Christmas Part II

OK, here's a little recap of the last couple of days. Of course, if you've been watching the Twitter feed over there, some of this will be old news to you. Yesterday we broke in the family Christmas present of annual passes to Magic Mountain. It was, quite literally, VERY cool!!! I'm not sure what the temperature there was, but, for Southern California, it was freakin' cold!!!



This was pretty amazing to me. For our first "big" ride, we went on Viper. The older, who recently went with his school, was saying to go on the X2 coaster first, but it was closed on account of high winds. Viper was near to it, and the line was pretty short, so on it we went. Of course, the younger couldn't ride, so we took turns. After I rode, I waited in the exit line area, where I found the coaster does it's final dip under the tracks and loops around to the ride exit. Hey, might be able to get a shot from there!!! I didn't think it'd come out this good, but I was able to get the boy's face quite nicely. I couldn't resist adding a caption in LOLcat fashion!!!



I had bought four of the cheap ponchos from my work, and had the passes wrapped up with them. Expressly because they have several nice water rides there, which I figured would have near no lines in Winter. I was right. We rode the log jammer, which in the other seasons usually has, to me, a ridiculously long line. We donned our ponchos and walked right on. The younger generally does not like coasters, so I was surprised when he wanted to go again!!! We did, and I think that was a mistake. Our second log had probably four inches of standing water sloshing in the bottom, and rode considerably lower!!! On the drops, the water literally poured in on my pant legs and shoes. Enough of that!!!



After that, we took mom and the younger to Bugs Bunny land and the older and I went to try and ride roaring rapids, a river raft ride, before we shucked our ponchos off. Closed for the season, but it was right across from Tatsu, a coaster that hangs you horizontal and sends you on your way headfirst!!! I'd never been on it, and it was worth the wait, which wasn't even really that long.



We went back to Bugs Bunny land and met up, rode the canyon blaster (kiddie coaster) a couple of times, then went for some food. I remembered an enclosed food place along the way, something of a rarity there, and hauled us over that way. The older boy wanted a pretzel, and we ended up walking almost halfway across the park to find one.



It was full dark and even colder by the time we finished eating, and we were set to go home. Well, maybe just one more ride. On the way, we came to the entrance to Goliath, a big 'ol hypercoaster. The line took longer than I would have liked, but it was an impressively awesome ride for the wait.



There was a bit more than that, but we didn't get on a whole lot of lines, but it was fun. We may end up going back there again next Friday. I have elected to work Saturday in exchange for Friday off, a fair exchange I think!!!



Today we had the extended family Christmas gathering. Good times!!! My boys got Halo 2 & 3 for the new Xbox, which my oldest had been lamenting not getting and was already planning his and his brother's birthday wish lists with those two.



Olives: The original finger food!!! More food than that there, most notably and most loved by myself the pecan pie which I had not had yet this holiday season!!!



And, to close this post, an aerial shot of one of the little RC choppers. The tail rotor got busted today. It comes with a replacement, but it needs to be found to do any good!!!