Why am I even posting these pictures?

I'm sure all of you were at Six Flags today to see these scenes for yourself! I have no doubt that the entire Metroplex was at the park for this gorgeous first day of spring. Fortunately, the SFOT folks knew the crowd was beyond large, so they let us enter the parking lot at one of the gates near the Ballpark—and it was FREE! They also had an entrance set up by the bobsleds for people with passes or preprinted tickets. Handy! After those two shortcuts, though, we found nothing but people, people, PEOPLE everywhere, including church friends, neighbors, my students. You were there, too, weren't you?

A good majority of you had the sense to know that if you're going to wait 1 1/2 hours for a ride, you'd better make it a good one. Everybody, ourselves included, knew that you just have to start the Six Flags 2008 season at the Titan, my all-time favorite roller coaster (until I make it to Cedar Point, at least! Right, Cara?).

What everybody didn't know was that there's a new "no loose articles" policy for the Titan and the other big rides. That means you're no longer allowed to have anything that won't fit in your pockets on the ride platform. No more storage bins! Instead, you're supposed to (a) leave those items with a non-rider or (b) stow them in a locker (for the low, low fee of $1 US—for 120 minutes only). Mock the fanny pack no longer, my friends! My trusty "mom-belt" saved us a buck and a heap o' trouble!

ANYWAY, we waited an hour and a half for a three-minute ride. TOTALLY worth it! We love that Titan!

Next we tried out the new 3-D motion movie that took Spongebob's place. We were so excited to see something different, and it was, um, different. Some of the weightless parts were pretty cool, but the little spacebugs were definitely odd. Made me miss the Krusty Crab.

We enjoyed our photo op with Sylvester. We're partial to black and white cats!

I tried to get a good crowd shot but couldn't because most of the walkways were too crowded to even pause long enough to take a picture! The lines extending past the entrances of every single ride were pretty good signs that we would not be riding much today. Even the lines for concessions were 20-30 people deep. We were waiting in one of those lines to get some lunch when the three of us decided to ditch the food line, ride one more ride and then hit the road. Our choice?

No, not the Giant! The tower! Usually we don't even think of the Oil Derrick as a "ride," but it was one attraction that didn't have an hour-long wait.

Maybe next time we'll get to ride the Superman Tower of Power or the Gotham City rides.

It's so cool to see the progress on Jerry World. What an amazing structure!


We're so happy we have passes so we don't feel so bad about riding three rides and leaving! We will enjoy plenty of other days at Six Flags this year.

From Six Flags we headed for a late, late, late lunch at Razzoo's there in Arlington.

Of course, we ordered Rat Toes!

Ryan even tried one this time! (In spite of the face, he liked it! I think he was just a bit suspicious of the name. I had to convince him that no rats were harmed in the making of this appetizer.)

Then we shared our chicken, catfish, shrimp, crawfish and fries. Mmm, mmm, mmm... SO full.

We ate so much, it was scary!

Fortunately, we still had leftovers to take home to Dad.

We made the most of our outing, thankful for the weather, season passes, great food and the chance just to be together!