Lagoon: where memories were made

The other day, I happened to catch part of a documentary on Utah's Lagoon amusement park's history. The show involved historical facts about the place that were new to me. As they showed photos from the past though, it brought back many memories for me and the times I spent there as a youth. I haven't been there in many years--since my kids were young--but there was a time...
My earliest memories of Lagoon were of our church group gatherings that we had there. Nearly as ancient in the history of my time spent there, was when I won the Pinewood Derby in my Cub Scout Pack and had the opportunity to race my car against all the other number ones in the state of Utah. Although I had rocked everyone in my pack, I got creamed at Lagoon. I think they gave everyone who didn't win a fourth place ribbon.  I still have that car, tucked away in a box.
I remember they used to have some spinning things that you dumped paint into and made some cool looking pictures. That was somewhere along the midway.
They had that huge "million gallon pool" I swam in that a few times. There was always a lot of things to do there. I used to love the Wild Mouse and the Roller Coaster, and the train that took you past all the wild animals.
There was the time that I went with our neighbors, the Howells, to Lagoon and they forgot one of their kids and we had to go back and find him. He was in the office, eating an ice cream cone that some kind person had given him. That was in the days before cell phones.
I remember the huge area with picnic tables and going there and eating Kentucky Fried Chicken and lots of other things.
Then there were the school trips. I remember going in 9th grade, and I think one other time with my classmates. It was fun.
Over the years I remember how weird it was in the Fun House, how we got out once in the Terror Ride, inside the building, not where you're supposed to get out--and how one of my friends got sick after riding the Hammer or whatever it was. I didn't laugh. There were some rides that I just didn't feel well after riding. The Tilt-O-Whirl was on that list. I remember a guy trying to guess our occupations. He said I was a welder, but in reality, I worked at an ice cream restaurant (Farrell's) at the time. Of course, I got a lot of nicks and scrapes scooping ice cream, so I can see how my hand's may have looked like welder's hands.
Such a fun place was bound to become a place to take dates. I remember doing that too. As a teenager, I perfected the basketball shooting arcade game, and the game where you knocked down Coke cans with bean bags. I won a few stuffed animals and gave them all away. Pioneer Village had become part of Lagoon by my teenage years and they had one of those Old West photo places--where you dress up like a cowboy, or pioneer woman, etc. It's funny--that's all I remember about Pioneer Village, because I had my picture taken there with a date or two.
The last time I went to Lagoon was when my kids were young--sometime in the 90s. Lagoona Beach water park had replaced the "million gallon pool" by then and I think we spent more time in the water park then we did riding rides, or playing games along the midway. By then, the prices had risen dramatically and I pretty much decided that unless I was going with someone who would really enjoy it--Ann didn't enjoy the rides all that much--it wasn't worth it to me to pay the big bucks to get in. I could go to water parks without having to do the rides somewhere else, like Raging Waters or something.
I bet that if I went there now, there have been a lot of changes made since the last time I went. But I also think a lot of it would be the same. Hey, do they still have those paddle boats? That's what inquiring minds really want to know.

