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My wife rode 3 out of the 16 or so times. What are you talking about?! Those 3 times just happened to be the shots Robb got from the structure, so that's why she shows up in all the pics. But that's okay, as she's much prettier to look at than me. Matt

I propose we rename the sucker the "Boardwalk Blunt Force Trauma". I had a blast as well, and mine+Lauren+Aedan's photo TR will be forthcoming.

Don't get Robb started with auto-lubrication devices again. I'll let you bring the towels next week.

The NFL: Paving over amusement parks since 2005! Those 8 whole home games a year sure require a massive infrastructure to pull off, don't they?

You guys know about the $500 million dollar or so dinosaur-themed amusement park and museum that is being planned for the New Caney (NE Houston, off 59) area, right? Construction should be starting any month now.

If you are coming for Kema, ITZ might be out of the way. It's located off of HWY 249, just north(I believe) of FM 1960, right in front of the Aerodrome. Hope that helps It'z is right across the highway from my hospital. Corner of 249 and 1960. It's only as out of the way as were you plan to go at the end of the day, but unless one is just dying to get an extra (vekoma kiddie) credit, you're right that it probably isn't worth the drive. There's not much else to do there.

Really? They wouldn't let me on it with two 6 year old friends of the family last time I was there. Of course, I was afraid it wouldn't even make it up the lifthill with me aboard. The indoor DiskO there is quite fun, however, with little to no line. I've never been to Zuma.

There's this place called IT'z in Northwest houston that has an indoor kiddie coaster credit (unpowered) and an indoor diskO, but I don't think they'd let us on the coaster even with the babies. As far as carrabbas goes, I'm sure you know that Houston is the home to the original Carrabbas. There's dozens of them here, including 2 or 3 on my side of town. As for air conditioning at Kemah, I don't think any of the 8 million Landry's restaurants will be open that early, but it should be fairly cool in the AM by the end of the month.

We can have the womans watch the babies. That's their job, right? I don't know what your plans are in Houston the rest of the day, but we plan to head on over to the Texas Renaissance Festival later that afternoon. No, we're not renfest dorks. We like to make fun of renfest dorks while simultaneously eating their food and poking at their crudely made craftwares. Matt

Yay! I can finally participate in a TPR event! Nevermind the fact it's in my backyard and only a couple of hours, it still looks like fun! -Matt

I still regret having to back out of the Midwest trip this year due to our new baby (don't regret the baby, however!). I don't think schedule wise I can make any of the longer trips, but the Texas mini-trip should be golden despite the fact they're all the parks I go to normally anyways. I know the locations of several of the Carrabas between my house and Kemah, which has to be on the itinerary (too bad there isn't much else to do in Houston these days). Matt edit: by the way, due to a new law Texas public schools are starting much later than they used to this school year, which means school won't be out until the beginning of June (they used to be out the beginning/middle of May). This means that any non-weekend days around Memorial Day the parks are open should be relatively empty. The SF parks tend to open daily a week before Memorial Day, however I wouldn't be surprised if they altered their schedule due to school being out later. Kemah is open year-round, however.

Here's a Google Map showing the rough location: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&om=1&msid=114484646030280503285.00043472322235619bedb&ll=30.165759,-95.214987&spn=0.034135,0.057421&z=14

http://www.hcnonline.com/site/news.cfm? ... 2249&rfi=6 I haven't seen mention of this at any enthusiast site, but it looks amazing! "The dinosaur park, a $500 million project, will be built in East Montgomery County with the intention of having a dinosaur museum for children and adults to learn about the animals, a theme park consisting of roller coasters and water rides and a thematic hotel and spa that will be built within the park."

Hey there, everybody. I know I haven't posted much since my wife and I got all pregnant and had to back out of this summer's trips, but I just wanted to let anyone coming through or living in Houston know that they opened this place called "It'Z" literally right across the street from my hospital and it has what appears to be a junior coaster (looks unpowered..we'll see) for the wee ones and an indoor DiskO. I know it's not much, but it's the best we got short of driving all the way down to Kemah for its pittance of rides and a half-finished coaster. I'll try to make it over to It'Z some time in the next week and do a mini-trip report of sorts. Cheers, Matt

I know I haven't posted here much recently, but I'm ecstatic to hear that everything went well. Perhaps we can hook Kristen up with our little troublemaker who's impending summer birth made us cancel our spots on the midwest trip (grumble, grumble!). Best, Matt

Sorry guys, my wife and I have to drop out of the Midwest trip. It turns out my school will most likely interfere with our schedules and there's a good chance my wife is pregnant (and potentially due next July or August) so this just isn't in the cards at the moment. I'll definitely look forward towards 2008, however. Matt

Army Strong. Army Smash! Matt

Elissa mentioned a while ago that we'll be spending two days at Cedar Point, but I guess we'll find out more come Saturday. Patience, grasshopper. Alcohol. Only if Barry isn't on the trip. I'd recommend designing a Batman-like belt to hold all your drinks while in the park. Matt

Would that make him an ASSet? Matt

They weren't bad...just not anything special. Try a Texas Burger the next time you end up somewhere between Houston and Dallas (and any other hick-town traffic stop that has one). Matt

Elissa is on her own. It's time to hit up as many Culver's and White Castles as possible on this trip! "Culver's", eh? They just opened one of those (the first one I've seen) in my neck of the woods. I don't care for them, personally. I'll give White Castle a try but if they're anything like Krystal I expect to be underwhelmed. Texans don't do tiny burgers. Matt

Wow...86 people signed up for the Midwest trip? I think we'll be able to overwhelm any McDonald's we come into contact with! Matt

Rio Bravo is Spanish for "Brave River". As for drop and lift, it doesn't look all too different from other park's log flumes, so I'd wager it is nothing profound.

Thanks... but that's not entirely true. The company was founded out of the Schlitterbahn resort's developers, but Schlitterhbahn has no affiliation to it, and still does some of their stuff in-house. NBGS is the sister company to Waterpark Management Inc. which runs the various Schlitterbahns. The Henry family owns both companies. I'd call that affiliation. Matt

NBGS is essentially the industrial arm of Schlitterbahn by the way. Same parent company. Matt