Weekend Wrap-Up // Version 8.7.18 // Knoebels

We had been planning for weeks to go to Knoebels with Derrick’s family this past Friday. The day had been taken off by everyone & we were all looking forward to a fun day of roller coaster riding (well, everyone was except for me). There was just one small problem: as Friday got closer & closer, the weather forecast for the day got worse & worse.

Ultimately, we ended up postponing our day of amusement park fun until Saturday. It wasn’t the most ideal situation, but it was either that or drive a few hours only to be washed out at the park.

Knoebels is one of the few parks left in the whole country that still operates under a “free parking & free admission” policy. I remember the days, when I was really little, that both Kennywood & Idlewild were the same way – in order to ride rides, you purchased tickets & paid for each ride individually instead of paying for an “all-day pass”. Those days are long gone for Kennywood & Idlewild, but Knoebels still holds to that traditional admission policy. Not only do they have tickets, but they also have an “all-day pass” you can purchase – but the trick is, that all-day pass is only available on weekdays (hence us wanting to go on Friday). The plan was for Derrick & Braelynn to purchase the all-day pass & for me to just get a few tickets in order to ride the handful of rides that I could ride.

Since the weather was 100% uncooperative for us to go on Friday, we still ended up going on Saturday. The park was absolutely packed. People were absolutely everywhere! With the free admission – there seems to be absolutely no excuse for the entire family to come out to Knoebels, even if only a handful of family members actually ride.

What did that mean for us? Even though we had to buy tickets for everything, the lines were still fairly short (which was hard to believe with the trillion people milling around). The day was hot & humid, but that didn’t stop us from having an absolutely wonderful time together!

This is definitely my favorite image from the day!! I just love the looks on the little girls’ faces – they so loved riding rides with Nana!

These two little girlies had the absolute best day with each other!! They rode every ride they possibly could together (and Braelynn was so sad when Cameron was tall enough to ride the wooden roller coasters, but she wasn’t). Cousin love is truly the best.

Braelynn was so excited to ride the bumper cars! Even though she was technically tall enough to ride them at Idlewild, her feet didn’t quite reach the pedals. She had no problems at Knoebels though!

Braelynn has ridden the Pittsburgh Plunge at Kennywood before, but the Skloosh at Knoebels is easily twice as big. It’s really hard to see without zooming way in, but the look of terror on both Braelynn & Cameron’s faces (sitting between their Daddys) is absolutely hilarious! It was such a hot day though, there was no way they were passing up the chance to get wet!

After Nana threw in the towel of riding with the girls, Aunt Naomi took over! I can’t wait until next summer when I can get in on the fun too!