Only the second was anticipated when the day began.
As gratitude for allowing me to be out all day playing baseball on Saturday, I took the kids out to do something on Sunday, to give my wife time to herself. I never think of what we're actually going to do until about five minutes before we leave, though.
About five minutes before we left on Sunday, I decided to go down to St. Kilda, where we could frolic on the boardwalk and beach for a couple hours, even though it's winter. Any time there is the promise of treats, most outings are at least reluctantly accepted by the kids.
Of course, when we actually got there, the place I chose to park -- because I always park there -- was directly adjacent to Luna Park, the amusement park that my older son told me he doesn't like the last time I proposed we go there. I get why he was underwhelmed by it. It's a pretty puny amusement park by American standards, but then again, most Australian things are puny by American standards.
Of course this time, my ten-year-old told me he wanted to go, and got to whining so much that I thought he was doing a bit. The seven-year-old agreed.
At first I stubbornly decided to stick to my original plan. Luna Park is a huge ripoff unless you do an all-day pass, but killing two hours is not worth the money it would cost for the freedom to go on any ride.
So instead I spent a combined $77 for entry into the park and two rides for each of us. You read that right. It's better than $150 I guess.
I was glad to see that both the kids really enjoyed it as I do want to come back when it makes sense to do the all-day pass. I was even gladder to see that the younger one is screwing up his courage to go on more challenging rides. In fact, I was nearly floored that he wanted to do that ride where everyone is sitting around in outward-facing seats, and the block of seats rises up a central track and drops again at regular intervals. Not only did it not scare the shit out of him, but he said it wasn't scary at all.
I've got an amusement park future with this kid.
The other ride was a smallish roller coaster whose cars spin around in circles, and despite its compact track, it actually produced quite a thrill in all of us.
Sandwiched in between were the aforementioned treats. The younger one had an ice cream (and a Sprite), the older one had fairy floss (i.e. cotton candy) and a corn dog (and a Sprite), and I had churros (and a hot chocolate).
A hundred ten dollars later, we left.
It didn't occur to me until afterward that it made a good pairing for that night's expected family viewing of Jungle Cruise, which itself is based on an amusement park ride. It took about as long to watch the movie as to kill two hours at Luna Park, but it was not as fun.
I did enjoy especially the first half of Jungle Cruise, but in the second half it got bogged down in too much CGI and too many strange choices about what to reveal about the characters and their relationships to one another. (And no, I'm not talking about the fact that Emily Blunt's brother, played by Jack Whitehall, is gay, as that was a revelation I could gladly get behind.)
The combination of the two events sort of inspired my opening of my Jungle Cruise review, which I wrote last night and posted today. In fact, that's the only reason I'm writing this post really. (You can read the review here.)
It occurred to me, as I say in my review, that the word "amusement" is a funny word to describe the place you go and get on rides and eat food and try to win an oversized stuffed animal. "Amusement" has kind of a negative weight to it. If you are amused by something, there's a certain superiority over it. The thing that amuses you is a trifle. An element of disdain must always be present.
That's not how I feel about most amusement parks I visit, even rinky dinky little Luna Park, which will be 110 years old next year, bless its heart. (And still has the original old rollercoaster that circumnavigates the park walls from their very top, though it has certainly been refurbished over the years, and is due for another as it is not currently in operation.) Most amusements parks are a genuine thrill, even, dare I say, a "blast."
Jungle Cruise, however, was amusing.
It's okay. Not every movie can reproduce the charm of the world's best movie based on an amusement park ride, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, though this one tries and has occasional moments were it lands in the vicinity.
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