We have been enjoying a heat wave lately, and at the Chewning house, we have taken advantage of it. Friday was Nanny's birthday, so we had a picnic at the park. Saturday was Rutgers Day, so we went to Ag Field Day on Cook Campus. We even got a fish.
But the biggest day of the weekend was Sunday, when we went to Sesame Place. I got an e-mail earlier in the week saying that it was free for children with disabilities. We were planning on taking the kids anyway this summer, so I figured we might as well try it for free. I didn't tell the kids what where we were going, and Mac didn't know until we pulled into the parking lot and saw Big Bird's face on the parking signs.
Just like when we went to Disney for the first time with Mac, it was sort of surreal being someplace that I could remember going when I was a kid, but now being there as a parent. I remember the shadow wall (which is gone now!), the cardboard pizza, some sort of balance beam with water shooting out, and , of course, the ropes.
Things have definitely changed, but some of my memories held up. The first thing I noticed was how flat and sort of small it is. You can see the buildings and hotels surrounding the park, which makes it seem less "fantastic" and more blah. But even though it seemed small, we didn't get through everything at all. Mac went in the wading pool, climbed a "beach ball" mountain, and went CRAZY on the ropes. I went on them with her, afraid that she wouldn't be able to get far. First of all, I am too big, old, and scaredy for the ropes. Especially the tunnels -- I could literally barely fit through them. So that, combined with the fact that Mac could scale the ropes like a monkey, gave her a big lead on me. I wound up losing her going through one of the sets of tunnels, and couldn't find her. At one point, I could see her a level below me. I yelled to her, and I thought she heard me, but she just got off at the platform and started to go down the stairs. I started to plow down kids through the next tunnel trying to get to my platform (one level up) to get to her. I finally caught her, but it was a scary (and painful -- my knees are all scraped up) experience.
All in all, it was a great time. And a great weekend. And Sesame Place was, in fact, free (overpriced parking and food notwithstanding).
