When we lived in Michigan, I never took our kids to Cedar Point. My son is afraid of heights and my daughter was too short to go on the rides that she wanted to try.
But just after a few weeks in San Jose, we found ourselves at California’s Great America with one of my son’s friends.
I asked my son “What will you do if he wants you to go on the big coasters?” and my son said, “I’ll close my eyes.” And that’s just what he did.
Linus and Sally at Great America
The boys are old enough that we let them explore the park an hour or so at a time and then meet back up with us to check in. Meanwhile, my daughter had both of her parents to herself to explore all of the rides. She’s a swing girl, and she loved the swings there. After watching the Tiki Twirl she decided to try it. Her and I screamed the whole time and she deemed it her favorite ride of the day.
Aerial view from Great America
We also had a fantastic aerial view of the park, Levi’s Stadium and Santa Clara on the Star Tower
After exploring the park, getting our fill of cotton candy and having lunch, we decided to head to the water park. My daughter is a big fan of wave pools so that’s where we landed for the rest of the afternoon. It also was a great place to dry our clothes in the sun, which were soaked after a few turns on the Loggers Run.
As babies, the nursery for my kids was decorated with baby Snoopy, so my daughter was thrilled to find the Peanuts merchandise at the park. We came home with a big stuffed Snoopy as well as photos with the characters that we found in the park.
The boys found their way to the arcade and won a line-skipping pass for one of the rides.
Snoopy at Great America
Because we were there on an early fall weekend just after school started, the crowds were low, parking was easy and the lines for rides weren’t too bad.
We may have been spoiled by the off-season day but we decided that it would be one of our go-to places next summer for waterpark and letting-off-steam fun.
Tonja's Travels 