Valleyfair
For my birthday a few weeks ago, my present from Christine was a trip to ValleyfairValleyfair, our local amusement park. We were going to go on a weekend near my birthday, but it was cool and we were busy.

Today turned out to be the first weekend available, and it was a glorious day for an amusement park. The sky was perfectly clear and blue, with the high of 84 F. The crowds were pretty reasonable early in the day, and got even better as the day went along. We spent around 6 hours there and accomplished pretty much all we wanted to, including all 5 major rollercoasters. Some highlights:
* I got to kiss a (carousel) horse.
* Chris and I totally rocked the bumper cars.
* They were sold out of turkey legs, but a chili dog with cheese curds is an equally gross substitute.

Of the five rollercoasters, our rankings:
1 (tie) -- Wild Thing -- the newest, huge-drop coaster
1 (tie) -- Renegade -- A remarkably smooth wooden coaster that was very twisty
3 -- Corkscrew -- A really short ride, with one loop and two 360 twists.
4 -- Excalibur -- A hybrid steel roller, wooden frame coaster with a good twist
5 -- High Roller -- A 32 year old goodie with a surprising drop at the beginning

In all, I'd say this park is a bit nicer than what I'm used to, Worlds of Fun of Kansas City, MO. And, of course, I took some pictures: