Day 898: Cheater Cheater

I don't often go to other amusement parks, and quite frankly, I really don't enjoy them more often than not. So it takes a lot for me to have an honest to God good time in a "theme park" that's not Disney. It's really, really hard. My band director has been trying for years to take us to amusement parks on band trips, and not once have I enjoyed it...other than our Disney trip of course. So when I was asked to come along on this summer's band trip to film and record their experiences, I was delighted by the end of our first day when I realized that I had a really great time at Valleyfair amusement park in Minnesota.

The day started off, of course, with a nice six hour drive from little old Seymour, and we arrived to approaching clouds and storms for the band to play a pep band performance. Luckily, they got it finished and we were off to lunch before rain hit the pavement, but the first bits of our Valleyfair experience were a bit wet.

We did quite a bit during our day at Valleyfair. We found obnoxiously priced water...

If I ever hear a complaint about expensive Disney water again...not to mention the obnoxiously priced food...

But I'm making this sound all bad when in fact most of the day really was good! We hit up several of the rollercoasters and our band director made several challenges to students in return for them forgetting instruments or music they needed earlier that day. I watched, mostly, but it did lead to one of my favorite parts of the day: the Lazer Maze! Basically it's like in the movies or on TV with the spies and the lazers and it was an absolute blast, especially since I beat my friends and band director! 

However, it was a group of guys that really made our day: The Acafellas! As an a capella group, they were dressed pretty dapper, and we passed them earlier in the day before we all took refuge in one of the stores during the rain. They noticed our bright orange shirts from the performance earlier in the day and gave us a special performance right in the store! We saw them again later on and it didn't take long for them to recognize us (and the camera). We hit up their show later in the day and loved every second of it!

So overall? Yeah we had a pretty darn good day at Valleyfair...although I may have had to bring along a bit of home to make myself feel like less of a cheater!

By the end of the day, we were all pretty tired out, and I have to tell you...the bed felt like a cloud where I had some pretty sweet dreams of the Acafellas singing once more.

If I ever find myself out in Minnesota again, I'll seriously debate returning to Valleyfair, although I'll still take Disney any day. If you've ever been to Valleyfair, let me know in the comments below!

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on June 24 due to travel).