Christmas in California, Part 9--Knott's Berry Farm

We had decided that Knott's Berry Farm was going to be our one "big" outing for our group, as opposed to Disneyland, Legoland, Sea World, San Diego Zoo or WAP, etc.  So that was our activity for Thursday, Dec. 31.  It was a very busy day there, probably because a lot of people had come for the New Year's Eve Fireworks, etc.  So the parking lots were very full, and we were directed to an auxiliary lot  (more on that later) way behind the landscape department and the stables, which made for quite a long walk just to get to the entrance of the park.  This was very poor planning on my part.  I should have asked to be dropped off at the entrance and saved my foot for walking inside the park.  Oh well, hindsight is always 20-20, right? When my foot was hurting quite soon, we checked into getting a wheel chair, like we had done at Legoland.  But, no luck there---they had none available. So I just did as much walking as I could manage, and also spent a lot of time looking for places to sit. But I did do 2 rides (ferris wheel and the train) and had fun watching the kids enjoy themselves. Oh, and most of us enjoyed funnel cakes, too.  Yum!!

This was also one of those times when I did not take many pictures, partly because sometimes it was hard to get through the crowds of people to get a good view of the kids on the rides.  Also, because of my foot, I was often sitting too far away. So here are the few that I got, and I think some of them are pretty dark.  :(

As far as I could tell, Hope's main ride was in the stroller.  I think she was a little too young for most of the rides.

Enjoying a Wedeking's cookie--

like mother, like daughter

Unfortunately, Evan was still a bit under the weather, so he spent a lot of time in the stroller, as well.  But he did perk up from time to time and got to enjoy some of the rides.  But I didn't happen to catch any of those rides in pictures.

Looking rather peaked, but all cozy
with his blanket.

We stayed at the park until about dinner time, and we had considered eating at the chicken restaurant right there---until we found out how long the wait would be.  Instead we drove to a Portillo's nearby and ate there instead.  All except for Cheryl and Evan---Evan was pretty worn out, and so they just headed back to Redlands. When we were leaving the area, we were just a couple blocks from getting on the freeway, when we had a flat tire on the Escape. I'm pretty sure that we can thank our "auxiliary" parking lot at Knott's for that. AAA came to the rescue pretty quickly and got us on our way again.

Just a note here about the general health of our group that week:  Jeremiah and Hope had both been sick with bad colds, etc. the week before they came. Rachel started coming down with a bad cold, etc. on Christmas Eve.  Josie had the stomach flu the day before everyone started arriving. Evan and Cheryl both had colds and coughs while we were all together.  Neil got up one morning with a stiff neck, and dealt with that for a few days. If I remember correctly there were 3 visits to Urgent Care--Rachel, Evan (who had strep, I think) and Cheryl. We were relieved that no one else caught the stomach flu, because it would have been miserable to have that run through the whole family!!  Bob and I didn't catch any of this until just before we left California.  So we sort of coughed our way across the country on our way home.  I was glad that we were driving and not sitting on a plane. 

I think that one more post will finish off this saga!