Valleyfair Adventure (Sponsored)

This story actually starts back in 1987, in a living room in Fargo, North Dakota (pronounced Fargoooooo, Nooooord Dah-koooooota). It was a hot summer day (yes, Fargo gets hot) and my little brother and I were beating the heat by watching some excellent television inside our air-conditioned living room. When I say we were watching excellent television, I am obviously talking about shows like Jem, Ducktales, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Brady Bunch. But the commercials held our attention, too. One commercial in particular. That commercial was for the Excalibur roller coaster at Valleyfair.

Does anyone else out there remember that? Where a voice whispered "Excalibur" and then you got to feel like you were riding on the roller coaster?

Man, we LOVED that commercial. So much so that we recorded it on our VCR and we would climb into a laundry basket together (pretending it was the roller coaster seat) and watch it again and again. We made sure to raise our arms at regular intervals while screaming, to make the experience authentic.

Can you picture it? Maybe this will help...

(My brother wasn't available so Tiger kindly filled in.)

Sadly, I never made it to Valleyfair as a kid, but I have gone a few times since moving to the Twin Cities back in 1998. But when an opportunity came up to go to Valleyfair with my little family of four, I got really excited. Bella is smitten with the concept of amusement parks right now and I knew Husband would be like a kid in the candy store there and Oliver, well that boy is happy as long as he is outside. I knew it would be a great little family adventure.

Right from the start both Bella and Husband were giddy with excitement, pointing and shouting about everything there was to do and see. Even little Oli got in on the pointing action, which was adorable.

We got to the park when it opened on Sunday, which was a great move since the park was not busy at all at that time. I had been telling Bella all week about the rides and when I asked her which one she wanted to do first, she picked the Carousel, which worked out perfectly since it was right at the front of the park. She decided she wanted to sit on a bench with me since the horses made her a little nervous. She loved every minute.

After that we ventured over to Camp Snoopy, which features kid-centric rides and attractions. B wasn't totally sure about Snoopy's Moon Bounce (a bounce house) but both kids loved boarding the train at Snoopy's Junction. And they also enjoyed meeting Snoopy himself.

The biggest highlight of the day for all of us was riding the Ferris Wheel. It was so much fun being high above the park and having the cool breeze blow around us.

And in between all the rides we managed to do quite a bit of eating and drinking: grilled burritos at Sidewinder Burritos, smoothies at Maui Wowi, lemonade, and a TON of water (it was a 90 degree day). We were having so much fun going on rides that I missed out on getting some good fair food like cheese curds & cotton candy. Oh well - next time!

We let Bella pick one last ride of the day and she wanted to go on the Flying Ace Balloon Ride at Planet Snoopy. Just at that moment, Husband got a call from the realtor of the house we were trying to buy with their final offer. So I quickly decided to go on the ride with Bella and leave Husband with Oliver so he could talk to the realtor. Here is where I should share that I get carsick in the passenger seat of the car very easily. So a ride that spins in a circle? Um...

Anyone else own The Berenstain Bears & the Thunderbolt and recall the part where Papa Bear gets a little sick on the roller coaster? Yeah. This Mama Bear felt a little nauseous as we walked out of the park and drove home in my car with it's malfunctioning air conditioning.

Haaaaa. Luckily Bella did not suffer the same fate.

But mild pukey feelings aside, it was so much fun to do this as a family. I told Husband that we should make this an annual thing - a little mini-vacation for all of us to spend some time having fun outdoors. We also talked about going on a date night back to Valleyfair so that we can tackle the rollercoasters together and have a throwback sort of date. It would be very Notebook of us.

For anyone else who might be making a trip to Valleyfair this summer, here are a few tips:

• You can leave the park and come back - a great option for really maximizing your visit while still respecting naptime.
• Check out the Valleyfair website ahead of time to figure out what attractions you want to see in order to make sure you get to do everything you want to. All rides are rated by thrill level from 1 to 5 to help better evaluate what rides might be appropriate for your children.
• Cheapest tickets are found online! Check the Valleyfair website for more information.
• While there is a lot of fun food to be had, you have the option of packing your own food in a cooler and leaving the park to eat in the picnic area (just get your hand stamped first).

Thank you for the fun day, Valleyfair!

While this trip was sponsored by Valleyfair, all opinions expressed are my own.