Babble on in Babylon

As I mentioned yesterday, we rode just about every ride Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure had to offer.  We saw artificial snow in Celebration, Florida.  We caught just a little bit of fireworks fun.  We listened to Mannheim Steamroller live, featuring an exclusive personal appearance by Chip Davis. (Who?)  Some of us even saw the last 5 minutes of a parade featuring Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade floats.

The best part?  Feeding Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers (tm, i’m sure) to a bunch of pushy, trespassing seagulls outside the Starbucks inside Universal Studios.

What?

Let me explain.  As I’ve grown to be a parent (still getting there), I’ve realized that going to amusement parks is not about ME riding all the rides - it’s about watching my children have a triple-decker serving of fun.   It’s about how they jump up and down when they hear they will meet cartoon characters in real life, and then how they freeze in horror when the moment actually arrives and the lion from Madagascar is looming 9 feet over them.  It’s about how they can hardly contain their excitement when they hear “it’s snowing in the street” and then slap each other in the face with what turns out to be soap suds.

Hardly anything lives up to what they expect.  And I think that’s why random encounters with the unexpected turn out to be so memorable.

But even beyond that, the best part of my trip wasn’t about watching the faces of my children.  It was about watching my Mom’s face , when she saw her grandchildren’s fun, when they were feeding seagulls after a full, sit-down coffee at Starbucks.  She was happy because they were happy.  She does so much for them, it’s only fair that she get to enjoy their excited happy little faces every once in a while, without disappointment or fear or exhaustion clouding it all up.

So thanks to the flying pests, for making hundreds of dollars of tickets worth it.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS