That missing fall tradition

posted by Jeff | Saturday, September 13, 2014, 11:19 PM | comments: 0

This was the weekend that Halloweekends started at Cedar Point. I'm not going to lie, this is one of the last few things about living in Cleveland that was awesome and that I will always miss.

For the unfamiliar, this is the time of year where the amusement park is only open weekends, through the end of October, and they open up haunted houses, scare zones, and place "fall stuff" all over the place like pumpkins and corn stalks and what not. Throw in the cooler jacket weather, the leaves changing color and that scent that goes with that time of year, and it's a pretty magical thing. Sure, they have some extra ticketed stuff that goes on at WDW, but that's not even remotely the same thing. In this case, the location and tradition matters.

I had a tradition spanning several relationships where I would get a room up there for closing weekend. So many friends and romantic relationships and awesome times, it's hard to capture it in words. In the general sense, the park has been an integral part of my life for most of it, and particularly in the last 18 years or so. The thing I didn't really expect was that so many good friends would end up working there, so it can be hard to see them having a good time (at their jobs no less) and I'm not there. Our disaster of a trip earlier this year, when the water main broke and we spent two days looking for something else to do, makes it sting a little more.

Fall is a little tricky here in Orlando, because it doesn't really start until November in terms of temperature, and by that time you're fully engaged in holiday mode from Thanksgiving to the new year. But there is something to be said for that. We do get our jacket weather during the most festive time of year, and we don't see snow. The holiday stuff at the Disney parks is pretty intense too. Seeing the Candlelight Processional, the lighting of Cinderella Castle or the Osborne Family Lights just doesn't get old.

I hope that next year we can get back up there in the fall. It's definitely a trip worth making.


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