encounter or Aquarium exhibit and the Penguin Encounter was largely disappointing.

However, both coasters were fantastic. The Steel Eel is a great hypercoaster, the first of its kind in Texas, that I desperately tried to get video of it but the thing is just too large. Top speed is 70 mph; the ride lasts 3 minutes and has big hills with even better air time. The Great White is a classic inverted coaster with a top speed of 50 mph. It was the parks first coaster and a good one. Overall the park was very pretty; it had some good shows, great coasters but its marquee act needs some work. I hope they continue to add coasters to this park as well as some other quality attractions. If we make another trip to San Antonio in 5 years we might go again but it's a toss up at this point. We might just elect to hang out by the hotel pool for a day instead.

Shamu Video
Dolphin Show Video
Great White Coaster Video

Six Flags Fiesta

This is Six Flags Fiesta in San Antonio Texas and it is one of the most beautiful parks we have ever been to. This park was built inside of a former rock quarry and makes great use of its surroundings. It also has some nice themed areas including a very charming boardwalk. This park is not only breath taking, it has some great coasters. In fact, there isn’t a bad coaster in the place. Fiesta added six coasters to our coasters conquered list; Goliath, Poltergeist, the Rattler, Road Runner Express, Superman Krypton Coaster & Tony Hawk’s Big Spin. Goliath is a nice inverted coaster, Road Runner is a very fun, well themed coaster and the Rattler is a fast, surprisingly smooth wooden coaster. Poltergeist is a very good launching coaster with fun inversions. However, the gem here is Superman Krypton Coaster. It is possibly the best floorless coaster we have ever been on. It really uses the quarry to enhance the ride and even has parts of the track attached to the top of the rock wall. It is fast, smooth and fun with big hills and fun loops. In the Six Flags Empire, Six Flags Fiesta is truly a diamond in the rough, or in a rock quarry.
Goliath Video, Superman Krypton Coster Video, Poltergeist video

Six Flags Over Texas

This is Six Flags over Texas, the original Six Flags Park. It added 10 coasters to our coasters conquered list; Batman the Ride, Judge Roy Scream, La Vibora, Mine Train Ride, Mini Mine Train Ride, Mr. Freeze, Shockwave, The Texas Giant, Titan & Tony Hawk’s Big Spin. Overall it was a nice park but we expected a little more from the original. Our biggest disappointment was the Texas Giant which won the 1999 award for best wooden coaster in the world. We weren’t big fans of all the country music they played either but what are you gonna do, it’s Texas. Looking back, we enjoyed Mr. Freeze, La Vibora & Titan is a great hypercoaster. However, at the end of the day, I would have to say that we were disappointed. After all, Cedar Point is Cedar Fairs marquee park and that is what we expected from Six Flags over Texas.

Goliath Coaster

This is Goliath at Six Flags Fiesta in San Antonio. It was also know as Gambit (Tokyo) & Batman-The Ride (New Orleans). I prefer the name Gambit but regardless, it is a good inverted coaster. I didn't do a ton of production on this video but thought I would throw it out there for all to enjoy.

Poltergeist Coaster

This is the Poltergeist coaster at Six Flags Fiesta San Antonio. It is a really fun launching coaster, 0-60mph. I really wish they would have gone the extra mile and really themed the hell out of this but this is Six Flags, not Disney. Lines weren't very long for this ride and I don't know why because it was a blast.

Superman Krypton Coaster

This is the Superman Krypton Coaster at Six Flags Fiesta in San Antonio. It's a fantastic floorless coaster and it may be the best we have ever been on. This ride is amazing & the scenary is breath taking. I had trouble posting this on youTube so I just posted it directly to the blog.

Great White Coaster

This is the Great White coaster at Sea World San Antonio. Inverted coasters our some of our favorite types of coasters. In fact, we agree that we have only ever been on one inverted coaster that we didn't like. While the Great White isn't the best inverted coaster we have ever been on, it was a good one. Thanks to the cast members at Sea World that allowed me to get the great shots I got for this video.

Dolphin Show Viva

If you haven’t been to Sea World in a few years, things have changed with the dolphin show. The first thing is that they don’t feature the bottlenose dolphin anymore, now it’s the white-sided dolphin. The major difference between the two is how they look. The show also shares time with the white Beluga whale. In the case of our show, she had her baby in tow while performing. This was probably the best show we saw at Sea World San Antonio. However, if you want to see that show, go to Sea World. This is my adaptation.