It's a Small World After All!
loricunningham
From the title of this article, you'd think I just came back from Disneyland. Wrong! In fact, I just spent a day this weekend at Knott's Berry Farm with my kids and their friends. For those of you unfamiliar with Knott's Berry Farm, it's a 160 acre amusement park in Southern California, and is apparently America's first theme park.
I packed all the essentials - my Tilt 2 phone, sunscreen, snacks, cooler with waters, my son's hat, jackets (for when the sun descends), my coupon for discounted admissions, money, and more money - food is pricey these days! Check. Everything was accounted for, or so I thought.
We arrived at Knott's Berry Farm chipper and ready for the day. We parked and read the sign that no food is allowed into the park. We left our snacks in the car. We soon met our friends at the entrance. Shoot! Where did the sunscreen end up at? (home, on the kitchen counter). We used my coupon to buy season passes for all three us - only $59.99 for both Knott's and their water park, Soak City. Score! To avoid carrying my water cooler around, I gingerly placed it on top of the heap of baby things my friend had in her baby's stroller.
OK, all set, we were off for our adventure. Knott's has a kids area called Camp Snoopy. It probably has nearly 15 kids rides. The lines were long since it was a Saturday. I remember always being impatient waiting in line as a kid. The only thing worse now is waiting in line as an adult with several impatient kids! Ugghh. Tilt 2 take me away! While the kids were entertained watching others on the ride we were in line for, I checked Facebook to see what my friends were up to. Some were headed to the beach (yes, we Californians love the beach in the Spring). Others were still talking about their Friday night adventures. I updated my status to say I was at Knott's for the day. That was fun. But I wanted more. Why not add a picture to my post?
Before I knew it, we were on the ride. I snapped several pictures with the Tilt 2 phone - got some good ones. When I got off the ride, I noticed that friends on Facebook were already telling me to have a good time at Knott's. Encouraged, I added a few pics of the kids loving life on the rides. Snap! That was easy. I hoped that although my husband couldn't join us for the day, he could view the pics on Facebook, if he was checking.
More comments Facebook - including a friend who was at Knott's also the same day! Wow, I thought, what a small world! Without Facebook, I would have never known. We continued onto lunch where I purchased a $7.00 hot dog for my kids. Yes, you heard it, $7.00! It was more expensive than my $6.95 chicken sandwich!!! Later I purchased kettle corn for the kids - also $7.00. But wait, where did my water cooler go? Shoot. My friend with the baby went home abruptly, feeling ill. Unfortunately our water cooler went with her. Oh well. We'll manage.
By the end of the day, my daughter had a headache, my son was punchy, and I knew it was time to go home. We had a great time with our friends but if I didn' make my exit soon, I'd have a major meltdown headed my way. Now where was my son's hat? Oh yeah, he sat on it on the Ferris wheel so it wouldn't fall off his head. Back to the Ferris wheel to find his hat.
Besides losing our energy, our other belongings had also dwindled. The sunscreen never made it to the park, the snacks were in the car, I surrendered my coupon to Knott's, the money disappeared at lunch, and our cooler took the fast train back home in my friend's car. Luckily, we found my son's hat and we still had our jackets (which we never used). And hey, I still had my two kids. All accounted for, or so I thought. Too bad my keys were in my water cooler! Taxi!
Since this this month's LoseTheLaptop.com challenge is about social media, look me up on Twitter or Facebook and tell me your favorite ways to use these great communication tools. Perhaps you use other websites- tell me. I'll write about them! Thanks!
May 6, 7:20 pm