Find it here. We did a lot of stuff.

(photo credit @iridescentlightsphotography)

So, it’s been over two months since I got married and a month and a half since I got married again. Since early May, I haven’t been in one place for more than three weeks. I guess it’s time to recap the journey so far.

Early May: I formally proposed my dissertation topic. My thoughts then moved quickly to our upcoming nuptials.
May 19: Maria and I flew to Denver. We picked up our marriage license!

The building for the marriage license was Webb Municipal Office Building; good sign, right?

Right before we got to Denver, they got a bunch of snow. So our 4 days there involved lots of snowy adventures. We hiked a glacier.

We scouted out a site for our marriage ceremony.

And we got married! We held a small ceremony at Echo Lake near the trailhead for Mt. Evans. Initially, we were hoping to get married ON Mt. Evans, because it was initially named Mt. Rosalie, who was Albert Bierstadt’s wife, and we got engaged on Mt. Bierstadt. However, the snowfall prior to our arrival made that impractical.

Our ceremony was Monday, May 22, 2017 (exactly 7 years after we officially started dating and exactly 3 years after we got engaged). We held a sunrise ceremony around 5:30am mountain time and were officially married before 6:00am.

And then we got into the freezing cold Echo Lake!

And then we climbed Chief Mountain, an 11709′ peak. Maria did it in her wedding dress. Proof at the top:

May 23: We said goodbye to the handful of friends that were with us in Denver and headed on our first honeymoon. We flew into Reno, NV. We toured the Nevada capitol in Carson City and headed to our destination: Lake Tahoe.

In Tahoe, we spent 2 nights on the north shore and 2 nights on the south shore. We went on a chilly boat tour.

We went paddle boarding.

May 27: We drove down to Yosemite National Park. Yosemite was having spectacular waterfall displays after record snowfall. We first went to Hetch Hetchy, which has spectacular views that rival Yosemite Valley, while being much less trafficked. Here is a view from the dam there.

Later, we tried to do the Valley Loop Trail, but were stymied by excessive water runoff causing new rivers across the trail.

We ended up fording at least 2 rivers (we lost all our oxen) and walking about 17 miles. On future days, we climbed up to see Yosemite Falls:

On the way out of California, we stopped to tour the capitol in Sacramento.

May 31: We flew back to Indiana over night. Southwest lost one of our four bags. We began 2nd wedding ceremony plans in full earnest. This ceremony had been occupying us since around November, but now was crunch time. We were expecting around 200-230 guests at an outdoor venue near Bloomington on June 10.

June 9: We had a rehearsal dinner at Irish Lion, by invitation, and then drinks at the downstairs area of The Tap, open to all. We filled that room at The Tap and had a bit too much fun.

June 10: We got married! Again! This time in front of a lot more people. We got married at Solsberry Hill in Solsberry, Indiana around 4:30pm on Saturday, June 10, 2017. We’re still awaiting pictures from our photographer, but here is a picture from one of my friend’s cameras. It showcases our escape from the wedding amphitheater via escape rowboat.

The ceremony and reception were awesome. We had cookie cake, music (hand chosen by yours truly), s’mores, cornhole, and lots of fun interactions. Thanks to everyone who made it out. I know most people were gone by then, but about 30 hangers-on got to see me jump in the lake in my formal attire around 11pm.

June 11: We really wanted a wedding weekend, not just a wedding, so we kept the party going on Sunday. We had brunch at the Indiana Memorial Union with friends and family. Then we rented a double-decker boat (with a slide) at Lake Monroe and spent the day cruising and swimming. Weather was great and everyone seemed to have a good time. Group photo:

June 12: We left for our second honeymoon. This time, we went to Newfoundland, Canada! This was the perfect time of year to see icebergs, whales, and puffins. We succeeded at seeing 2 of the 3. After landing in St. John’s early on the 13th (after 2 transfers), we saw the sunrise at the easternmost point of the continent. At the first couple cities we visited, we were not able to take iceberg tours, because there was so much ice in the harbors that boats could not get out. We visited Gros Morne (Canadian) National Park, which has some awesome scenery. Here is us at the top of one of the hikes:

We also saw a couple really cool geological sites. And we took a boat tour into a freshwater fjord (very rare):

On the way back toward St. John’s to fly out, we stopped one night in Trinity. We were able to take a boat tour to get close to icebergs there:

We also ended up parking that boat in the middle of a group of 4-6 humpback whales, which kept surfacing. One even jumped out of the water (breached), landing with a big splash. We didn’t get a picture of that because it was too fast, but it was very close to us, probably 100-200 feet.

