Katie and Charlie: Katie's Birthday

After we got back from vacation in Cayman, we still wanted to take advantage of the summer. The last weekend in July, Charlie went to Dewey Beach in Delaware for one of his college friend's bachelor parties. It was a fun weekend where he was able to see a lot of friends from Chicago and Ohio that he doesn't see as much now that we live on the East Coast. Katie spent some relaxing time in Ramsey with Griffey.

The following weekend was Katie's birthday and we went to Coney Island to celebrate. Though Charlie had been to Brooklyn for a minor league baseball game a long time ago, this was our first time visiting the famous Coney Island. Our first stop was for lunch at Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs where the July 4th hot dog eating contest takes place. We didn't want to have a stomach ache when we went on the rides, so we only had one hotdog each. But if you've ever had a "Nathan's famous" dog - one is certainly a treat. They are easily the best hot dogs we've ever had.

Prior to heading to Coney Island, we did a little research and discovered that Coney Island is very different from most amusement parks because the park is broken up into sections that are owned by separate companies. At places like Cedar Point and Disney World, you pay one admission and all the rides are owned by the same company. At Coney Island, you buy separate tickets for each section of rides. It seemed like the oldest part of the park is owned by Deno's Wonder Wheel which is also the main attraction in this section of the park. The Wonder Wheel has been a New York landmark since 1920 and is very unique because it has 2 levels of of carts, the first level swings back and forth in the inner circle and the second level stays still while going around on the outside level. We took the second level to get the highest view from the top.

Next, we stopped on the Spook-a-Rama, which seemed like a really old "scary" ride. Only 2 people fit in a cart that rolls around to various scary scenes. Even Katie didn't think it was that scary - but it was fun as it's clearly got some history to it.

We saw the famous fortune telling Zoltar machine from the movie Big. I am sorry to say that we didn't test it out, so we cannot attest to weather it really works.

The next part of the park seemed newer with more modern rides. This part of the park is owned by Luna Park. Charlie convinced Katie to go on the Soaring Eagle roller coaster and the Sling Shot, both of which she closed her eyes. The Sling Shot is exactly like it sounds - you are sitting in a ball between two pillars connected by bungie cords - and then they slingshot you high up into the air! After the Sling Shot, Katie was officially done with rides for the day, and Charlie went on the Zenobio ride by himself.

After all the rides, we walked along the boardwalk and stop in a couple of the bars.

It just so happens that the weekend of Katie's birthday is also the weekend of the annual sand building contest. Charlie and I didn't enter the contest but we did view all the entries and was very impressed by how extravagant some of the sand castles were.