Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

Green River

A Great day

I’m learning to appreciate aunts and uncles. I remember how important they were in my life, and I love seeing how involved Isabelle and Corban’s aunts and uncles get in their lives. Yesterday, her aunt and uncle treated her, and the rest of us, to a trip to Six Flags Great America. I can’t remember the last time I’d been there. My brother and cousin and I went a couple of times with my grandparents and my uncle when we were younger. Maybe 20 years ago? Gosh, that makes me sound old.

Anyway, we squeezed the life out of that park. At least, as much as we could with a baby, a 2-year-old and 6 adults on a sunny day. We all rode the carousal to start. Isabelle rode a lion. Her choice. We took the train through the park. Next, she rode a balloon ride with her aunt and uncle. After that, we separated so that I could follow up on a hair-brained idea from earlier in the week. I proposed that the four of us — my husband and I, his sister and her husband — ride a roller coaster. Only one of that group actually really enjoys roller coasters. So, we stepped in line for the American Eagle. This is the ride that says “Great America” to me. It’s the one we always rode as kids when we came to the park. I remember feeling like the coaster was going to fall apart as the cars clack, clack, clacked along. As we waited in line, a relatively short 30 minutes, my heart rate increased slightly. My husband had the same feeling. But we were older now. Nothing to be scared of, right? Especially since everyone else in line, save one or two parents, was probably 15 years younger than us.

We boarded the cars and began the ascent before the “oh-my-goodness-why-did-we-do-this” plunge. We screamed. Our skin jiggled. We screamed some more. And when we were done, we raised our arms in triumph and screamed one more time when the operator asked how our ride was.

We had talked about riding more than one, but one was all my husband and I decided we could handle. We left the Eagle and went back to find the kids and the grandparents. We found our daughter joyfully riding everything she could in the cartoon areas of the park.

She rode these cars twice and made a new friend with the girl behind her. They rode together the second time.

We decided to head for Loggers Run, where we waited almost an hour to get soaked. But Isabelle could ride this one with an adult, so she sandwiched herself between her aunt and uncle with her MeeMaw in the front of the log. Mommy and Daddy rode together in the log in front of them. I was the front rider in my log, so I was soaked after the first little bump. We couldn’t tell if Isabelle was having fun or not. Uncle Jon’s screams might have scared her a little.

To reward ourselves for waiting so long in line, we ate funnel cake sundaes. Can’t say I recall ever eating one of these before, but it’s my husband’s family’s tradition to have them when they go to Great America. I can see why. Even for $10, it was worth it. Yum-my!

The group split again. Aunt and uncle went to ride Iron Wolf while Isabelle went to ride the antique cars. Corban and I took a break so he could eat green beans and bounce a little bit out of the stroller. After the cars, Isabelle splashed herself soaked in the splash pad at Wiggles World.

We ended the day at the Sky Trek Tower. As you can see, the smiles were worth the length of the day. Quick supper at Potbelly before we headed home. Another quick stop at Caputo’s to buy — you’ll never guess — Green River soda in bottles! Both kids fell asleep on the way home and woke up with smiles on their faces. A great day, indeed.

Savoring summer

It’s August now. What happened to summer? We had all these plans to make this summer memorable, and while we were able to make a few of those memories in June, July with its oppressive heat confined us to the comforts of air conditioning with our new best friend, Dora.

It’s August, but it’s not too late. Still plenty of time to squeeze the life out of summer. We’re making the next 30 or so days count. So begins our quest to save summer.

We start in Illinois. As you can see, the kids have wasted no time jumping in to summer activities.

Though neither of them are wearing swim pants in this picture, I’m confident we’re going to run through the stash we brought with us. Swimming is almost all Isabelle can talk about right now.

Not to be outdone by summer fun, my husband, his sister, our brother-in-law and I stole away while the kids were napping to the Amboy Pharmacy with its old-fashioned soda fountain to have an array of Green River treats — two Green River floats and a Green River milkshake. No bottled Green River, though. Not even the friendly staff at the Pharmacy could tell us where to find it.

Such a pity. It was a favorite drink of ours when my husband and I were dating. I can’t really explain what it tastes like, only that I like it and so far, Amboy is the only place I know to get it. May have to add it to our tour of food when we come home for visits.

To further our spontaneity and memory making, we decided to indulge in the penny candy (well, most of it cost 5 or 10 cents, but still …). The Pharmacy has this fantastic selection of loose candy you can hand select and purchase individually. We were all a litte giddy, like kids in a candy store (har, har, har), filling our little brown bags with our sugary selections, counting out our change like we were 10 and spending all the money we had. My husband and his sister recalled the many times their grandma would send them to the Pharmacy with a handful of change to buy whatever they wanted. The only restriction, they said, was candy cigarettes. They weren’t allowed to come home with those.

I don’t want to give too much away, but I’m pretty excited about this week in Illinois and a few fun things we have planned when we get back to Pennsylvania. Stay tuned.