June 18: We overcame the inefficient Toronto airport to fly to Chapel Hill, NC. I attended the annual MSOM conference, one of my main academic conferences. It was back on UNC’s campus, where Maria and I first lived together, back in 2011. Maria got to tour around town while I attended the conference and presented my paper.

June 21: Back to Bloomington. Things settled down briefly while we recovered and tried to put our house back into order.

July 2: Took another boat tour of Lake Monroe with friends again. Got sunburned.

July 4: Hosted a 4th of July party with friends. Lots of grilling out, cornhole, and sparklers.

July 8: Left for a month in southwest US. Maria and I decided to spend some significant time away from Bloomington over the summer to explore a new area. We saw a St. Louis Cardinal’s game (bleh!) on the way toward Oklahoma City the first night. We toured the Oklahoma capitol. Then we headed to New Mexico. We had booked an Airbnb in Algodones for a week, but it had multiple issues. So we scrambled and found a place in Albuquerque. On the way there, we toured the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History.

In Albuquerque, I sequestered myself inside to work on my many neglected papers, and Maria toured the town. On July 17, we headed toward Taos, where our second Airbnb was. On the way, we toured the New Mexico capitol in Santa Fe. We will be here until July 31. Here is our view every morning:

I continue to work on my projects while Maria gets to do infinite fun things. I’m trying to get everything together for the academic job market this Fall, and I need to make up for lost time earlier in the year. I’ll be pretty busy for the rest of this year. Here the rest of our travel schedule:
July 31: Staying with Bryan Wallace, one of my groomsmen and high school friend, in Denver
August 1: Staying with Kyle Bradley, who just graduated from IU and took a job at Kansas State, and family in Manhattan, KS
Aug 2-5: Staying with Tim Pennings, friend and former internship advisor, in Au Train, MI. Upper peninsula.
Aug 5-7: Staying with my mom in Sandusky, OH.

Then back to Bloomington. Over 3 months (mid-May to mid-August), we will have slept in 9 states and 1 province, visited attractions in 2 other states, driven through 4 other states, and spent too long in Toronto’s airport. I hope you’re enjoying your summer as well!

Here is a summary of the roller coaster parks we visited on our crazy road trip:

We visited Michigan’s Adventure, in Muskegon, MI, on Sunday, July 17. We rode 6 roller coasters and 0 other rides. In descending order, my coaster ratings were 6, 5, 4, 2, 2, and 1 out of 10.

We visited Canada’s Wonderland, in Vaughan, ON, on Monday, July 18. We rode 11 roller coasters and 2 other rides. In descending order, my coaster ratings were 9, 8, 6, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 2, and 2. My ratings for other rides were 7 and 6.

We visited Hersheypark, in Hershey, PA, on Tuesday, July 19. We rode 9 roller coasters and 2 other rides. In descending order, my coaster ratings were 9.5, 8, 8, 8, 7, 7, 6, 5, and 2. My ratings for other rides were 5 and 3.

We visited Dorney Park, in Allentown, PA, on Wednesday, July 20. We rode 6 roller coasters and 4 other rides. In descending order, my coaster ratings were 7, 6, 6, 6, 5, and 3. My ratings for other rides were 6, 3, 3, and 2.

We visited Cedar Point, in Sandusky, OH, on Monday, July 25. We rode 12 roller coasters and 3 other rides. In descending order, my coaster ratings were 10, 10, 9, 8, 7.5, 7, 7, 5, 5, 5, 4, and 3. My ratings for other rides were 4, 4, and 2.

44 coasters in 9 days. Whew.

