Dima’s Corner

I could not make it out for the Air and Water Show in Chicago last year so I made sure to go and check it out this weekend. I met up with a few couchsurfers at the restaurant at the top of Hancock Tower to grab some food and watch the show. Unfortunately we were seated on the other side of the building, away from all the action. After we were finished with our way overpriced buffet, we strolled along the Lakeshore Drive past the North Avenue beach to the Linkoln park. There we finally settled down and watched the rest of the show with some more people. We got to see performances by and Aeroshell and Lima Lima aerobatic teams, the Leap Frogs and the Golden Knights parachuting teams, Air Force’s F15, F16, and A-10 and of course the Thunderbirds.

Once the show was over I walked back to the Navy Pier, had some ice cream and rode a bus back to the Millenium Park. From there I walked over to Exchequer to have some pizza. Since I still had an hour to burn, I decide to ride the L - the famous elevated subway system in downtown Chicago which I saw in the movies while growing up. It was not anything too special, more of sentimental value I guess.

On Sunday Tommy and Justin drove over and we hit up Six Flags Great America theme park. Right away we got in line for the Superman ride where you are riding facing down as if you are flying, similar to Mantra we rode at Seaworld. The ride was good but it took us an hour and a half in line so once we were done we went out and got ourselves a flash pass so we can skip the lines for the rest of the day. Right away we jumped on the Iron Wolf, a stand up coaster, followed by a 200 foot drop on the appropriately named Giant Drop. Next it was time do go for a few loops on the Demon.

Unfortunately, our luck ran out at that point and it started to rain, shutting down the coasters one after another so we spent the next half hour wondering from one end of the park to another in a fruitless search for a ride. We ended up riding the American Eagle wooden coaster and finished up with the indoor Dark Knight Coaster, neither of which I liked very much. On the way home our GPS decided to take us on a more scenic route across northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin which was a thrill ride of its own, especially after the sunset.

Lessons Learned:

• Metra has an all-you-can-ride weekend pass for $5.
• All day CTA pass good for subway and buses is $5.75, available at CVS around town.
• Bus 124 goes from Union Station to the Navy Pier
• Bus 121 goes from Union Station up Michigan Avenue past Hancock tower to the North Ave Beach.
• Flash pass is the way to go. Otherwise you can spend all day waiting in lines.

Lots of good times this weekend. First, Gabe’s birthday was earlier in the week so we met up for some BBQ and then hit up the Piano Lounge for some drinks and laughs. Then on Saturday morning we drove up to Waterloo to pick some fresh strawberries at the Heartland Farms and then joined more people at the Lost Island water park. The weather looked iffy with possible storms in the afternoon so there were not that many people and it was great - warm weather, no sunburns, and no lines for any of the slides. Much better than our Aquatica experience the week before. To finish it off, we went to lake MacBride on Sunday to grill out and hang out at the beach.

Allegiant Air was running another promo for flights to Florida and there was a Thursday flight down to Orlando for $29 and returning flight on Sunday for $69. That indeed was the perfect excuse so I rounded up a couple of my friends and off we went. We got there late Thursday night and went to Daytona Beach to stay with my friend Aleksey at a house across the road from the beach.

On Friday we went to the beach for a bit and then I took my friends on a grand tour of Daytona and my school. Afterwards we got back together with Aleksey and his roommate to go down to Ponce Inlet for some grilling, swimming, and volleyball action. As usual, I got eaten alive by the bugs down there and next morning was covered in red bite marks all over. Talking about next morning, we walk up early on Saturday and drove down to Orlando to visit Aquatica and SeaWorld.

Aquatica turned out to be somewhat of a disapointment. It is hyped up to be a great park, built by none else but SeaWorld; however, there are very few rides and some of the park design is seriously flawed. The road leading to the entry gates splits at one point and even though the signs say that all lanes are open for all cars, most people get confused and go to the right of the split creating a traffic jam while the three or four lanes to the left of the split are completely empty. Another cool idea turned into a horrible experience is the entrance to the funnel slides (Tassie’s Twisters). To get in line, one must first get into the lazy river, get the tube, and then float down to the ride entrance. By the time we got there, the queue was overflowing into the lazy river and there was such a scramble for tubes at the entrance to the lazy river that we just turned around and left. We did ride the rest of the rides and there were not that impressive either. I guess the most fun one was the Wahanau Way. It also helped that there were four slides there so the queue was moving along quite fast.

Afterwards we went to Seaworld and were able to catch most of the shows starting with the new A’lure, then Believe, Clyde and Seamore, and Sea lions Tonight. In-between the shows we explored the Shark Encounter, Wild Arctic, Penguin Encounter, and the Pacific Pointe Reserve with sea lions and harbor seals. We finished up by riding the Kraken, getting wet at the Journey to Atlantis ride and followed it up by the new Mantra ride. Even though it took us an hour to get on Mantra, it was awesome. The twists and turns felt like we were flying in a jet fighter. And to top it off, the fireworks started going off just when we were going through the last loops. It was an amazing sight!

Afterwards we stopped by at the Margaritaville at Universal City Walk for some dinner and drinks. Next day we did not have much time before our flight back so we just hit up the beach for the last time and then Aleksey’s roommate Kenny drove us back to the airport. Another good weekend in Florida! Unfortunately, none of us remembered to bring our cameras so no cool pictures this time around…