We went to California's Great America theme park in Sunnyvale, California. It is a combination of amusement park and water park. The kids' cousins have season passes, so we got in for discounts (including free parking!). We went with the cousins and my brother-in-law, so we had a lot of veterans to lead us around.
The main entrance has a nice fountain to greet visitors.
Looks like any other park
The first ride the kids went on was Gold Striker. I and the youngest decided not to ride. It's an impressive wooden coaster that rattled the older kids around a lot.
Gold Striker
Very near by is the Railblazer, another challenging rollercoaster that was a lot of fun for the kids.
The older kids, being daredevils, next went on the Drop Tower, which takes riders way, way up and then lets them plummet back to earth. Again, my youngest was not too enthusiastic (he'd ridden something similar at Hershey Park and did not want to repeat the experience).
Dropping on the drop tower
The next ride had everyone on it. Psycho Mouse is a slower but not too slow rollercoaster without the big drops or any loops.
Psycho Mouse
Not far away was Planet Snoopy with its Woodstock Express rollercoaster. I attempted to ride this but was too big for the car!
Going uphill on Woodstock Express
A close-up
My brother-in-law's favorite coaster is Flight Deck. It was originally the Top Gun rollercoaster but they lost the license and had to rename it. It was thrilling to ride, one of those with your feet dangling as you were spun around along the track.
Flight Deck entrance
Flight Deck is in the "New Orleans" section of the park, which also has the steel coaster Patriot that was a blast for the older kids.
"Local" color
Walking off the Patriot
We lucked out because most of the lines were very short. We visited on a Wednesday in the summer, so that might explain the smaller crowds. For lunch we went to the water park where all the crowds were enjoying the pools, rivers, and massive slides.
Since it's a water park I didn't get any pictures. We established a base by the Tide Pool with our dry clothes (we all changed to bathing suits) and went out to experience various attractions. We rode a tube down a lazy river and enjoyed a gigantic wave pool. The biggest attraction were the water slides. A favorite that everyone rode was the Coastal Cruz, a large circular boat that goes down a big track with plenty of banking turns. We also tried Mission Falls, a two-passenger long boat that drops fast and then goes up a large wall, like a skateboarder, and down the other side. They also have those slides where the rider gets in a tube and then the floor drops out. When I got in line, the line host said we couldn't have jewelry, including wedding rings! So I didn't ride but my older kids did.
Toward the late afternoon, we were tuckered out and decided to head off to dinner outside the park. On the way out, we saw a double-decker carousel that we did not ride. Maybe next time!
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