It is safe to say that Cedar Point reigns supreme among the other amusement parks. Hersheypark was a pleasant surprise though. Here are the final park rankings:
1. Cedar Point, with 7 coasters scoring 7 or higher out of 10.
2. Hersheypark, with 6 coasters scoring 7 or higher.
3. Canada’s Wonderland, with 2 coasters scoring 7 or higher.
4. Dorney Park, with 1 coaster scoring 7 or higher.
5. Michigan’s Adventure, with 0 coasters scoring 7 or higher.

Including other parks I have been to in the last 10 years, I think the rankings would be something like this (weighting roller coasters most heavily):
1. Cedar Point
2. Six Flags Magic Mountain
3. Hersheypark
4. Kings Island
5. Kings Dominion
6. Canada’s Wonderland
7A. Dollywood
7B. Holiday World
9. Dorney Park
10. Michigan’s Adventure

The fifth coaster park stop on our whirlwind amusement park tour was Cedar Point, in Sandusky, Ohio, on Monday, July 25, 2016. We were joined at this park by our friends Telesilla and Serge. We arrived at the park around 11:15am. Cedar Point has 71 total rides and 17 roller coasters (2nd most in the world behind Six Flags Magic Mountain). Park map (click to expand):

Cedar Point has an unfortunate policy about backpacks being stored on ride platforms, so we had to store our backpack (with phones/cameras) for extended periods. As such, we don’t have our own pictures of all the rides. It should be obvious which ones below are ours and which aren’t.

1. Magnum XL200
Steel coaster with a big first hill. 205 ft, 72 mph, tallest and fastest in world when it opened in 1989. We sat in the back car and felt a lot of “whip” effect as the back car tries to keep up with the train on the ride. Pretty smooth.
Eric: 7/10
Maria: 8/10
Telesilla: 7/10
Serge: 7/10

2. Maverick
Steel looping coaster. Launch at start of ride and in the middle. 105 ft, 70 mph. Very smooth and twisting.
Eric: 9/10
Maria: 9/10
Telesilla: 8/10
Serge: 8/10

3. Antique Cars
Antique car ride as a break after such a fast start. Toward the end of the ride, there was a tunnel over water and birds were going crazy flying under the tunnel back and forth for some reason.
Eric: 2/10
Maria: 5/10
Telesilla: 10/10
Serge: 5/10

4. Cedar Creek Mine Ride
Steel track on a wooden frame. Smooth. 2 lift hills. 48 ft, 42 mph. Pretty cool ride for how old it is (1969).
Eric: 3/10
Maria: 5/10
Telesilla: 5/10
Serge: 6/10

5. Skyhawk
High swinging ride. 125 ft, 65 mph. Ride should be just a bit longer.
Eric: 4/10
Serge: 4/10

6. Millennium Force
Still my favorite coaster in the world. 310 ft, 93 mph, 80 degree first drop, 6595 ft long. Excellent at everything (except inversions, I guess). Our second ride on it was at night, and my arms got plastered with bugs, which was interesting.
Eric: 10/10, 10/10
Maria: 10/10, 10/10
Telesilla: 9/10
Serge: 9/10, 10/10

7. Rougarou
Steel floorless coaster on the same track that used to hold Mantis, which was a stand-up coaster. Looping. 145 ft, 60 mph. So basically, same track, new train. Bumps your head quite a bit. Somewhat average.
Eric: 5/10
Maria: 6/10
Telesilla: 6/10
Serge: 3/10

8. Valravn
New in 2016. Steel dive coaster. You sit 8 across in 3 rows. Ride takes you out over the first drop and holds you there for a few seconds. Great experience in the front row (1st rating below), only okay in the back row (2nd rating below). 223 ft, 75 mph, 90 degree drop. Smooth. Cool view at the top.
Eric: 8/10, 7/10
Maria: 10/10, 8/10
Telesilla: 10/10, 8/10
Serge: 10/10, 9/10

9. Blue Streak
Oldest coaster in park (1964), wooden. 78 ft, 40 mph. Out and back track. Smooth for a wooden coaster.
Eric: 4/10
Telesilla: 3/10
Serge: 5/10

