tinaalsgirl

Oh my god those crab fries look AMAZING!

I love the trans flag; it's so pretty! My favorite pride flag, though, is my main personal flag - the pansexual flag: There are a couple great pieces of fashion that I've seen over the past couple years that use those colors, too, and I totally wish I could get those pieces to wear. I even made a tag for any fashion I find that have my flag colors. Pan Fashion (Tumblr)

So today I found out that one of my favorite places on earth, Happy Valley Conference Center in Santa Cruz, is flying both a trans flag and a LGBT+ rights/pride flag. Considering Happy Valley has been owned by "The Church" (as we always referred to it) for decades, it's so great seeing support for LGBT+ there; then again, Community of Christ (previously RLDS) has been pretty good about moving forward into modern times with allowing women and gays into the priesthood and what-not. Of course, there are individual branches that are stuck in their ways (a couple of them still go by RLDS), but the official stances of the CoC are gradually getting more supportive, and while I am no longer religious (I left that behind as soon as I was old enough to think for myself), it's good to know that the organization I grew up in is progressing forward.

My mom was (is) a HUGE Monkees fan, so I grew up on both their songs and the show (back when we had local channels like "Screen Gems" and she bought all the available eps on commercial VHS). In fact, my first ever concert was a Monkees concert, back when they were doing a tour in 1996. We got to meet and get pics with them (minus Mike) at our local Sam Goody store. More recently, my mom passed on her love of the band to my oldest niece (who is now 11), so I have heard their stuff a LOT over my life and fairly recently, too, lol. My poor mom is devastated. Not quite as much as when Davy passed, 'cause that was so unexpected, but still pretty bummed.

RIP Peter Tork, age 77

I agree with this. Dollywood sadly doesn't have its equivalents to SDC's "Grandfather's Mansion" and "Flooded Mine" anymore, so it'd be nice to see them build a new indoor attraction that maybe could take some inspiration from those two rides, or something completely new, *shrugs* I don't mind either way. Man... if you'd told me last year that my first and only trip (thus far) to DW would make me as invested in it emotionally as I've been with SDC for the past 15+ years, I wouldn't have believed it. But my god, I loved Dollywood SO much and I can't wait to have the opportunity to go back!

Pirates & Princesses has started up again, and this year Ariel gets to wear her full dress! I'm so excited. It's SO beautiful, and I like that she's not stuck in a car while all the other princesses get to be up front dancing. They had Ariel in her dress last year at the preview night, but she was stuck in her fins during the actual shows. I'm so glad her beautiful dress gets to see the light of day; it is so, SO gorgeous.

I'm glad you were able to find stuff to do while there! I live about an hour west of StL, and we got 20-22" of snow here. There is definitely more to do in St. Louis when the weather isn't so bad. You could spend a good two days just checking out all the museums and the zoo in the Forest Park area. And it's a bummer you were there during the shutdown; going up in the Arch is SO fun. I've been wanting to go back there now that they've completely renovated the museum there. Glad you had a good trip, and I hope you guys get better weather when/if you go to St. Louis again in the future!

I went to Dollywood on Halloween last year; it was a Wednesday. It was PERFECT. The weather was warm, but not hot, and the crowds were... well, non-existent. We walked onto all the rides. The crowd picked up a little in the evening, but it was mostly just parents with little kids in costumes there to trick'or'treat at LumiNights. I absolutely would recommend a weekday.

I've been on a plateau, but I'm okay with that because at least I'm not gaining, lol.

There's actually a Rockafire Arcade Bar in Kansas City that opened fairly recently and features some of the original animatronics! I haven't been able to make it over there yet, but a friend has and it looks amazing!

So, I've never been to Kennywood, but I'd definitely love to go, especially considering that in my childhood years, I was under the misconception that Kennywood was named after Kenny Rogers because there was a park called Dollywood that was named after Dolly Parton. Imagine my surprise when I got older and Google came around and I learned that Kennywood has been Kennywood since its beginning in 1898. LOL

RIP, Carol! She was one of my favorite guest stars in the 1985 Alice in Wonderland mini-series. I'm glad she lived a long life!

Unless it's Halloween! Halloween on a weekday was the absolute PERFECT day for my first ever visit. We walked on to all the rides, and even got a couple re-rides, despite getting to the park two hours after opening. And we weren't rushed at all; we were able to walk through the entire park at a slow pace, and actually did the "circle" of the park... three times? The crowds got slightly larger in the evening, but it was mostly school-age kids and their parents there for the trick-or-treating. I absolutely wanna go to Dollywood again on a weekday Halloween! It was so amazing!

Don't have music on currently, but the song that is currently an earworm in my head is the "What's Going On" song from that He-Man viral video... The other day I watched FBE put their reactors through torture by making them sit through an hour and a half of that video on loop.... Unfortunately, that means the song got stuck in my head, too. LOL

The rumors are that Lost River is getting replaced with a ride similar to Infinity Falls.... So, it'll still be a river raft ride.

Just thought I'd mention that there's a browser extension called HTTPS Everywhere that I use that automatically makes your browser load the secure site, even if you didn't type the https at the beginning. It's been pretty useful.

Well, now you've got me interested in trying to ride it again and take note of what car I'm in and what seat. I don't know what car I rode, but I was sitting in the front left seat. I thought maybe the jostling was more intense for me because I'm so short (5'2"), but my friend sitting next to me is around 6' and said he was having trouble with the head-banging, too.

Maybe it was just my inexperience with a coaster like that, as it was my first time riding a Euro-Fighter. When we did our second circle around the park, we opted to re-ride Wild Eagle and Firechaser Express, so I only got the one ride in on MM. I *might* consider riding again if I ever go back (my god, I hope I get to go back - I freaking LOVED this park).

So, I don't know if I'll ever ride Mystery Mine again... The theming was awesome; the lift hills and drops were great... but my god, the jostling on the turns had me bracing to try to keep my head from banging into the OTSRs.... I wish MM had those vest-type restraints that Wild Eagle has; I feel like I would have a better ride on MM with not having to worry about hitting my head back and forth.

Well, this is technically for October, since I rode it on the 31st, but since I probably won't be able to ride any other coasters the rest of the year, I'll put it down for Oct/Nov. Anyway, the best would be Lightning Rod! Although Wild Eagle and Firechaser Express were fun, too!

So, I had my first ever trip to Dollywood on Halloween, and it was PERFECT. The weather was amazing, crowds were non-existent, and I just couldn't have asked for a better day for a first impression of the park! We basically walked on to all the rides; we did every coaster except Thunderhead and Blazing Fury. We ate a late lunch at Aunt Granny's, and omg, it was amazing. LumiNights was spectacular, and Wild Eagle and Firechaser Express at night are wonderful! Lightning Rod was our first ride of the day, and OMG, WOW. MINDBLOWING. The Smoky Mountains are so beautiful, and Pigeon Forge looked like it had a lot of great stuff to do (we did an hour or so at The Christmas Place and I loved it!). We didn't even get to drive through Gatlinburg, so I can only imagine how much more there is to do there as well. I want to take a two week trip back to that area. I've absolutely fallen in love! EDIT: Oh, and the artist/calligrapher Victoria Rose at the Christmas Cottage was one of the nicest people I have ever met. My friends and I had a long conversation with her about various art things, and the experience left me with a lasting feeling of awesomeness.

Holy COW, that Snow White!!! That is amazing!

You can see the difference in my face between being on OR in the day and at night - that ride is VASTLY different in the dark:

OMG the little ghost driver and ghost dog... SO FREAKING CUTE! And yes, I would love to see some of the costumes people are wearing. I love seeing what people have crafted!