Following a Theme Park Trail Along the Eastern Seaboard - Brief Article

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Sept, 2001 by Wayne M. Barrett

Likewise, the ethnic food available is mouth-watering. While many parks only offer hot dogs, french fries, and maybe fried chicken, our kids were happy to taste spare fibs and sausage in Germany and the pastas of Italy. Our offspring also have an appreciation of flowers and vegetation. Each has a designated garden at home (although Dad does all the upkeep, of course), and they enjoyed seeing the vast array of colorful blooms that are everywhere. The park's landscape features more than 150,000 annuals, 80,000 tulips, 6,000 chrysanthemums, and 700 container gardens, as well as thousands of trees and shrubs. Two-dozen landscape artists spend nearly six hours a day pruning, planting, and weeding.

A great way to appreciate the flowers and layout of the park is on the skyride, which traverses the park from the air. Too bad it was under repair. Instead, we had to settle for the train. The ride is not only scenic, but convenient, as at the end of each car there's a spot for strollers, and they don't even have to be emptied and folded.

Shunning most of the adult rides in favor of things they could negotiate, our youngsters enjoyed a number of alternatives: kiddie airplanes, bumper cars, swings, and hang glider and balloon rides. Still, they were willing to tackle some adult enterprises, including a log flume and white-water raft ride (Julie), teacup ride (Julie and Alex), and Le Mans Raceway (Julie, Alex, and Trevor). All three also ventured into the 4-D show, "Pirates," and all but Trevor left in tears. Too bad, because Mom and I thought the short film, about a hapless pirate crew and its wacky captain (starting Leslie Nielsen and Eric Idle), was really cool. The 3-D glasses actually worked--too well, it suits. Although we hardly needed confirmation, we knew the day was a smashing success when Julie announced that we could skip the hotel pool tonight, not due to the rain (it had stopped by then), but because they'd spent enough time in the water already.

About 50 miles from Williamsburg is Doswell, Va., home to Kings Dominion, the 400-acre Paramount theme and water park and our final stop before heading home to New York. We had hoped to end the vacation on a high note, and we did, but only because of the resilience of our children.

On this day, it poured, poured, poured--and then poured some more. All day. All the time. No letup. No exaggeration. The kids? They couldn't have cared less. True, they'd have liked to have splashed around Water-Works, the 19-acre water park that's part of the Kings Dominion lot, but with the previous day still fresh in their minds, no water park turned out to be no sweat. Still, Margaret and I couldn't help but be impressed with their attitude. Not a single complaint (I swear) about the rain--and it was a cold rain, too. We kept them covered with umbrellas and the stroller hood as best we could; toweled off their sopping seats on each of the rides; and bought them ponchos to go over their coats and hats. After a while, though, it became pointless because there simply was no letup. With all three drenched from head to toe, we held a quick family meeting. Mom and I offered to call it a day and either check in early at our new hotel or start home for New York. Julie and Alex wouldn't hear of it. They pleaded for more rides. Trevor, who wasn't speaking in sentences at the time, agreed with his brother and sister, chiming in, "Stay! Stay!"