10. Raptor
Steel coaster with 6 inversions (feels like more). Floorless, so your feet hang. 137 ft, 57 mph, 3790 ft long. Tallest/fastest/longest inverted coaster in the world when it opened (1994).
Eric: 7/10
Maria: 7/10
Telesilla: 7/10
Serge: 7/10

11. Gatekeeper
Steel coaster with a winged floorless train design. Has the highest inversion of any coaster in the world (at 170 ft). Cool track design takes you through multiple keyhole structures. 170 ft, 67 mph.
Eric: 8/10
Maria: 7/10
Telesilla: 7/10
Serge: 7/10

12. Wicked Twister
Steel U-shaped launch coaster that takes you forward/backward up the two towers. Unlike Possessed at Dorney Park, both towers have twists. Currently the tallest (215 ft) and fastest (72 mph) inverted (track above train) coaster in the world.
Eric: 5/10
Telesilla: 8/10
Serge: 6/10

13. Windseeker
High (301 ft) swing ride. Equivalent to the same ride at many other Cedar Fair parks. My mom says that it is relatively unusual for it to be able to run, as it is so windy in Sandusky. The Windseeker in Canada’s Wonderland wasn’t running due to wind while we there.
Eric: 4/10
Maria: 5/10
Telesilla: 6/10
Serge: 7/10

14. Gemini
Racing wooden coaster. 125 ft, 60 mph. Tracks are asynchronous, so sometimes you feel like you are winning and sometimes not. Maria and my train beat Telesilla and Serge’s.
Eric: 5/10
Maria: 4/10
Telesilla: 8/10
Serge: 7/10

15. Top Thrill Dragster
We got to ride it! It was closed all day, until opening around 10:15pm. Awesome experience to ride it at night. Launching steel coaster that goes 0 to 120 mph in 3.8 seconds. Then you go up straight up 420 feet (2nd tallest coaster in the world) before falling straight back down. Ride is only 17 seconds, but so awesome.
Eric: 10/10
Maria: 10/10
Serge: 10/10

(Me, Maria, Serge, and Telesilla on Cedar Point’s beach)

Cedar Fair will have to confirm this, but Maria and I may be the first people to ever goto Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown, PA and Wildwater Kingdom in Aurora, OH on back-to-back days.

First, the obvious: Parks should have different names. It’s stupid that they’re called the same thing.

Second, the subjective conclusion: The park in Pennsylvania is better, but the park in Ohio has more potential.

I’m not a water park enthusiast (I much prefer roller coasters), but I’ll try to compare the two water parks. Maria and I only do tube slides. We don’t body slides.

Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown, PA (inside Dorney Park):

Park map can be found on this morning’s post about Dorney Park. Two lazy rivers. Two wave pools. For the slides, we rode Constrictor and Boa Blasters at the Snake Pit, Cascade, and Aquablast.

Wildwater Kingdom in Aurora, OH:

Park map

One lazy river. One wave pool. For the slides, we rode Liquid Lightning (which flows into one of the giant funnels). Should have ridden the tubes at Thunder Falls, but we were too tired.

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If you read about the attractions of the parks in Ohio and Pennsylvania, it’s pretty clear that the Pennsylvania park has more options. And it’s attached to a park with coasters. So it wins, right now.

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However, in the past, the world’s largest theme park area was located in Aurora, OH. Please, please read the linked-to article in the previous sentence; it is great. In 2001, Six Flags World of Adventure in Aurora, OH combined a world-class Six Flags park with a Sea World and a water park. Just compare the below park map to the one for Wildwater Kingdom by itself above.

At about 700 acres altogether, the mega-park was literally created by building a bridge between a full-sized Six Flags and a full-sized SeaWorld. Consider the scope of it: Disneyland Park is about 70 acres (or one-tenth the size) while the garganuan Animal Kingdom is 500 (including the giant safari area traversed by truck.)

And then it collapsed on itself.

Six years after becoming the world’s largest theme park, only a fraction of the property around Geauga Lake would re-open in 2008 – the water park Cedar Fair had built on the remains of SeaWorld.

