Good Friends & Great Fun

To finish up our vacation week, we went to Darien Lake with a group of friends.  There were 16 of us who went in total, that's a lot of people!

We camped in the campground.  We brought our trailer and shared with another couple, and everyone else rented a trailer.  The trailer rentals is such a great bonus for them to have here!  Everyone could camp and keep dry and the rentals were spacious enough for two couples as well.

I have been to Darien Lake a few times, and I love it because the park is fairly small and easy to get around and the lines are generally pretty good.  A few of the rides you can basically walk right onto, and even the roller coaster lines aren't usually very long.

In the past, I have stayed in a hotel in a nearby town.  However the camping was nice because you could come and go from the park when you wanted.  Plus you had multiple days of park admission so you could really take your time.  One of my biggest issues is that I always want to get the most for my money, so I tend to rush through things to maximize my experience.  But this way you could be a bit more relaxed.

One thing that I really wanted to do there, was go to the Nik Wallenda show.  For those who don't know, he's the crazy guy who tight rope walked across Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon.  The show was a bit slow to start.  It had a lot of people in it who weren't Nik Wallenda doing circus type things.  Some of it was interesting, some wasn't.  However, at the end of the show, Nik and his family came out and actually tight rope walked for us.  This included a pyramid with two people on bikes, and one on top standing on a chair.  I didn't take any pictures, because I didn't want to be responsible for anyone falling.  But it really was amazing and it was a pretty cool feeling to be 50 feet away from someone who has made history multiple times.  Even if I think he is completely insane...

We also went to a Blake Shelton concert at the park on the Saturday night.  Honestly, I'm not a huge Blake Shelton fan.  I like his music, but I don't know that many of his songs.  Plus, you tend to forget that smoking in the States is much more prevalent than it is in Canada.  Standing at the concert completely surrounded by cigarette smoke was not enjoyable!  However everyone else seemed to have a really great time, so I was definitely the minority there.  (It also might have had something to do with the fact that everyone else had a fair bit more alcohol in their system than I did!  Sometimes not being a drinker doesn't have it's perks.)

I left a bit early and went back to the campsite and was amazed at how clear the music was from our site!  I think that next time, I will skip the concert ticket and just sit at the site and enjoy the music!

 But it was a great weekend.  It was spent with good friends and we had some good times.