Thrill Ride!

We went to Ocean Park a few weekends ago and it was of particular significance because my son went on his first thrill ride!

The ride was called Raging River, and if the name didn't set off alarm bells, perhaps the minimum height requirement (122cm, nowhere near my son's height) might, or even that the minimum age is 3 years old. But no, my husband heeded none of these parameters; he was single-mindedly focused on taking my son on his first thrill ride.

The ride is a little log-like boat which travels along a river of gushing water. You go up, up, up, which clearly means at some point you'll be going down, down, down. I can see how steep the drop is and I can hear the screams from every single boat that goes down that plunge. So, I, who is not one for such rides, decided to sit this one out, but my not-yet-3-year-old-son was being conned by his dad to take the ride. 

He was really excited about taking the ride, he was watching people get on and off the little boats and he must have thought oh, this is so fun! Obviously he completely missed the part on the boat plunging so he didn't really know what he was in for. 

Right when he boarded the boat with my husband, he was all smiles and genuinely thrilled to be riding along in water. The plunge took him by complete surprise, and to his credit, he was all calm (probably in shock) for a good minute after the plunge, before he started bawling. 

The ride's cameras took photos and when we saw the photos, we had to buy them - it was priceless, you can see his happy face right when he gets on the boat and is starting off, and then you see his face frozen in terror just as the boat drops.

My son looked at the photos after and said 'Dad's laughing, I'm crying for mommy'.