I think it is fascinating to see the fate of some of the coasters at Geauga Lake (info from Wikipedia). I rode 2 of these coasters on our road trip (would have been 3 if we went to Kings Island):
Beaver Land Mine Ride: Sold to Papea City amusement park in Yvré-l’Evêque, France
Big Dipper: Currently still standing on the property. A potential sale to two enthusiasts in September 2010 fell through. Fate is currently unknown.
Dominator: Now open at Kings Dominion
Double Loop: Demolished, sold to Cleveland Scrap for $25,000
Head Spin: Now open at Carowinds as Carolina Cobra
Raging Wolf Bobs: Demolished. Purchased for $2,500 at auction; some wood and track sold in online auctions; steel track, station, and all mechanical elements removed in 2008; part of track and car donated to Geauga County Historical Society; Full demolition of coaster took place in July 2012, more than five years after the ride last operated.
Steel Venom: Now open at Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom as Possessed
Thunderhawk: Now open at Michigan’s Adventure
Villain: Demolished, sold to Cleveland Scrap for $2,500
X-Flight: Now open at Kings Island as Firehawk

You can still see Big Dipper (opened in 1925!) from the top of some of the rides at Wildwater Kingdom.

Not everything at Wildwater Kingdom has been scrubbed of the Geagua Lake branding:

The fourth stop on our whirlwind amusement park tour was Dorney Park, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Thursday, July 21, 2016. We arrived at the park around 12:45pm. Dorney Park has 59 total rides and 8 roller coasters. It also has a big waterpark, Wildwater Kingdom. Park map (click to expand):

Ride reviews:

1. Talon
Steel looping coaster. 135 ft, 58 mph. Smooth, twisty track. Kind of average at everything, no extremes.
Eric: 6/10
Maria: 6/10

2. Cannonball
Train through park
Eric: 2/10
Maria: 2/10

3. Hydra
Steel coaster with a corkscrew before the hill lift. 105 ft, 53 mph. We sat in the front. Smooth and better than expected, but Maria’s head banged on the twists a lot.
Eric: 6/10
Maria: 6/10

4. Demon Drop
Cedar Point fans will recognize this one. Formerly at that park. 131 ft tall. Old, clunky, first generation drop ride. You drop and are sloped down onto your back. Liable to bang your head at the end when the ride tries to right you upward again.
Eric: 3/10
Maria: 2/10

5. Thunderhawk/Classic Coaster
Wooden coaster from 1925. 45 mph. Less bumpy than expected.
Eric: 3/10
Maria: 5/10

6. Steel Force
Long steel coaster. 205 ft, 75 mph, 5600 ft long. Loose restraints allow for good air time. 9th longest steel coaster in the world.
Eric: 7/10
Maria: 6/10

7. Dinosaurs Alive
A lot of the parks have a Dinosaurs Alive exhibit now, but we decided to do it Dorney Park because they only have 8 coasters. 30 animatronic dinosaurs. Life-size-ish (though if you read the descriptions, some of the models are way too big). Pretty well done and interesting. We asked silly questions of the bored looking guides wandering through the park. Costs $5 unless you have a season pass.
Eric: 4/10
Maria: 5/10

8. Stinger
Steel, you ride the same track twice, once forward, once backward. Same ride as Face/Off (now Invertigo) at Kings Island. Many other parks also have this ride.
Eric: 5/10

9. Possessed
Steel, U-shaped launch coaster that sends you up each tower iteratively. Odd that only one of the towers twists at Dorney Park; typically both towers have twists. Formerly at Geauga Lake.
Eric: 6/10

10. Thunder Creek Mountain
Log flume ride. You will get wet, you may get soaked (even if you hide behind the person (Maria) in the front. Not sure how this happens).
Eric: 3/10
Maria: 4/10

11. White Water Landing
Shoot-the-Chutes ride. You will get wet, you may get soaked. 80 ft, 42 mph drop down the hill into a splash-down.
Eric: 6/10
Maria: 5/10

12. Wildwater Kingdom
We also went to the water park, which I will describe in the afternoon post.

We arrived at Dorney Park at 12:45 and left the water park around 7:30. You could probably do the park in less time than that pretty easily. Not a ton of attractions. We were also a bit annoyed that seemingly all of the ride attendants that were mic’ed had heavy accents. Couldn’t understand any of them.