The Fireworks Fizzle

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I won a drawing for a huge package of fireworks. I was very excited to finally break into them and put on a show for the family who were going to come over for the 24th...a state holiday in Utah honoring Utah's pioneer heritage.
We had a fun time with our dinner and visiting, though if  I did it again, I'd bag the idea of using pre-made boxed hamburger patties, and use fresh ground beef to make our own patties. Those from that box tasted like cardboard. All the other food was good though, and we topped it off with our first attempt at home-made chocolate peanut butter gelato, along with tried and true vanilla ice cream in the hand-crank ice cream maker.
Then came time for the fireworks display. I could tell that many of the items in the package were fountains, but as I got further into it, I found that there wasn't a single firework in the entire package (suggested retail value $1000) that shot up into the air. Now some fountains can be cool, but they can get boring after a while. I should've realized it and figured it out sooner, only I kept believing that amongst this huge package, at least some of them would shoot into the sky. Unfortunately no. We shot off about half the package before everyone got bored...the grandkids had stopped watching at least twenty minutes before the end and had begun chasing each other around the yard. Several other people in the crowd were watching the sky rockets being shot off in the neighborhood, instead of the fountains in front of our house. Still I had to remind myself that I hadn't spent a dime on these things, and that those people who kept shooting things up in the air had spent a bunch of money to do it. It was a small consolation, but I learned that bright packaging doesn't mean that it's all it's cracked up to be.
So, I have half of them left. I can't think of a time when I'm going to want to watch a bunch of fountains. I'm thinking of selling them on KSL in the next day or two. And then I'll buy with the proceeds, at least one firework that will shoot up into the air and go "boom", for New Year's Eve.
All in all though it was great to be with my family members and have them all able to come. That's a rarity these days and I'm extremely grateful for it.

A Tub for Just Two

Today while doing my morning exercise, I ended up walking past the Taylorsville Municipal Pool. It wasn't open, but two unexpected guests had arrived early. Here they are:

I couldn't help but wondering if they had showered before they entered the pool. They seemed perfectly at home, their own natural oils protecting them from the chlorine in the water. Maybe they'll even get a massage after their morning swim. They did look fondly at one another. Here's another pic.

Ah, the life of a duck. It does have its appeal from time to time.

Vacation Day 2

Day 2 Saturday: Let me begin by finishing day 1...we ended up eating at The Three Bears instead of Escobar's in Kanab. The reason being that we had eaten Mexican food the night before. Ann ate healthier than I did. She had an oriental salad. I had linguine alfredo and garlic bread. The linguine was my third choice because they were out of the other two choices I had selected ahead of it.

We went back later and got some shakes. They were fairly good, but not enough hot fudge in my hot fudge shake. I had a hard time sleeping because I forgot to bring my own pillow and the ones the motel provided were uncomfortable to say the least.

So on to day two. We left Kanab at around 8:20 after eating a fairly decent breakfast at the motel. As I'd been loading the 4runner, I'd seen the early morning sun just touching the nearby red mesa tops. Beautiful. I figured that on the way home I could keep this in mind and get up early to take some pictures.

We headed down the road. In Page, Arizona, we took the temporary diversion road 89T down to Gap. We had been on the old highway 89 a couple of years ago, just a day or two before a sinkhole/landslide had appeared in the road and it had been demolished by the slide and had to be closed. It hasn't yet reopened. The new road, 89T, goes mostly across the "Res", and the top speed is 55. This seems so slow when crossing this vast desert landscape and needing to travel hundreds of miles. It was nice when we finally got to Gap where the replacement road met up once again with the old road. I found myself wishing I'd have waited to get gas at Gap because it was 25 cents cheaper per gallon than the gas I'd bought in Page (thinking that the gas at Gap would be more expensive). We made it to Flagstaff at around lunch time and looked for a good place to eat. I knew about the Dog Haus where I'd eaten some of their good hot dogs in previous years, so that's where I wanted to go. Ann wanted something different so I picked up my food from the Dog Haus--it was good, by the way, though not good for me. Ann had something from McDonald's.

We got on the road again and made it down to Mesa. We are staying with Ann's brother, Tom in a house owned by their mother. This house doesn't have any kind of internet connection, so I'm having to wait until I'm at a place with wifi in order to post. We will be at Debi and Morris' house (Ann's sister and her husband) on Sunday. So I will be posting from there, if all goes according to plan. I think I'm going to be in withdrawal on this trip, but what the heck, life's an adventure, right?
 Dinner...we ate at Jack in the Box, but we went to the grocery store to buy some things so that we can make some more nutritious meals.

Traveling is interesting and you have some things happen that you'd never expect. It's best to be prepared, but you can't prepare for every possible contingency--so you have to be able to roll with whatever happens. That's a mental thing.

  I'm tired. I'll be going to bed soon.