We received some sad news Friday morning. Brie's paternal Grandfather, Howard Reischman past away, two days before he would have celebrated his 91st Birthday. I only had the pleasure of spending time with him on a handful of occasions, but he was great to be around, full of life, even when his health started to fail. I can only hope to live a life as long and full as he did.

Sunday we went to Paramount's Kings Dominion. Brie received VIP Passes as part of their annual "Taste Test" for companies who are interested in using their facilities for company events. It's a lovely park, green and lush, the main part of our day was spent in the "Nickelodeon Kid Zone" area. While Brie hung out with the kids letting them ride everything there I snuck off to ride "The Volcano - the Blaster Coaster" a ride a little too intense for everyone else. The park was very slow, but it still took me an hour to ride because they kept shutting it down to test it. That made a lot of people too nervous so they started walking back out through the entrance. I'm glad I waited, it was by far the best rollercoaster I'd ever been on. "The Volcano" is one of those coasters you sit down on with your legs hanging in the air, ala "Top Gun" at Paramount's Great America. This one however is far more intense. You get rocketed out where you immediately go inside the massive Volcano structure after a few turns you get launched out of the volcano's top upside down after performing a loop, several corkscrews and severe turns later it comes to an end. For a thrill coaster it's actually a fairly long ride.

Another favourite was the "Hypersonic XLC". A very very short ride ala the Tidalwave the main thrill of this ride is the Zero-to-Eighty in 1.8 second start hitting a 45º angle ramp and then coming back down at another 45º angle.. as close to lift-off as I'll probably experience. Unfortunately after that the ride is over.

I think the main thrill for me though was the whole family riding the "Avalanche". A variation on the luge you sit two people to a car then the train of cars is taken up then let go, instead of being on tracks the entire ride is in a half tube like a waterpark ride. On the parks thrill meter of 1 to 5 it was a 3 so I was unsure how Madeline would like it, she had her mouth opened in awe and smiling at the same time as we went down, the minute it stopped she was saying "let's do it again, let's do it again" classic!

I also discovered something. I absolutely do not like rides that spin around up high. Keegan and I rode one of those giant spinning swings and I was so horrified, I was certain that he was going to fall out. He, of course, was kicking his legs around and having a ball. Later we went on the "Nickelodeon Space Surfer" and even though he was sitting with Sebastian, and clearly above the height requirement I still had a minor panic attack that something was going to happen. At least this trip I remembered to stay off the Drop Zone. When Cait and I went a few years back as we got to the top of the Drop Zone I asked her, "what the hell am I doing here?!?". I have a fear of heights, that's the same thing those spinning rides brought out. It's not the motion, it's being so high off the ground without my feet planted.