Adventureland amusement park in Altoona is open until 9 p.m. It was a closing time that I never thought that I'd see Sunday. We tried to take the kids and some friends several weeks ago but got rained out. So we all piled back in the van and tried it again yesterday. This time, we nailed it.

We knew we were in for a long day when we arrived just after the park opened to find a long line just to park. We had purchased several discounted tickets to use this summer and the expiration date was July 31st. I'm guessing a lot of other people saw that date too and decided Sunday was their Adventureland day too. There was no getting around it, the lines were going to be long, and they were. The longest line of the day was for the new roller coaster 'The Monster'. Holly, Chase, and some friends waited around 50 minutes or so to ride the beast. The wait was worth it. Chase and his friends got back and line and did it again later in the day.

We hit the water park at Adventureland yesterday too. It wasn't overly hot Sunday, but it was humid enough that it felt great to cool off for a couple of hours. We hit some more rides after swimming and before long my thoughts turned to what time we might need to leave to arrive home at a reasonable hour. It's a two-hour drive to Adventureland and traffic was going to be crazy getting out of the park. Plus, we had to take two of the kid's friends home. I was thinking about my 3:15 a.m. alarm. Turns out I was the only one thinking about that. The kids were having a great time and didn't want to leave. It got to be late enough that I finally realized I had been out voted. Holly told me she would drive home so I could sleep.

We walked in our house at ten minutes to midnight. By the time we put the kids to bed and put some things away, I knew I'd get at best, three hours of sleep. But don't worry. I'll make it up this afternoon. Looking back, I'm glad we stayed late. The kids had fun and have some great memories of one of summer's last fun filled days.

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