Water, Sparks and Empty Parks

By: Great Biscuit

It’s funny how vacations can teach us things about one another that we never knew. As we stood in line waiting to board the gondola style Ferris Wheel, I learned something new about my mom. She had never been on a Ferris Wheel. EVER. In fact, she let it be known in no uncertain terms that she would not be boarding one now were it not for the puppy eyed pleadings of her grandbabies.

At Six Flags Fiesta Texas, the Ferris Wheel opens later than the rest of the park. Thanks to our ride timing, we were right next to it when it opened and were the first ones aboard that day. Another family hopped into the adjoining car and we were soon on our way. Hailee held Nana’s hand so she wouldn’t be scared and after a couple of rotations, Nana declared it to be a nifty thing. Once our ride was over, we got back on and went around a second time.

After that, we did a few kids rides in the form of a carousel and kiddie coaster before heading for some chow. We settled on Sangerfest Halle in the Spassburg section of the park. It has a German architecture and features a food court with several different types of offerings. (Tex-Mex, Papa-John’s Pizza, and German.) The dining area is built around a stage which features a show with the Looney Tunes characters. We settled for Papa Johns and were soon seated and eating.

It occurs to me that this would be a good time to give a discourse on the joys of refillable park mugs. Both Sea World and Six Flags offered them and both advertised you could bring them back all season. The difference is that at Sea World, you pay a buck for refills from the point you buy it on. At Six Flags, you get a wrist bracelet that gives you unlimited free refills on the day you purchase it and they are a buck on each subsequent visit. Oh that Disney would adopt a similar policy; if for no other reason, than the riled up flaming it would cause on a number of discussion boards.

Our afternoon activities focused solely on the water park which is included in admission, but first we had a slight detour on The Road Runner Express. This is a coaster which is fairly comparable to Big Thunder as far as speed and such goes. Nana and I took the girls on it and while my oldest was not thrilled, my youngest is a definite coaster junkie, making me one happy biscuit.

The rest of our day consisted of multiple floats around the lazy river, zooming down various water slide, and bobbing in the Texas shaped wave pool. (Texas shaped icons are quite popular down this way.) Nana and Papa left at six, while the rest of us stayed until the park closed.

There was some potential drama as the girls decided they wanted to go to the Jordin Sparks concert that evening in the park’s amphitheater. We had seen posters for it all day and seen the tour busses, but I had hoped to escape without partaking. However, the girls wanted to at least drop by, so after my parents left, we took them over and were advised there were still plenty of seats available on the grassy area. This actually worked out perfectly for us as we were only taking a brief detour through the area.

When we arrived, the girl doing the opening act was completing her set. At first I thought Jordin had lost a lot of weight as this girl seemed to be a skinny mini-me. But as she concluded her session, a boat load of roadies showed up to re-set the stage. There was about a 10 minute pause and then Jordin Sparks took the stage. We sat through one song. And that was being generous. Note to the idiot tour manager: when your opening act looks and sounds better than your headliner, you are not doing your job.

After the inaugural song, the girls were content to depart and we headed out to conquer some more rides. As the concert effectively drained the park of patrons, everything was a walk on for the next two hours. We re-visited many of the same attractions from earlier in the day and when at last we headed out to the car, the girls were tired, but happy. After we got all our crap stowed back in the trunk, we wished Six Flags a fond farewell and headed off. I pulled through Taco Bell to get properly caffeinated for the drive home and pointed the car back up I-35.

Perhaps the best insight into just what a great weekend it turned out to be can be found in my Facebook status when we returned: Back from San Antonio. Got stuck in traffic, smelled some penguin poo, touched a mammal, ate a nifty late night feast, got gas, went to sleep, ate a biscuit, rode some coasters, floated in a river, heard some music, drank mountain dew, ate a burrito and got more gas. All in all, I'd a say a near perfect weekend.